Respected wool classer returns to apply craft in new class

GROWING up on a sheep farm on the western end of Kangaroo Island and becoming a registered owner/classer at only 15, a passion for wool has always been deep in the veins for Jamie Nadebaum.

After years spent honing his craft, Jamie developed a reputation as one of the industry’s most meticulous classers, equally adept at assisting growers with small, specialty lines of wool as he is now in preparing thousands of kilograms per month to be sold at auction.

But no matter the scale, his end goal is always the same – helping to achieve the highest prices possible for growers’ wool.

Jamie’s initial introduction to the fibre was on the family farm on KI, before getting his owner/classer certification in Year 10 via a shearer’s camp run by Parndana Area School.

He returned to KI after graduating from Adelaide’s Scotch College to work on the family farm once again, before its sale in 1999 sent him on another path.

“I was working for a shearing contractor, mainly pressing, and he suggested that if I went and got my wool classer’s ticket, he’d give me a job,” Jamie said.

“I completed my course in 2004 and immediately began working full‑time as a classer on KI and also in the Flinders Ranges, up in the outback north of Broken Hill, and other areas.’’

Despite his many travels, he has stayed true to his KI roots, using his thorough, analytical nature to support local growers including Alan and Janet Hall, classing their superfine wool clip at Karkeen, Emu Bay.

In November 2020, the clip achieved the highest weekly price in Australia for a line of wool sold at auction, fetching 1718 cents per kilogram (greasy) for wool of 15.5 microns and yielding 75 per cent.

“I always got on well with Alan and he asked 'would you be interested in classing my sheep', and I said I'd love the opportunity to go down that path,’’ Jamie said.

“I wrote up a flock improvement strategy report to show him what I thought our plans should be and how we should go about it.

“He’s very passionate about that (analytical) side as well, and his Electronic ID system makes the job very easy for fleece weighing and classing his sheep, so we’re building quite a collection of data and the improvement in the last few years has been out of sight.’’

Circumstances prompted Jamie to step away from the sheep and wool industry for a number of years to act as a full‑time carer for two ill family members, before eventually returning to his passion.

Not long after, a chance meeting with an employee of strong, family‑owned wool broker, Quality Wool, led to an opportunity to manage the company’s bulk class operation at Port Adelaide.

The local bulk class system had not long recommenced after a significant increase in wool volumes to Quality Wool that had placed increasing pressure on the company’s main bulk class operation at its Smythesdale store in Victoria.

Less than 250 days after taking up his role with Quality Wool at its Brock Street wool store last October, Jamie already has pumped‑out more than 1000 bulk class bales, with the milestone 1000^th bale marked up just prior to the Easter long weekend.

Quality Wool Managing Director Mark Dyson said passionate team members like Jamie were vital to the future of the wool industry and the company was thrilled to assist his return.

The Port Noarlunga resident said he was grateful for being entrusted to take ownership of his role and put his own stamp on the bulk class system.

“I enjoy the fact that there’s a bit more to it than just pure wool classing, and it’s been my ‘baby’ so to speak in that I was able to start from scratch and implement my own operating systems under the Quality Wool framework that was already there".

“From the get‑go, I looked at the pile of wool and recognised that my job was to turn it into bales swiftly and get them to auction, so that’s what our system is geared around.’’

Jamie holds himself and his colleagues accountable to strict output levels every month, and he’s eyeing further expansion in the future.

“I recognise the importance of production,’’ he said.

“I set myself production targets every month and then make sure that we’re on track to achieve them, and I’m hoping to increase those levels in the future if we can add more bins.’’