Australia is another country growing "Salix alba" var. "caerulea" for cricket bats, with the entire Australian stock descended from staves sent to Australia in the 1930s from the then-England captain to his Australian counterpart. Australia grew its own willow for decades, until Slazenger bought the company which owned most of the plantations. Slazenger's only interest was in apparel and the plantations were mostly sold and destroyed. In the 1990s a project was launched to again commercially grow cricket bat willow. There are now plantations in Victoria and New South Wales, but not Queensland, where all forms of willow cultivation are banned.