In an era when consumers are making purchasing decisions based on principles of environmental sustainability, and are prepared to pay a premium for their convictions, wool - the most sustainable, environmentally safe and healthy product for carpets - was being rejected in favour of oil and energy-dependent synthetic carpets.
Wool's fire-retardant attributes were proven during the Victoria bushfires, he said, with reports of lives saved by people sheltering under wet, woollen blankets.
Mr Girvan had no doubts about why wool prices were so low.
A lack of promotion meant a generation of people were growing up ignorant of the merits of wool.
"I think it has caught up on us more than anything else."
Mr Girvan sympathised with current efforts to consolidate the crossbred clip through Wool Partners International, jointly owned by farmers and PGG Wrightson, saying the first time that was tried was during the wool acquisition debate of the 1970s.
Back then, the Wool Board had the resources, but the initiative had been ahead of its time and was voted down by farmers.
Mr Girvan also rued the loss of the Woolmark, pointing out it was an internationally known brand.
Too much effort had been made addressing the structure of the wool industry, and the lack of focus on promoting demand was to blame for his wool cheque falling from 50% of his income in the 1950s to about 10% now, he said.
"It is quite hard to believe how much change there has been. It was an extra product, now it is a by-product."
He recalled in 1985 wool returning $5 a kg and lambs $10 each.
Now lambs were worth $80 or more and wool $2.30 a kg.
The contract price for shearing a sheep was about $3.
Mr Girvan said the drop in wool returns meant sheep farmers were exposed to the vagaries of meat returns, and those farmers who put in extra effort breeding for and preparing wool were getting returns only marginally higher than those who put in little effort.
The intrinsic values of wool - a natural, sustainable, fire-resistant product - were unquestionable, he said.
It was just that retailers and consumers needed to be made aware of them.
"It's got attributes and qualities that, as a product, nothing else has got."
The decision to wind up the Wool Board and refund its reserves was wrong and it was time farmers dipped into their pockets and started funding promotion, Mr Girvan said.
"I often wondered what the follow-on was going to be from it. We can see it now - an absolute disaster."
Crossbred wool growers could learn from the Merino and mid-micron industry, where falling prices had been arrested by promotion and the establishment of a brand.
The two fibres had the same attributes and crossbred prices could be turned around with the right promotion, he said.