Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company mill

About

Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company mill is a heritage-listed mill at 42 & 42B The Terrace, North Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Australian Fabric Manufacturers Ltd and Boral Hancock Plywood. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 19 September 2008.

The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company is situated in North Ipswich on level land overlooking the Bremer River. It was established in 1875 and the factory was the first woollen manufacturing plant in Queensland.

Ipswich commenced as a convict outstation known as "Limestone" in 1827. After free settlement began in 1842, the township developed as an important commercial centre because of its location at the head of navigation of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers and at the junction of routes to the Brisbane Valley and the Darling Downs. Goods from these regions were channelled through Ipswich en route to the coast and this trade contributed significantly to Ipswich's rapid growth and prosperity. By 1875 an efficient railway had been constructed in Ipswich, increasing Ipswich's value as a commercial centre in Queensland.

In 1875 The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company established a woollen mill in Ipswich due to the existence of an efficient wool delivery system. The company bought 7.25 acres (2.93 ha) and 17 perches (430 m 2 ) of land at the bend of the north bank of the Bremer River. The position of the mill was imperative to its future success; the mill was built meters from "The Basin" on the Bremer River. "The Basin" is a man-made bight in the Bremer River to allow large ships to turn around. This facilitated the loading and unloading process of shipped goods. Being situated beside the river, the mill had a reliable water source for its steam engines. The railway was also close by.

The timber factory was built and production of woollen tweed commenced in 1877. To highlight the importance of the mill for Queensland at that time the factory was officially opened in 1877 by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Arthur Kennedy.

Queensland's manufacturing and industrial base were expanding at this time; the woollen industry was at the forefront of this. The pastoral sector of the industry was succeeding and more and more land in Australia was opened up and utilised by sheep graziers. Larger numbers of sheep were grazing, successful breeding programs were ensuring better quality wool, and ovine diseases were being eradicated due to strict quarantine measures and improved veterinarian and environmental knowledge by farmers.

The establishment of the woollen mill in Ipswich provided a centrally located processing plant for the raw wool produced on the Darling Downs. Prior to the building of the woollen mill the raw wool was sent for processing to Melbourne, Sydney or Adelaide (all of which already had well-established wool processing plants), but this was costly and inefficient. The Ipswich mill allowed raw wool to be processed locally, benefiting the Darling Downs' sheep graziers. It was also an important indicator that the Queensland economy was developing beyond the supply of raw materials, and vertical integration was occurring, in this case for the sheep industry.

In an effort to encourage successful industry in Queensland, the Government offered the Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company a bonus of £ 1,000 for the first 1,000 yards (910 m) of cloth produced. The mill initially produced only unfinished cloth, this, however, changed as a lack of demand for unfinished cloth forced the company into establishing its own clothing works.

The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company produced good quality wool products. Tweeds, flannels, worsteds, blankets, rugs, and apparel were the advertised products of the factory. In an advertisement in the Queensland Times from 1879, the directors of the company advertised the purity of their cloths, "they are manufactured from Queensland Merino Wool. Free from shoddy mixtures of cloths gathered from prisons, hospitals, lunatic and other asylums". Many woollen manufacturers in this period followed a practice known as using "shoddy". This entailed pulling apart and recycling discarded woollen products such as knitted goods which would then be woven with newly spun wool. There was a demand for this product as it was inexpensive, but The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company did not want to be associated with such a means of woollen production, as their advertisement suggests.

In 1881 additions were made to the mill. These were designed by influential Ipswich architect and businessman, Samuel Shenton, who was at the time a director of the mill - a position he held for many years (1875 to 1891). He was also Ipswich mayor for several years (1871, 1872 and 1889). It was not only Shenton who was involved with the mill, as other prominent business and political leaders in Ipswich played a large role in the direction of the mill including several Ipswich mayors. The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company was regarded by many of the most prominent members of Ipswich as an important industry to be associated with, as well as a sound financial investment.

By 1887 The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company was mentioned in the official Tender for Public Service to the Queensland Government. An entry in the Queensland Government Gazette dated 20 January 1887, stated the supply of serge, tweed, blankets and rugs was to be supplied by The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company at an annual fee of £ 600 for the requested amount of goods. In a subsequent letter from the mill's management to the Government, it was stated the products that the Government would receive from the mill would be of a far higher quality than those that they received previously from other manufacturers. This may be a reflection on the poor quality of wool products available to many Queenslanders prior to the establishment of The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company.

In 1890, the wooden factory was replaced by spacious brick and iron buildings. These buildings were designed by eminent Ipswich architect, George Brockwell Gill. Gill designed many of the grand residences and public buildings in Ipswich from the 1880s to the 1930s. Some of his works include Ipswich Girls' Grammar School, "Brynhyfryd" for Lewis Thomas, St Paul's Rectory, Ipswich Club House, the Ipswich Technical College, and supervision of the construction of the Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator in 1936.

The newly built brick factory was a very large addition to the North Ipswich landscape. In early photographs, the mill dominates The Terrace beside the Bremer River. The high west wall was built with arched, light brick "built-in" window facades that ran down the length of the side of the building to create an attractive feature in the brickwork. A tall, brick, industrial chimney rose from the south east corner of the mill. Within the tall walls, various types of industrial equipment processed the wool. The mill was designed to admit maximum possible daylight and ventilation inside the building, before the use of electric light. To do this, large panelled windows were included within the vertical segment of the sawtooth roof. Along the east, west, and south walls large windows were built in.

Within the woollen mill buildings, the wool was cleaned, spun, and woven on large industrial machines into various forms of cloth. Much of this was then manufactured as garments such as shirts, trousers and suits. The unfinished fabric was also sold. These machines were steam-driven. The mill had its own steam engines and boiler for power generation. The steam engine was located beside the large brick chimney in the south-east corner of the mill. The machines were secured to great wooden supporting beams that ran below the ceiling.

The wool processing within the mill consisted of various stages: sorting and grading, scouring, drying and dying, carding, combing, spinning, weaving, brushing, and sewing. Each stage was carried out in a separate area of the mill, with each process flowing onto the next in a hierarchical structure; this was a design feature to facilitate efficiency in the mill. In the two smaller south rooms the wool was sorted and graded to determine how it would be processed; the scouring vats were located in the south-west room, and here the wool was cleaned of impurities and steam dried and dyed if required. The remainder of the process was carried out in the main area of the mill. The mill contained ten carding machines; these large machines broke up the wool and removed impurities. The combing process further organised the woollen fibres. The largest machines in the mill were the spinning mules on which the wool was spun. The wool was then woven into fabrics on the weaving looms. The woven fabric then went through shaving machines to give the cloth a fine finish. Finally, the fabric would be sewn into various products.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Ipswich was experiencing a boom in industry, employment, and wealth. Major manufacturing and industrial plants such as the North Ipswich Railway Workshops ), coal mines, Australia's first cotton mill, and Ipswich Town Wharves were major contributors to this success. By 1891 Ipswich's population had reached 13,059, making it the fourth largest town in Queensland at that time.

Whilst most industries in Ipswich provided employment opportunities for adult males, the cloth industry employed hundreds of women. The largest single employer of female labour in Ipswich was The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company; in 1891 the firm employed 152 women of a total of 226 employees.

Those living in Ipswich at this time patronised local industry; the flannel made by The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company was a favourite cloth used by the women for making work clothes for men. The garments made within the mill were also popular with the industrial workers and miners in Ipswich. Known as "Ipswich Grey Flannels", these were woollen shirts and a standard item of dress for Ipswich men. The woollen mill held a contract with Queensland Railways for the supply of serge for their employee uniforms, as well as with the Queensland Police for the manufacture of serge uniforms.

The Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company played an important role in the war effort during the First World War. Many of the industries in Ipswich suffered during the war due to reduced numbers of employees and minimised profits, but the Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company was an exception; the high number of female employees ensured minimal staff reductions caused by the war. The factory was extremely busy throughout the war making army blankets and cloth for military uniforms.

By 1919, as a reflection of the success of the woollen mill in North Ipswich, it was the very first factory to have electric light installed. This meant that the mill could remain productive for longer each day, thus increasing productivity and ultimate profits, as well as benefiting the employees. 80% of the mills' products were sold in Queensland. The flannels and blankets, named Ipswich Flannel and Poinsettia Blankets, were renowned throughout Australia for their high quality.