Buzz and Pipelines: Knowledge and Decision-Making in a Global Business Services Precinct

What is it about?

This is an historical analysis of an urban services district, in this case the Melbourne wool trade precinct in the 1920s. It depicts both a local and global community whose social and spatial interaction facilitated large scale trade of a complex commodity. Geographic mapping of this community is combined with archival evidence. It reveals the ‘buzz’ of the Melbourne precinct through social and professional connections amongst wool brokers and buyers. ‘Pipelines’ to wool growing and textile regions were developed through overseas branches of firms, with global knowledge exchanged through correspondence, telegraph, and migration.

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