During the past two seasons, cotton crops growing in Queensland have been surveyed for diseases. In March 1993 specimens of wilted cotton were collected from the Brookstead area of the Darling Downs. Specimens from the same area were also supplied by local cotton consultants. Verticillium wilt is common in this area but the symptoms shown by these plants were not typical of that disease. The symptoms were: wilting; extensive dark brown discolouration of the vascular system and; leaf and stem death often from the top down. Some affected plants were re-shooting from the base. Hence these specimens were examined in the laboratory to determine the cause of these symptoms. The fungus Fusarium was consistently isolated from the vascular systems of these specimens. When this fungus was used to inoculate cotton seedlings they started to wilt after about two weeks. The fungus was re-isolated from the apical region of the wilted seedlings, indicating that it was a true vascular wilt pathogen