Australians used to make stuff. But then we outsourced most of it overseas.
We've been through phases. Made in Taiwan was big for a while. Then Made in China took over everything. Then the pandemic hit. Made in Australia was back. Well, aspirations for Made in Australia were back anyhow.
Some companies are actually having a go at rebuilding Made in Australia.
Take, for example, Hunter manufacturer Rotacaster Wheel. You may have heard about them. They make wheels.
To be precise, they make multi-directional wheels with 360-degree turning mobility. They call their invention the "omni wheel".
They haven't just reinvented the wheel, they've just "given it a revolution".
The main thing that comes to mind with this is obviously the shopping trolley. We can all dream that, someday soon, shopping trolleys everywhere will be fitted with omni wheels. Surely then shopping trolley rage will begin to ease.
But omni wheels are about more than shopping trolleys. For example, we hear the Greek Postal Service has ordered "multi-directional conveyor sortation tables" from Omnia [which Rotacaster Wheel owns].
Omni wheels are also being used to improve medical equipment, while retailers and wholesalers use them to move goods.
And here's one out of left field: an autonomous sterilising robot at the Royal Hobart Hospital runs on omni wheels.
Anyhow, the folks at Rotacaster Wheel are feeling wheely good. They've just received a $563,000 grant from the federal government's manufacturing modernisation fund.
This fund was announced last year during the pandemic when Australians realised that relying on China and other countries for much of our manufacturing needs didn't wheely make total sense.
Rotacaster Wheel managing director Peter McKinnon said the money would allow completion of a $2.25 million automation project at Beresfield.
Peter said the project would establish a production system capable of making more than 1.8 million, 50-millimetre omni wheels a year at a lower cost per unit.
That sounds wheely good. As we know, the cheaper cost of production in foreign countries is one reason why manufacturing went overseas en masse in the first place.
If we can be smarter with our manufacturing, perhaps we'll be back in the game after all. Perhaps Made in Australia will rise again. It's like we're coming full circle.
Turning Back Time
Bob Skelton was in Wallsend when he noticed the Colliery Inn clock showed the time as noon.
Five minutes later, he saw the clock again. It read 11.55am.
Was time running backwards?
"Are they trying to turn time back to pre-Covid days?" said Bob, a bush poet also known as the Minmi Magster.
"I need one of them clocks to put time back to the good old days."
