White Gum Wool

Illustration of a bird with the speech bubble "WGW"


Yarn from the wool of happy sheep

Wavy line

Have you heard of White Gum Wool or WGW for short? 

White Gum Wool is a farm in the midlands of Tasmania where Australian Merino sheep are treated with the utmost love and care. They truly are happy sheep.

The White Gum Wool sheep produce the most beautiful sustainable, traceable superfine merino, that is then transformed into cloud-like-soft yarn and hand-dyed at Augustbird for your knitting adventures. 

The story behind White Gum Wool is one of mamas and babies,
of diversity and abundance, and of ethics—for the land, the animals
and the people involved in making this yarn.

- Nan Bray

The White Gum Wool farming focus is on the ethical treatment of the animals and the landscape in which they graze. All of the sheep live out their lifetimes on the farm and remain in their family groups.

Nan Bray's trademark in a production sense is a concept known as “nutritional wisdom”, in which sheep are given the opportunity to graze a wide diversity of native as well as exotic plants—and thereby learn about the nutritional and self-medicating benefits of different forages.  Because nutritional wisdom is in part a learned behaviour—knowledge passed by mothers to their babies—Nan runs all the sheep in a single large mob, keeping all family groups together for their entire lifetimes. In order to foster the diversity of plants that this system relies on, Nan maintains a fairly low stocking rate, encouraging diversity through abundance.

Explore Augustbird Yarn and Knitting Patterns