Australia produces very little cotton (too dry), we import a lot of fabric from Asia and America. We do have fabric produced here, but it is quite expensive...around $21 per metre would be the minimum. Most of the quilting fabric we have comes from America...I did score a bargain with some Norman Rockwell fabric - I found it at Textile Traders (where I met Litacats) that was on the $1 metre bargain table. Finding fabric that cheap is one of those once in a while serendipitous things...If we go to a smaller LQS, it gets pretty expensive. The cost of labour in Australia is huge...so most companies go offshore, which is a real shame, because the first thing to go when you do that is quality....and I won't bang on about ethics and buying local!