STEEL CITY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 9

STEEL CITY

VAST AUSTRALIAN PLAN

JOBS FOR 3000

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 20th February.

Gradually an. Australian Pittsburg, a steel city, is being developed at Port Kembla, New South Wales, by Australian Iron and Steel, Ltd. When the plant now being, installed is producing fully it will provide work for 3000 men, and, with the Broken Hill Proprietary works at Newcastle will supply the- iron and steel requirements of Australia, and, it is hoped, New Zealand, until the population of each country has more than doubled. The 3000 men will be required for the basic plant. Subsidiary industries will grow around the main unit, providing work for thousands more. ■

The companies intcrcste'd in Australian Iron and Steel are Dorman, Long, and Co., who are constructing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Hoskins Iron and' Steel Company, Ltd., an Australian concern that has been very successful, Baldwins, Ltd., the well-knoAvu English firm, and the big shipping concern, Howard, Smith, Ltd. It is proposed to produce iron and steel of the highest quality ' possible, and' in the process only Australian materials will be used. Tho blast furnace which has already been erected is said to bo giving results equal, to anything in tho world. A large open hearth' steel pliant, now being erected- will \ be' ready in two years' time. Modern rolling mills are to be added. later.; A., spin pipe plant, now operating is one of the latest things of its';kind in the world. Of course, the flew Australian tariff has greatly encouraged the.directors, of this vast concern, which represents 'an enormous 6iitlay in., capital.; 'Mr/! ft. Ennis, oneof the directors, and supervising engineer in the erection of, -the Harbour Bridge, maintains that Australia has a wonderful future. There are enormous resources awaiting development, and in that development the company is anxious to share. Mr. Ennis has acted as engineer in all parts of the world during tho past 38 years, and he- has nothing but praise for the Australianj workman. "The men employed on the bridge," he said the other day, are giving us in quality and finish work equal to anything I have seen anywhere in the world. "He pointed out that during the five-years' -work on the bridge there had been only three fatal accidents, and that was a world record for a structure of suc.h vast dimensions. The arches wero now half-way across, and the mai'gin of erorr so far was not more than, one-eighth •of an inch—a margin that could be simply corrected. .■-.,-

It will be of interest to know that Mr. Ennis officially forecasts tho meeting of the two arches of the bridge before the end of the present year—possibly in September. Very rapid progress is now being made.