"Australia’s Lesser Known Commodities Booms"

It sounds like the set-up to a Monty Python bit but its not.
From Winton's The Longer View:

The typical Australian analogy for the China-fuelled expansion in commodities trading would probably be the mid-19th century gold rush.

But there are many more commodities booms and busts in the mid-20th century from which to choose. From wool and uranium to nickel and diamonds, Winton brings you some of the highlights and lowlights of Australian financial markets in the post-war period.

Golden Fleeces The first great post-war Australian commodity boom was in wool. Wool had provided lucrative trade for the Australian economy since the 19th century. By 1946, it accounted for nearly 20% of the value of Australian agriculture.

The onset of the Korean War in 1950 led to large purchases of wool for American military uniforms, causing the price of the commodity to rise 150% between the start of the war and the spring of 1951. As a result of high prices, in the 1950-51 season, wool sales brought in $1.5 billion, double the previous record. Wool’s share of the value of Australia’s agriculture sector increased nearly to 60%.

Australian terms of trade. Source: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

At the peak of the boom, stories abounded of newly rich farmers going on luxurious holidays and buying fancy cars. According to some reports, they even took their beloved sheep along in their new rides. “If you ever come across a brand-new Rolls-Royce with a couple of ewe lambs sitting in the richly upholstered back seat…you can be pretty sure you’re in Australia,” one foreign newspaper advised readers in 1951.

As American purchases petered out, wool prices collapsed, falling from $3.73 per pound in March 1951 to $1.35 a year later. This drove Australia’s trade balance deeply negative. In March 1952, the government took the drastic measure of imposing import restrictions.

Hazardous Material

Source: National Library of Australia.

“It is the sparkle of uranium which dances before the public’s eye,” the Washington Post reported in 1954. By the mid-1950s, this explosive source of energy was fuelling a different kind of boom down under.

In 1949, a man stumbled upon a uranium deposit while hunting for kangaroo. Discoveries like that launched armies of prospectors. In 1954, two friends chanced upon another major deposit. The lease for their find went for more than $1,000,000. One of the discoverers was hospitalised with a heart attack, overwhelmed by the sales negotiations.

With news of discoveries radiating outwards, Australians went wild speculating on uranium stocks. According to one newspaper, “[e]ach new report of uranium…discoveries sends share prices soaring to new heights….Gambling on the stock exchange is threatening to usurp betting on the horses as the nation’s spare-time occupation”....

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