Bob McKillop

Documenting Australia's Iron & Steel Industry: the Lithgow Project

Lithgow, (about 100 kilometres west of Sydney, with a population of approximately 30,000) has been known as 'the cradle of the Australian steel industry'. While the heavy industry is no longer part of the town, the local government wishes to create an outdoor cultural heritage attraction based on Lithgow's industrial history. In support of this endeavour, I agreed in February 1999 to coordinate a project to document the history of Lithgow's iron and steel industry. A number of publications cover this subject in part, but much of the previous work relied heavily on hearsay and conjecture. My brief was to prepare well-researched and attractive book presenting the industrial heritage of the area.	1
The project brought together a project team of 20 volunteers from Lithgow, Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne and Wagga Wagga, who contributed to the general research and provided more specialist expertise. Other key contributions came from researchers in the United Kingdom. Aided by the benefits of email technology, the research team communicated with each other on a daily basis over four years. The co-operative effort generated by the dedication, skills and thousands of work hours of volunteers has resulted in a high quality book.	2
We were able to access to the combined resources of the Lithgow District Historical Society (LDHS) and the Local History collection of the Lithgow Regional Library. Both these sources have built up an impressive archive of documents, photographs, artefacts and oral history transcripts relating to the city's iron and steel industry, and these provided an important starting point. In-depth newspaper and document research identified new elements to the story — such as the previously 'unknown' partners, the details of the inglorious start of the Eskbank Ironworks in 1874 and the key role played by the master builder, railway contractor and industrial entrepreneur, Daniel Williams, in the establishment of Lithgow's iron industry — all which had hitherto been overlooked by historians. Through colleagues in the United Kingdom, I was able to make contact with and meet with an English descendent of the Williams family, Hedley Williams, who was undertaking family history research for a book on their story. Hedley opened the doors to the wonderful insights provided by Daniel's letters home to his family between 1853 and about 1878. Ian Holt of the LDHS was also able to obtain records of the early financial dealings of the enterprise from bank archives. Another important primary source, particularly of workers at the plant in the twentieth century, was found in the files of Jack Southern, which documented his research into the Lithgow works from the 1950s. Through another member of the research team, Bruce Macdonald, Jack made his extensive records available to the research team and these provided additional insight into the working lives of iron and steel workers, railwaymen, miners, managers and administrative workers at the Lithgow works and its associated mines. Another important find was a series of photographs, located in the Powerhouse Museum collection, of the Eskbank Ironworks taken between 1877 and 1889.	3
The result of this research will be published by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia (LRRSA), Melbourne in 2004 as Fire, Furnace & Forge: Lithgow's iron and steel industry 1874–1932, a high quality, profusely illustrated 320-page A4 size book. The book examines the state of the iron industry in the nineteenth century and the colonial iron-making ventures of the 1870s, then analyses the foundations of Lithgow and its rise as Australia's premier inland industrial centre. The pioneer efforts of Williams, Enoch Hughes, John Sutherland, James Rutherford, the Workers' Cooperative of 1882–86 and William Sandford carried the Eskbank Ironworks through the difficult times of the later nineteenth century. From 1900, Sandford built the venture into Australia's first modern iron and steelworks, only to face financial ruin in 1907. George and Charles Hoskins took over the works in 1908 and expanded its capacity until the early 1920s, when Charles started the planning and construction of the Australian Iron & Steel works at Port Kembla. As the plant and its workers were gradually transferred to Port Kembla from 1928, Lithgow lost its heart and soul.	4
While space in the book is given to the men who established and managed the works through its various phases, the focus is on labour history. The publication documents the working lives of the employees at the Lithgow works and its associated mines and quarries, and their efforts to improve their conditions through trade unions. It also looks beyond the workplace to the private lives in the home, school, church and social activities. It is history written by those with ties to their communities and memories of the men and women whose lives have been shaped by the events they bring to life.	5
The records that have been assembled in its making have been deposited with Lithgow Regional Library, further enhancing the depth and quality of records that the city's archives contain relating to the foundations of Australia's iron and steel industry.	6

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