Subsidiaries

Commonwealth Steel Products Co. Ltd was a consortium promoted strongly by A. Goninan, who sought railway wheels, tyres and axles for the rail wagons which were still an important part of his products and had been unobtainable during the latter years of the war.

The Company was registered in 1918 and made its first heat on February 19 1919. Mr AM Henderson was brought in with overseas experience and he and Mr Lance Frankham were responsible for design and operation of the initial plant. The first tyre mill (built in Australia) was driven by a steam engine, which had operated as the winding engine at Brilliant Deep Gold Mine in Queensland. A six-ton electric arc furnace, a six-ton steam hammer, a 2,000-ton press and a steel foundry were the other major plant items. Mr WE Clegg was appointed Manager in 1921, and General Manager in 1922. Mr Clegg stimulated, guided and supervised a continually growing enterprise until his retirement in December 1951. He began engineering as a mature-age trainee at Goninans. He studied at Newcastle Technical College and rapidly rose to Works Manager at Goninans. The Trades building at Newcastle Technical College at Tighes Hill was named in his honour.

While attached to the Commonwealth Steel Co., Mr Clegg travelled overseas to investigate new processes and equipment. Production of forged steel grinding balls commenced in 1929. The most significant new development at the works was the commissioning in 1941 of a plant to produce and roll special steels (with active technical support from the BHP Co. Ltd an initial range of alloy steels was available by 1937) – in time to provide material for the production of weapons and aircraft parts which were needed for the war effort.  After the war the engineering and technological staff at Commonwealth Steel implemented a continuous programme of upgrading equipment and installing more modern plant. Special attention was given to the production of the special steels that are required for motor vehicle engines and transmissions. Quality standards were maintained at the top of available world technology. Modifications made to some pieces of equipment by Commonwealth Steel engineers have been so successful that the rights were purchased by overseas manufacturers. A unique computer control of railway wheel machining was introduced in 1979.

At a meeting in 1917, four engineering firms decided to form a new company to manufacture in Australia, wheels, tyres, axles and steel castings for railway use.

The firms concerned were:

The Clyde Engineering Co. Ltd.,

Ritchie Bros.

Goninan and Co. Ltd.

and the Pioneer Spring Co. Ltd.

A few months later Howard Smith Ltd. joined the group.

Thus, born of necessity, the new company called Commonwealth Steel Products Ltd. was registered in March 1918 with an authorised capitol of $500,000.

At first, serious consideration was given to siting the new plant on the Parramatta River at Sydney. The availability of electric power was the decisive factor in selecting the present site at Waratah. In the long run this was to prove a most important step which, when they became associated with BHP, influenced the Company’s growth to its present stature. Before the company got under way, it was discovered that NSW Railways had plans for building their own tyre and axle plant. They were happy to abandon the idea as soon as they were informed of Comsteel’s intentions. In 1913 the Company acquired 47 acres of land at Waratah, valued then at $100 per acre.

The site had been a brick-works. When the first main office was built, the builder’s contract stipulated that he would purchase from the company, bricks which had been made on the site by the old brick-works. In 1919 four acres of the property were sold to Newbolds and later sixteen acres, on the North West side of Waratah Lane (now Maud St.) were sold to Mr. A A Rankin. The original plant included a 6 ton capacity electric arc furnace, a steam driven tyre mill, a 5 ton steam hammer and a machine shop. A 2,000 ton forging press was installed in 1924. Mr A M Henderson was the first manager. The No.1 furnace tapped its first heat in February 1919.

Before this, a substantial interest in the Company had been acquired by Taylor Bros. of Leeds – one of the leading makers of railways components in England. In these early years it was learned that the well-known English firm of Vickers was intending to start a tyre plant in conjunction with BHP. Comsteel proposed, as an alternative, that BHP buy an interest in Comsteel and Comsteel would agree to buy steel from BHP. This arrangement was acceptable and in 1923 the name of the Company was changed to Vickers Commonwealth Steel Products Ltd. The BHP Co. Ltd. first applied for shares in the Company in 1929, with a right to appoint one director to the board. Ultimately they acquired 20,000 shares and Essington Lewis was appointed a director. He was to play a vigorous part in the period of expansion which lay ahead.

In March 1931, English Steel Corporation acquired the shares originally bought by Vickers Ltd. – thus forming a link, which gave Comsteel access to a vast amount of research and experience in the manufacture of special steels. This was to be of great value when, a few years later the production of these steels was begun on a large scale.

In April 1933 an event of outstanding importance was the purchase by the Broken Hill Pty. Co. Ltd. of the shares held by the English Steel Corporation and Taylor Bros. The Company became known as the Commonwealth Steel Company Limited. Subsequently BHP acquired the shareholdings of the Clyde Engineering Co. Ltd. and the Pioneer Spring Co. Ltd.

In 1936 the installation of the Edgewater Universal Tyre Mill was completed. In addition to tyres, this was capable of rolling the one-piece solid wheels increasingly coming into use. A second electric arc furnace was also installed at this time.

Planning for the special steels plant was begun in 1938 and the plant commenced production in 1941.

Plans were also made for the manufacture of many types of munitions including bulletproof plate (successfully made for the first time in Australia in 1940). 2,000,000 steel helmets were produced. Behind where the heat treatment section now stands was a proof range where inspectors used to fire at sample helmets with a heavy calibre pistol.

Steelmaking capacity was increased by the installation of a third electric arc furnace and a 35 ton open-hearth furnace. The open-hearth furnace tapped its first heat in January 1942. It was later modified to 50 tons capacity. It ceased operations and was dismantled with the installation of the 50 ton electric arc furnace in 1966. Employment increased steadily. From approximately 140 in the early 1920’s the figure rose to nearly 600 in 1939. When war began most of the plant went onto three shifts and maximum employment at the peak of the war production was 3,200, which included a number of women.

The first major post-war development at Waratah began in July 1948 with the commencement of extensions to the open-hearth building, comprising the addition of a heavy foundry and dressing shop. The extensions were completed in December 1951.

The last of the major steel processors to establish in Newcastle was Stewarts and Lloyds. After many negotiations, a joint venture by the BHP Co. Ltd. and Stewarts and Lloyds (initially registered as Buttweld Pty Ltd.) established a plant adjacent to the steelworks in 1934 to produce autogenous welded pipe from 10-65mm diameter. The pipe welding and galvanising plant was in operation by 1935, and a seamless tube mill to produce heavy duty tube to 220mm by 1939. The skills and equipment were put to good use during the Second World War to produce heavy guns and shells. From 1957 onwards, production facilities for larger pipe and tube were developed in Port Kembla, because appropriate feed skelp was not available in Newcastle.

The Newcastle Plant was progressively modernised and specialised in the production of galvanised merchant pipe to 65 NB and ERW pipe to 168mm OD. In particular, the development of a high volume Automatic Tube Galvanising Plant, which sold in the United Kingdom and Japan, was a notable achievement.

A large development included the addition of a hot finished Stretch Reducing Mill.

An outstanding innovation, sharing first place in the State Pollution Control Commission 1982 Award, is a plant recovering all effluents from the galvanising process to produce pigments.