PORT KEMBLA

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6578, 20 October 1939, Page 4

PORT KEMBLA

.iIISE OF AUSTRALIAN BfeOTRIAL'GENTRE

-Auairailia/s remarkable industrial development sime vi>he ygreat depression, latterly.atimulated.by.the produced -A.»mushroom- d.ty r in . this .little -town.

Ten years ago Port Keuihla wvas i>jasfc,xaie. s moFe ii q»iet3spot .on-ifche yfcust.southeastern ( ,coast, r.about 50 miles .aouth ucf Sydney. a thaKwaar r: and *a ..jetty -Avaststill and ,\rorkers on its pay roll. The intervening vyearslitave .toeen . lull of,repid development, recession, vcnew«dr.acti.ra t ty.

In ;1928 Australian,iron and "Steel i began - ejection-of its t Port JCembla ...Midway f jn ifctaftJlMflg -program :&ion (i anived jand ; Steel via* x atu&lly -suspended. "Heavy , i ?lusfi4es jiad f Ueen .-hit ?,and th#?re was e " *■.. demand: tthe? newtcoi txaafcienrplatt ; ply.'tßut fivet-yaars $gO;ibe expansion tur«t! ! funv?wss Mourned. .Thousands 01 «w ,\ce - in«production an-i in 'j :i g the plant rAnd • atitoeachegp taaß&pcrt available, < - - : tt .enormous >sapDPiiestftiMhin faofeDyy sßitesi aiail•ablt, ■ y«indu»tri«s neame -to 3Port l^Kemya

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.At the same timelMeiallMantffactures Corporation, "Electrolytic 'Zinc Refinipg and" Smeltipg.andJ Fertilizers to expand their exj Ming .plants. J The result ,has been a mußhroonf growth which has'brought odd probj "lems to the place. Demand tor moref labour by such new corporations a& Commonwealth "Rolling "Mills (subj sidiary of'Americari Rollingl'Mills) antf Lysaghts Co£po v ation has,meant, iou'sly, more unemployment. .A bigs building . program has . resulted in atj housing shortage.. A, model suburb exists* hard by a shantytown. The large" labour market in Port Kembla' has caused jobless workers to , flock to the town, increasing employment, , it. is estimated, by ?300 per .cent. "Eor the "Port Kembla corporations now, seek, mostly Skilled Jab- ; our arid , the jobless are without special .mi TThe building,progwtm adopted. to.meet the .needs of ,thee.expanding v p9pul&iion was on a soale unconceived ..a. few„ years calia Jron Steel alone shires a woiki^g-force to the whol% population .of, the .town aJdecdide ggo. Uhe home-buildi?ig jdevplgpment bconfeht more workers .arid made the Jiouse shortage more acute.

•Big rftem&rid -for Rentals

. , , i>«ilt<x)n < -mmg lines, wifch i&inipte irP** k «, i routed rmds *md -business • o0BJte0S( exis>t6dt r jsj?B &e,-4tbert*Hef vwJri©h*heW jawtfr*£;ljark me ieatkof&he ,slte4el ?«f >ifce «m»iQgi«amt>st of , ? dbeentikme >wemen An these tsfeAeks have t been rs ifcfriT?# acost -jten |2b€9W. irt-rtk&a&aSk*

i: are estate agaits ibto>ii€fen j»pjMsatebid sfey? sjfea»k«*ra3«®s : it ; ai^tawai^^ applications for his books.