Australian Wool Network northern regional manager Harold Manttan, who’s based in Uralla, said the indicator gained 45 points for the week.

“The 17 micron indicator is at 2454, up 77 this week, but it’s still not as high as it was in February 2011,” he said.

The previous northern market indicator high was in August this year when it peaked at 1679, he said.

Mr Manttan said incredibly strong prices for Merino cardings were pushing the market indicators higher.

“Locks this week made 1000c/kg greasy and I’ve never seen that before,” he said.

“There’s not much wool making over 2000c per kilogram,” he said. “Our top price on Thursday was 2010c/kg.

“Back in 2000 good clips around here were all averaging 2000c/kg, but no-one is doing that now.”

Mecardo reported last week that the Australian wool market “ticked over the billion-dollar milestone for total value of wool sold this year”. 

At the same time last year the market was worth 26 per cent less than the current value even though this year about 10 percent fewer bales have been sold, according to the report.