New paper and paperboard mills came into operation at Botany, NSW in 1902, at Abbotsford, Vic. in 1911 and at Lane Cove, NSW in 1913. Also in 1913 Australia's first pulp mill -albeit a small one -was established at Yarraman in Queensland to make kraft pulp from hoop and bunya pine logging waste and sawmill offcuts. This was used in paper manufacture at Botany, NSW but the operation appears to have been sporadic and unprofitable and the mill closed in 1919.

After the First World War there was further development in paper and paperboard manufacture and consolidation of ownership until by the late 1930s, the industry had been concentrated into three mills -Botany, NSW and Fairfield and Broadford in Victoria -all owned by Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd. Most papers and paper-boards were made except newsprint. Raw material was now mainly imported softwood pulp from Scandinavia and North America and local wastepaper. There was little in the way of original innovation, the machines and processes used being those well proven in the UK or North America and in many cases experienced operating staff were imported along with these. Before the 1930s closed, however, this rather comfortable transported technology was to be given a jolt of long-lasting effect by the introduction of a new and rather unusual raw material -short-fibred wood pulp made from the indigenous eucalypts.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering