Eucalyptus Polybractea Oil

The History of Eucalyptus Production.

Australia’s Eucalyptus Oil production started in 1860 from a rural area in southern Victoria close to the Goldfields. It was not long before Australian eucalyptus oil was finding a strong following in overseas markets and was exported to Europe, Asia, and North America. By the early 1900’s Australian Eucalyptus Oil was known worldwide. Overseas gold miners, particularly those from China, who had come to the Victorian goldfields to find a gold fortune returned to their countries and carried with them eucalyptus seeds. It was not long before eucalyptus varieties that were excellent for oil production could be found across the world, but particularly in China, Portugal, and South America.

By the end of WWII, the cost of production (especially labour costs) in Australia became much higher than that of other countries producing eucalyptus oil and production methods and the farming approach was not modernised to compensate. Furthermore, the post-war Australian economy was focused on improving yields from wheat and broadacre crop production, relegating eucalyptus oil production to remote ‘bush stills’. In the post war years, the industry nearly dried up completely as production moved out of Australia.

In recent years, increasing production costs in eucalyptus oil producing countries- particularly labor costs in China - have pushed up the global price of eucalyptus oil and opened the door for Australia to return to being a globally significant eucalyptus oil producer. MCWA has looked to apply modern farming techniques combined with a green energy approach to become a globally significant and sustainable eucalyptus oil producer.