- Title
- The making of the Newcastle industrial hub 1915 to 1950
- Creator
- Kear, Robert Martin
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Masters Research - Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- The aim of this thesis is to chart the formation of the Newcastle Industrial Hub and to identify the men who controlled it, in its journey from Australian regional obscurity before 1915, to be the core of Australian steel manufacturing and technological development by 1950. This will be achieved through an examination of the progressive and consistent application of strategic direction and the adoption of manufacturing technologies that progressively lowered the manufacturing cost of steel. This thesis will also argue that, coupled with tariff and purchasing preferences assistance, received from all levels of government, the provision of integrated logistic support services from Newcastle’s public utilities and education services underpinned its successful commercial development. The availability of good coking coal and an operational port first attracted the steel industry to Newcastle. The BHP steelworks was operational in 1915 and by 1921 it had been joined by three new downstream steel fabrication companies which manufactured forged rolling stock products, steel wire and steel sheet products. Led by Harold Darling, Chairman of the BHP board, and Essington Lewis, BHP’s Chief General Manager, the steelworks and the downstream fabrication companies developed and consolidated their manufacturing and financial positions during the 1920s. In parallel with growth of the steel companies, the Newcastle-based public utilities and heavy engineers, which provided the industrial logistic support base on which the steel industry relied, developed in parallel. The combination of organisational changes, government support and the introduction of improved technologies progressively lowered the cost of steel manufacture and increased the Australian steel industry’s competitive position. This was a factor which enabled the NIH to survive and recover from the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The Great Depression was immediately followed by a boom in industrial growth by the Australian steel industry. In parallel with this manufacturing growth, from 1935 the NIH was progressively prepared for war. The declaration of war in 1939 found the NIH ready to manufacture the wide range of steel products and munitions required for war in quantity, until the end of the conflict in 1945. War encouraged innovation in the NIH, with a number of special products developed and manufactured by the BHP steelworks and each of the steel fabricators. The labour shortages which ruled between 1942 and 1944 saw female workers recruited to work in the steel industry for the first time. However, economic uncertainty at the end of the war saw an eruption of industrial relations problems in the steel and coal industries. This caused considerable industrial disruption between 1945 and 1950. In 1950, Darling died and Lewis retired, but with these driving forces gone the NIH was left seeking strategic direction, a problem that was not overcome until the 1960s.
- Subject
- industrial history; Newcastle, (NSW); steel manufacturing; Great Depression
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1395639
- Identifier
- uon:33917
- Rights
- Copyright 2019 Robert Martin Kear
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 184 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |