The drought from 2006/07 through 2008/09 seriously impacted the Australian ginning sector. A large number of experienced people left the industry due to the short seasons and having only a handful of gins operating. At the same time there were also losses to the large investment in mining in the decade to 2010. In contrast, the seasons from 2010/11 through 2013/14 were the largest seen in Australia, with all gins in the country working at full capacity with two new large gins added in the southern Murrumbidgee Valley area in 2014/15.

The consequence of drought, the mining boom and then record production years left the industry with limited numbers of skilled and trained ginners, with the consequence that a large number of inexperienced staff were introduced to the industry. One impact of this was that the remaining experienced ginners were stretched across shifts with compromises to the efficiency and effectiveness of gin operations.

This project aimed to address two aspects associated with the deficit of trained ginners. The first was to provide immediate up skilling of ginners and other workers to breach the significant resource capacity gap that, at the time (in 2011/12), was having an impact on the cotton supply chain in terms of ginning capacity. This was achieved by partnering with the Australian Cotton Ginners Association (ACGA) and bringing Lummus and Continental (Bajaj Steel) technicians to Australia to train new gin employees for each of the three years of the proposal. The technician(s) conducted courses in each year of the project to teach new and review with existing gin operators aspects of running a gin efficiently and with improved fibre quality.

The second aspect was to develop an Australian ginning course in association with the overseas ginning companies that would meet future workforce requirements. This part of the project involved the ACGA and the vocational training sector rejuvenating the local (Moree) TAFE ginning course.