Foundries and Smelting works

The Fraser Coast was an area of great manufacturing activity. Many foundries and smelting works existed in the area. Although Walkers is the most well know, many more thrived.

Walkers Ltd (Source Qld State Archives Flickr )

For over three quarters of a century Fraser Coast was known as "a location for good stoves" (Trove) Many people still find lumps of metal in their yards and wonder about the history of the area. A reader recalls walking down Walker Street as a child and seeing men covered in sweat and black emerging from the dark. This was Daniels and Co Scotia Foundry. This Foundry was commenced in 1909 by Mr James F. Daniels. The plant was a "modern and complete" foundry which had "equipment to carry out either large or small contracts". It was most well known for its Scotia Dover Stoves and boiler stands which it manufactured over many decades. It also produced wrought iron for verandahs (Trove). The foundry ceased operations in 1981.

The Albion Foundry, Unity Street Maryborough, was on a block bounded by Kent, Amity, Sussex and Unity Street. It began in 1889 and was first listed to James Parker and John Walton as the Copper and Brass Foundry. In 1892 it was listed as Hansen and May Albion Foundry. In 1896 Hanson and Walton made cast iron balustrading for the School of Arts balcony (Queensland Heritage Register). By 1913 the business had become Hockleys and Tait and had opened in Adelaide Street some time before in 1883.

Hockley &Co Stove Exhibit 1902 (Source: Maryborough, Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

C. Woodhouse and Sons began in 1885 . "Mr Chas Woodhouse set up a small forge in... Pallas Street and began labouring as a working blacksmith". His business expanded with the manufacture of Colonial Ovens (Trove).

The Croydon foundry Co  located at Croydon Junction (Baddow), several kilometres northwest of Maryborough made not only stoves, but agricultural implements and machinery, equipment for the sawmill and smaller factories "fulfilling contracts from all over Queensland and other States. In the earlier days they concentrated on iron and bronzework and manufactured the handsome memorial gates at the Botanical Gardens and the Presbyterian Church" (Trove).The Foundry also boasted an "extensive engineering works with special pattern-making and casting department employing a large staff"(Trove).

The Croydon Foundry was operated by William Robert Stevenson & Sons from 1908 to 1968. Much of the interesting history behind this successful operation is contained in the museum which is housed in the foundry’s former office - 30 Ferry Street Maryborough.

The company was very successful in the manufacture of cast iron, brass and bronze products as well as steel stoves. The foundry was kept busy for a time with sugar mill and sawmill requirements across the state. The Howard mines and Howard power station also relied upon their work.

The former office now houses a small museum with original artefacts, tools, and documents which shed light on an industry that was central to the development of Maryborough over the last century. The museum also contains one of the stoves for which the foundry was renowned.The Museum is Open:

Tuesday – Friday:10am to 2pm 

Saturday: 9am to 1pm 

Closed public holidays.Entry is free of charge.

Manufacturing work was dangerous and a story from the Sovereign Stove Works highlights the risk of such labour. Sovereign Stove Works Pty Ltd, managed by S Connell was located at 145 Walker Street, Maryborough. Mr R Connell was the director. The foundry made Sovereign Stoves and boiler stands in both steel and iron that were used throughout the Eastern State. Experimentation with materials resulted in Stoves "that had improved appearance and greater durability" (Trove).

In 1947 Robert Connell, 48, married of 143 Cheapside Street was involved in a explosion at the Sovereign Stove Works. The Coroner's Report details this terrible accident "The deceased went behind a wall to empty some metal when the explosion occurred. He felt the force of the explosion and started to run. .. the witness could only guess what had caused the explosion. He had never seen the practice carried out before whereby metal was poured into a drum of water.".  (Trove). 

The Witness described the incident.

"He then heard moans coming from the spot where the explosion had occurred. He went to investigate and found deceased lying alongside the scales. He was on his back and one leg was over the scales which were upside down. His left leg was blown off from the knee. There was a piece of metal like the centre of a wheel against his face. The Witness pulled this away. Deceased said Get me out of here. The witness pulled deceased away and sat him up against the clay pot. His face was badly scratched and there was blood about his head. The ambulance had been telephoned and came and took him to hospital.He (the witness) heard that deceased had died later". (Trove)

Adershot smelting works was also a place where many people worked and the site of several accidents.(Trove)

In 1947/8 WM Olds and Son Pty Ltd Mechanical Engineers and Founders formed as there was a need for a foundry that could create a product that could be machined.

Do you have any pictures of these foundries?

Maryborough Family History have a Pinterest collections on the Stove Foundries of Maryborough  and Aldershot .

References:
Queensland Heritage Register - School of Arts retrieved on the 25.9.2018 from https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600701
Maryborough Chronicle - General information about Manufacturing 2st June, 1941 retrieved  on 25.9.2018 from Maryborough Chronicle Trove
The Queensland 1 August 1903 C. Woodhouse and Sons retrieved on 25.9.2018 from Trove
Maryborough Chronicle 21st June 1941 Croydon Foundry retrieved on 25.9.2018 from Trove
Maryborough Chronicle 1st June, 1933 Croydon Foundry retrieved on 1.6.1933 from Trove
Maryborough Chronicle 21st June 1941 Daniels and Co Scotia Foundry retrieved on 25.9.2018 from Trove
Maryborough Chronicle 8th February, 1910 Aldershot Smelting Works retrieved on 8.2.1910 from Trove

Tags #stoveworks #frasercoast #manufacturing #accident #stoves #smelting #croydon #albion #daniels #sovereign

Maryborough City Hall Clock Tower

Maryborough City Hall 1908 (Source: Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

Maryborough City Hall 1909 (Source: Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

Maryborough City Hall 1910 (Source: Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

Maryborough City Hall 1912 (Source: Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

For 110 years, this grand lady of Maryborough’s architecture has played host to the celebrations and commemorations of our community. From rallies, blue light discos and community displays, to hosting royalty and dignitaries at gala events, celebrations shared at City Hall are held by locals amongst their fondest memories and traditions.

Locals' memories of the City Hall can be found on the Libraries Youtube page here

Maryborough City Hall with Clock Tower (Source: Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc.)

Maryborough City Hall with Clock Tower

Many people are not aware that the City Hall did not originally have a Clock Tower. Abraham Churchwood bequethed  £579 for new clock tower in 1932. Details can be found in Trove 

"Under the will of the late Mr. Abraham Churchward of Maryborough, the Maryborough City Council was bequeathed £579 for the purpose of installing a clock in the Town Hall. So
that the clock might be hoisted in a manner befitting, the building the council decided to borrow £1200  to (build a tower on the present building). The Home Secretary J. C. Petersop yesterday declared that the work would be for the benefit of the whole city". 

The building of the clock tower was not without controversy with dispute recorded in Trove
"certain sections of the ratepayers objected to the borrowing proposal, declaring that the expenditure of the money would be for the benefit of one particular part of the city and not for the town as a whole".

It was decided that the clock was to be housed in a tower and that it would benefit all members of the city.

Early in 1935 the Council let a contract through to G.Horburgh and Co. Ltd of Maryborough to the Synchronome Clock Co, Brisbane for a clock designed by Arthur A. Jackson AMIN (Aust). The clock was made in Brisbane with the bells being imported from the foundry John Taylor and Co., Loughborough, England. The  five bell, electrically-wound Westminster chime clock cost $850. It has four seven foot skeleton dials. The largest bell strikes the hours and four smaller bells the quarter hours. After Walkers Ltd, Maryborough had built the dome, Mr B.N. Barnes, Brisbane installed the clock. The hands turned for the first time on September 20, 1935 and the first chimes were heard on September 23, 1935. (Information supplied by Abraham Churchward's relative). It was decided in 1960 that the chimes would be silent between 7pm and 7am daily to prolong the life of the clock. It also meant a council employee "will no longer face danger in climbing steep ladders at night in semi-darkness to silence the chimes" (Maryborough Chronicle 5th March, 1960).

Cleaning the City Hall Tower 1995

Peter Olds recalls being asked to assist with the clock maintenance in 1960. He also discusses the clock in an interview about the Town Hall found here Peter Olds and relatives of Abraham Churchward went up into the clock tower in August 2016. See the workings of the clock from this visit here:

Recent refurbishment of the Town Hall Clock occurred in 2016.  The Chronicle recorded this detail here

Published with consent from Peter Olds and Abraham Churchward's relative.

References:
Newspapers Home - Trove. (2016). Trove. Retrieved 18.9.2018 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/180049735/19643984

and

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/149074867/17902088

Maryborough Chronicle (2016) retrieved  18.9.2018 from https://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/maryborough-city-hall-clock-chiming-once-again/3095916/

Maryborough Chronicle (1960) retrieved 5. 3. 60

Tags #cityhall #maryborough #clocktower #peterolds #110years 

Slab Hut Duckinwilla - a remnant of the Coal Mining Industry

Allan Slab Hut  (Queensland Heritage Register) 

The Queensland Heritage Register states:
The Allan Slab Hut at Doongul Creek, via Torbanlea is a basic, hand-built hardwood structure built sometime in the first decade of the twentieth century by Henry Price, an emigrant miner from Wales, as the home for his family.


Allan Slab Hut Duckinwilla (Queensland Heritage Register) 

The register details the history of the hut here
The slab hut was the first house the migrant Price family owned and it has been built from hardwood (ironbark or stringybark) from the property. Esther Price was a midwife and her husband worked in the coal mines.
Coal was first discovered in the Burrum River region in 1863 with three mines - Burrum, Riverbank and Torbanlea, producing about one fifth of the Colony's total production in 1900. The Burrum Colliery was the stimulus for the founding of the town of Howard (Queensland Heritage Register).
The circumstances of the miners were difficult partly due to Burrum mines being the last in Queensland to be unionized. The miners struggled to survive.

The Heritage Register states:
Mining was the only local source of employment and the mine operators dictated the terms of employment. A small number of favoured permanent miners were provided with a miner's hut, a four-roomed stringybark cottage, of which there were fourteen in Torbanlea. Families had an average of eleven children and whilst most miners usually had only one meal a day, they endeavoured to provide two meals a day for their children.

The slab hut construction used what materials were available put together using fencing techniques. Kerosene tins and hessian bags were used to make other miners' dwellings and many miners' lands reverted to the Crown when they could not make a living.

Q. C. Gauchalland Mine, Howard, 1920.William Billsborough (left) and Walter Putman filling a coal skip. Note the tallow lamps, low seam and the mining supports. Q. C. refers to Queensland Colleries, originally Queensland Coal.

Pit pony hauling a coal wagon at QC Gauchalland Mine, 1920.

Allan family property is freehold land, so indicates that they were somewhat successful (Queensland Heritage Register).

The Heritage register tells us:
Esther Price lived in the slab hut until she died in 1936. She planted a fig tree that now shelters the hut, which is situated amongst the remnant evidence of the orchards and market gardens that once surrounded it.

A. Proctor, D.Kerr, R. Keene and T. Rowston. No. 4 Mine Burgowan. (David Proctor Collection)

Each year on the third week of July, the Burrum Coal Festival celebrates the Heritage of Coal Discovery. The Burrum and District Museum also has an extensive display relating to the Coal Mining Days. It is open to the public:

Tuesday and Wednesday 9am – 12 noon
Saturdays 8am – 12noon.

References:
Queensland Heritage Register retrieved from https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=601934on the 30th August, 2018.

Tags #coal #mining #heritage #burrum #miners #midwife #discovery

Chinese and Indigenous Australians - share a long history

A Game of Euchre, Johnson National Library of Australia, NLA57611 source abc.net

This year is the 200th anniversary since the first Chinese person arrived in Australia in 1818. Since this arrival Indigenous and Chinese communities have shared a strong cultural bond. Much of this history between Indigenous and Chinese Australians is unrecorded (Yang, 2018).
It is known that relationships between Indigenous and Chinese communities started with intermarriages. Slocomb,(2014, p. 282) states "It is a well attested fact that Chinese men entered into informal married relationships with Aboriginal women. In the the Burnett district, this history is recorded on the museum map of the former mission at Cherbourg on Barambah Creek with the area designated for what were colloquially termed Chinarigines. These relationships were made illegal. The "Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (61 Vic., No. 17)  made it illegal for Chinese men to cohabit with Aboriginal women and to employ Aboriginal labour" (Slocomb, 2014.p 282).
Gregory Eaton is an Chinese Aboriginal Australian and he tells us his story in our Having a Voice series found on our Youtube Channel

Do you know anything about Chinese Aboriginal History?

References:
Slocomb, M. (2014). Among Australia's pioneers. Bloomingdale: Balboa Press.
Yang, E (2018) Indigenous and Chinese Relationships in Australian History retrieved 23.6.18 from http://mobile.abc.net.

Tags #Chinese #Aboriginal #Australia #Maryborough #Burnett