The emerald strand : the Irish-born manufacturers of ninetheenth-century Victoria.

368 Pages·2007·1.702 MB·English

by  Pescod, Keith

THE EMERALD STRAND
The Irish-born Manufacturers of
Nineteenth-century Victoria
The AuThor
After a long career in finance and management with a large
Australian manufacturing company, founded in Melbourne in
1860 by a Scots immigrant, Keith Pescod enrolled at La Trobe
University, where he completed an honours degree in History
and Religious Studies and received a Doctorate of Philosophy.
In his first book, Good Food, Bright Fires & Civility, he
related how the British Colonial Office of the nineteenth
century assembled, protected and accommodated over 330,000
government-assisted emigrants in depots of its own creation
before shepherding them on to chartered ships bound for
the Australian colonies. His second book, A Place to Lay my
Head, followed the British and Irish emigrants to Victoria and
told of their reception by a colonial society that believed that
newcomers should rapidly become self-reliant contributing
workers. The government and philanthropists provided
austere shelters in which the inmates were subject to strict
rules and regulations. These conditions did not tempt anyone
to prolong their stay.
Dr Pescod is an Honorary Associate in the School of
Historical and European Studies at La Trobe University.
THE EMERALD STRAND
The Irish-born Manufacturers of
Nineteenth-century Victoria
Keith Pescod
Australian Scholarly Publishing
melbourne
© Keith Pescod, 2007
First published 2007
Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd
7 Lt Lothian St Nth, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
[email protected] www.scholarly.info
A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry for this title has
been requested from the National Library of Australia.
ISBN 1 74097 148 5
All Rights Reserved
Cover design and typesetting by Adam Bextream
Index by Rosemary Newman
Printing and binding by Griffin Press, Adelaide
Cover Image: The Thompsons–Byron Jackson Centennial, La Trobe
Collection, State Library of Victoria.
ConTenTs
Acknowledgements vi
A Matter of Definition vii
Introduction ix
1 Who were the Irish immigrants? 1
2 An industrial evolution 19
The MAnuFACTurers
3 Brewers, soft-drink manufacturers,
winemakers and distillers 60
4 Grain millers, bakers and confectioners,
and frozen-meat exporters 112
5 Footwear, clothing and domestic
miscellanea manufacturers 141
6 Printers 152
7 Timber processors, brick makers, lime burners,
stonemasons, hide processors and a rope maker 174
8 Furniture manufacturers 216
9 Vehicle builders and saddlers 233
10 Engineers and founders 251
11 Inventors and agricultural implement
manufacturers 280
Conclusion 311
AppendiCes
A The Irish manufacturers 322
B Irish manufacturers by county of birth 328
C The Breheny brewers and hotel licensees 330
D Factories and employment in Victoria 1871–1891 335
E Denominational distribution in Ireland 337
Notes 338
Bibliography 344
Index 354
v
ACknowledgeMenTs
Librarians, historians and many others in Victoria’s
cities and towns have, in a variety of ways, contributed
to this book. In particular, I am indebted to those who
have provided me with records, letters and anecdotes
of their ancestors and relatives: Kerry Blanc (Peter
and Morgan Jageurs), Val Beattie (George Beattie),
John M Breheny (John Breheny), Kevin Livy (Thomas
Kelly), Keith Leonard (James Henry Leonard), Peter
Macdougall (Dugald McDougall), Sandra Motteram
(Henry Upton Alcock), Pat Naughtin (Alexander
Caughey), Denise Nest (John Tynan) and Mary Reilly
(James Reilly and his six sons). Their information
has often enabled me to pass beyond the statistics
and formal obituaries, and glimpse the wonderful
characters of some of our Irish-born manufacturing
pioneers. I am also grateful to Paddy McCorry for her
meticulous and constructive editing, the skills and
experience of those at Australian Scholarly Publishing,
and the continuing support from members of the
History Program at La Trobe University. Finally, I
acknowledge my wife’s unfailing encouragement and
assistance, which made this project possible.
Keith Pescod
Melbourne, March 2007
vi
A MATTer oF deFiniTion
Early in my exploration of the Irish manufacturers,
I found it necessary to define several terms. Failure
to do so would leave limitless avenues open, down
which I could happily wander. The most significant of
these definitions are:
MAnuFACTuring
I use this term to describe the physical or chemical
transformation of materials or components into
new products, whether the work is performed by
power-driven machinery or by hand. This definition
excludes the provision of a service, purchasing and
selling a commodity without changing its basic form,
and primary operations such as agriculture, fishing,
forestry and mining, but not the processing of primary
products into food, timber products or metal ingots.
Building construction is also excluded, but not the
manufacture of building materials such as stone,
bricks, cement and timber products. The distinctions
between manufacturing and related industries are
sometimes finely drawn. For example, book and
document printing qualifies as ‘manufacturing’, but I
have excluded the publication of newspapers on the
grounds that although it includes a printing process,
it is primarily an information service.
The word ‘industry’ is applied to broad groups
within the economy (e.g. manufacturing, agricultural,
mining), or a sector within such a group (e.g.
metalworking, flour milling, brewing). ‘Industry’ does
not describe a sole business or factory.
vii
The Emerald Strand
ViCToriAn MAnuFACTuring business
Many so-called factories of nineteenth century
Victoria, particularly during the early decades, were
very small workshops where the owner, with one or
two assistants, produced a small range of necessaries
for the local community. Therefore, I have included
all manufacturing businesses other than tiny, family-
operated activities within the proprietors’ homes. At the
other extreme, I have included inter-colonial businesses,
provided that their principal factories and centres of
operation were in Victoria. The ultimate success, failure
or sale of a business has not been a criterion.
irish-born MAnuFACTurer
This term encompasses all settlers in Victoria, born
in Ireland, who founded or purchased, and managed
manufacturing businesses. Some of them arrived in
Victoria as children. Unfortunately, I was compelled to
exclude some eminent Victorian manufacturers such
as Hugh Victor McKay and John Hare Furphy as they
were born after their Irish parents arrived in Victoria.
viii
inTroduCTion
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make,
Ere life is flown,
A stumbling-block
Or a stepping-stone.
R. L. Sharpe
Had Plato wandered through early Melbourne, he
might have commented that necessity was not only the
mother of invention, but also the mother of Victoria’s
manufacturing industry. Settlers, using local materials
and simple processes, manufactured basic items to
replace or supplement the imported products that
arrived spasmodically and were not always suitable for
Australian conditions. Victoria’s manufacturing industry
grew from simple, makeshift factories to outstrip all
those of the other Australian colonies. By the end of
the nineteenth century, Victoria employed nearly forty
per cent of Australia’s factory workforce and its annual
value of factory production was the highest in Australia.
Victoria had become an industrial powerhouse that
would help drive the state’s and Australia’s economic
development during much of the twentieth century.
A vibrant industrial economy emerges from the
confluence of labour, capital, material and opportunity,
but it is not a chance circumstance. Robust development
is dependent upon special people with imagination,
knowledge, courage, tenacity and enthusiasm to
ix
The Emerald Strand
establish factories, farms and mines, introduce processes
and machinery, organise workers, sell their products,
and adapt to customer demands. Irish-born immigrants
were among the enterprising band of manufacturers in
Victoria. They were not predominately from one county
or region of Ireland, or of one class or religion. Some
claimed Irish-Celtic ancestry; others acknowledged
Scots, English, Welsh and continental Europeans
among their forbears. Only one woman appears in
these pages. Perhaps there were others that I failed to
discover, but their absence is more likely to reflect the
paucity of female immigrants from any country who are
recorded as proprietors of manufacturing businesses
during the nineteenth century. A few set up small
millinery or dressmaking workshops, usually in their
homes. No doubt, community attitudes in general, and
male antipathy in particular towards women aspiring
to own a business, presented formidable barriers
against women gaining the necessary experience,
advice and finance. Furthermore, a married woman
lacked contractual capacity until legislation of the late
nineteenth century. Prior to these statutes, her contracts
under common law were void, as her property vested
in her husband upon marriage. Virtually, she had no
legal personality separate from that of her husband.
Curiously, in contrast to this general rule, the law
permitted the registration of female hotel proprietors.
The number of Irish manufacturers was dis-
proportionately lower than the Irish presence in
Victoria. However, they were significant on account
of their individual achievements, the breadth of their
activities and their collective contribution both to the
foundation of Victoria’s industrial economy and the
welfare of its citizens over successive generations. A
clearly discernible emerald strand runs through the
complex fabric of Victoria’s manufacturing history.
x