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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1097.PDF
388 FLIGHT. APRIL 13, 1939 Behind the organisation of manufacturers which will feed the aircraft factory lie the resources of the metal in dustry of the Commonwealth. They are so great that, except for aluminium, rubber and cotton, and once tools have been imported from Britain, the Australian industry will need to import only a minor quantity of special alloys for storage until, and if, they can be produced locally. Although Queensland turns out cotton to the extent of about £10 million a year, tyre manufacturers' needs are met by importation from Egypt and the U.S.A. Rubber, of course, concerns.Malaya, although in 1935-6 Papua ex ported almost ^90,000 worth. Aluminium comes from Europe and America, for although bauxite deposits exist in Australia none is in economic production. Never theless, ; it is not impossible to predict that Australia's three principal shortages, aluminium, rubber and cotton, may eventually be provided for within her shores. With an eye, no doubt, on this possibility, an aluminium refin ing factory is being started by the British Aluminium Com pany to reduce European ores but, of course, it would be able just as easily to handle Australian material. The Dunlop Rubber Company, the Goodyear company and others manufacture tyres in Australia, so that no im portations occur for the motor industry. Thus the needs of aircraft are met in this respect also. The deeper one probes into this matter the more one appreciates the significance of the heavy industries. At Newcastle,. New South Wales, about 90 miles up the coast from Sydney, is the principal centre of the iron and steel industry. The site was selected by Broken Hill Pro prietary because of the extensive coalfields, which turn out three-quarters of the total national production of eleven million tons a year. The Proprietary used to be concerned with mining silver-lead ore at Broken Hill, N.S.W., but now its main source of income is through meeting Australia's needs for steel and iron. Five blast furnaces are now working at this Australian Sheffield, and last year they turned out 805,000 tons of steel. Allied to B.H.P. is Australian Iron and Steel, Ltd., which has two blast furnaces at Port Kembla, 75 miles down the coast from Sydney. Aiming at half a million tons of steel ingots a year, the A.I. and S. have erected the largest blast furnace in the British Empire at Port Kembla. It is capable of 1,000 tons output a day, but at full capacity could turn out 1,500 tons. The extensions to this plant are almost complete, and it is estimated that this year the combined outputs of Newcastle and Kembla will exceed a million tons. Almost all the iron ore for these furnaces is brought by the companies' boats from South Australia, the limestone from Tasmania, Close to the western shore of the head of Spencer's Gulf in South Australia there are a number of rich ironstone outcrops, the most outstanding being Iron Knob, a hill visible for many miles. Here is Australia's principal source of iron. It may be supplemented by Cockatoo Island, Yampi Sound, far up the coastof Wes tern Australia; here is a mountain of high-grade ore awat- ing development. From the Iron Knob shipping port, Whyalla, two million tons of ore depart yearly for Newcastle and Kembla, exports having recently been forbidden; and when we remember that in 1931 the output of ore was only 300,000 tons a bright light is cast upon the rapid develop ment of the iron and steel industry in Australia. The next important industry related to aircraft produc tion is the silver-lead mines at Broken Hill. In 1883 silver-lead was found in an outcrop which for years pre viously sheep-men had used as a camping place without suspecting that it was destined to become the principal source of silver, lead and zinc in the British Empire. For the last fifty years concentrates of the ore have been railed for 280 miles to Port Pirie, opposite Whyalla in Spencer'r, Gulf, for treatment. This refinery, the largest in -the British Empire, and 150 miles from Adelaide, was our principal source of lead and zinc during the Great War. The concentrates, which contain a high proportion of silver and a little gold, are separated into lead, zinc and copper. Lead is refined feady for export, zinc is shipped to Electro lytic Zinc at Risdon, Tasmania, for refining and copper matte goes to Port Kembla, where it is also electrically refined. Vast Mineral Resources The main source of copper in the Commonwealth is at Mount Lyell in Tasmania, which last year produced 13,066 tons. It is curious that the total production of South Australia easily exceeds that of any other State ; but now, due to low price and the mine equipment being out of date, the annual tonnage has dwindled. About 3,600 tons of tin are mined a year in Australia, mostly from New South Wales and Tasmania. About 400 tons of tungsten ores are produced from a number of small sites along the eastern seaboard. Manganese, tantalite, molybdenite, osmiridium, plati num are also mined within the Commonwealth. Ferro alloys for steel manufacture are at present imported. • - There is, as well as the Broken Hill field, a large silver- lead ore mine at Mount Isa, at the far north-west corner of Queensland, which turns out about 40,000 tons of lead and 2,400,000 oz. of silver a year. Knowledge of the resources of Australia in men and material leads one to feel that the Royal Air Force Mission has advised Australia wisely in recommending the Commonwealth to proceed with aircraft production. The energy and organising ability which our cousins down under will apply to this project for Empire Defence will not only add greatly to their own security but result in Australia playing an even more important role in the defence of the whole of the eastern portion of Britain's possessions. The Clyde Engineering Company's works near Granville, Sydney, are to manufacture aircraft under an agreement signed with Mr. Stuart Doyle, who represents Airspeed, Phillips and Powis and other British interests.
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