For nine years, sheep farmer Peter Small chased a scientist’s life’s work across the world. Earlier this month, he finally got to open “the box”.
Mr Small has relied on the late Australian scientist Harold Burnell Carter’s findings throughout his on-farm career in Coleraine, in Victoria’s south-west.
Dr Carter’s research into how the genetic makeup of sheep skin shapes wool growth and vulnerability to flystrike gave the industry tools that remain in use today.
Inside Dr Carter’s crates were 10,000 microscope slides, a bag of wool from 1828, and the unpublished notes of a man some consider one of the greatest wool scientists Australia ever produced.
Peter Small has worked with sheep all his life and knew Harold Burnell Carter personally. (Supplied: Peter Small)
“It was all a bit of a mystery until we opened the box,” Mr Small said.
“It was beyond my expectations, and the wool scientists were just over the moon with how fantastic it was.”
Saving a legacy
Harold Burnell Carter discovered that sheep with less wrinkled skin were less vulnerable to flystrike. (Wikimedia Commons: Benito Cartero, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Dr Carter was a leading wool scientist at the CSIRO in the 1940s and 1950s who left for the UK after a dispute with colleagues.
“He was really hunted out of Australia by competitive scientists who had other ideas about breeding sheep,” Mr Small said. “It was a very nasty event.”
His collection of Australian merino specimens went with him, and remained overseas until he died in 2005.
In June, more than 1,000 kilograms of skin and wool samples, papers, books and technical drawings by Dr Carter were opened in Australia for the first time.
The contents of Harold Burnell Carter’s research archives were unknown until they were opened by scientists. (Supplied: Peter Small)
Some samples had been stored at his children’s homes rather than in a climate-controlled environment. Much of the work was never published.
Farmers from across Australia raised the $14,000 required to ship the collection home.
It is now stored at the Rural Industries Skill Training Centre in Hamilton.
The archives were shipped to Australia in early 2026, but could not be opened until wool scientists travelled to Victoria in June. (Supplied: Peter Small)
Research missing for decades
Textile scientist Paul Swan was part of the team that opened the crates and said the work was foundational to the modern understanding of wool.
Paul Swan says modern sheep research stands on the shoulders of innovation by Harold Burnell Carter. (Supplied: Paul Swan)
“Every box was extraordinary. Every box you opened, there was something new, something unexpected,” Dr Swan said.
“Harold was a big name in a bit of a boutique industry, but to me he was one of the gods of sheep science.”
Harold Burnell Carter was known for spending most of his time doing field work. (Supplied: Peter Small)
The boxes contained textbooks, CSIRO documents, transcripts of meetings with French and Russian scientists, notes from early experiments with skin grafts, and the thousands of microscope slides.
Scientific competition
When Dr Carter was working in Australia, wool made up 56 per cent of the gross value of all Australian agricultural production.
He joined the CSIRO at the outbreak of World War II, but post-war funding brought more scientists and more competition.
Paul Swan says Harold Burnell Carter pioneered animal histology. (Supplied: Peter Small)
“The work that Harold was doing and the conclusions that were drawn stepped on some toes,” he said.
“In an industry that was very politically important at the time. There were some forces that disliked what he was doing, particularly about how sheep could be selected against a disposition for things like flystrike.”
Dr Carter left Australia in 1955 and continued academic work in the UK until he died in 2005.
Hopes for continued discovery
The future of these archives is still undecided.
Dr Swan said he hoped they would be used in research and to inspire young scientists.
“It’s about keeping things alive and a legacy, but also making it available to others,” he said.
Harold Burnell Carter travelled across Australia collecting sheep skin samples the size of a fingernail. (Supplied: Peter Small)
“Who knows what they will find, particularly with modern analytical techniques.
“I know that if I was starting out my time again, this would be fascinating to get my teeth into.”
