From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 42:
"Research into wool production and the diseases of sheep dates from the early years of C.S.I.R.'s existence. It was not until after the war that the Executive laid plans for the establishment of laboratories to study wool as a textile fibre. Sir lan Clunies-Ross who had previously been Chairman of the International Wool Secretariat, urged graziers to provide funds for wool research, and these funds soon became available at a rapidly increasing rate.

In 1949 three laboratories, known as the C.S.I.R.O. Wool Textile Research Laboratories, were founded, The Melbourne laboratory, under the direction of Dr. F. G. Lennox, began a fundamental long-range chemical and biochemical study of wool fibres. The nucleus of the staff came with Dr. Lennox from the Biochemistry Unit of the Division of Industrial Chemistry, where investigations into fellmongering had been going on for some years. In Sydney, a Physics and Engineering Unit was set up under the direction of Mr. V. D. Burgmann. The Sydney laboratory was concerned with the fundamental physics of wool and wool processing. The third laboratory at Geelong (Victoria) concentrated mainly on research projects which might be expected to solve some of the problems of immediate concern to the textile industry. Dr. M. Lipson a C.S.l.R.O. officer with experience in the wool industry and wool testing as well as in research, became Officer-in-Charge of the Geelong laboratory.

During the first decade of their existence the Wool Textile Research Laboratories, supported by the wool industry, grew steadily in size and stature. In 1958 they were accorded the status of Divisions, and were known respectively as the Division of Protein Chemistry, the Division of Textile Physics, and the Division of Textile Industry."