STEEL CITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 10

STEEL CITY.

VAST AUSTRALIAN PLAN. JOBS FOR 3000. (From: Our Own Correspondent.) , SYDNEY, February 20. Gradually an Australian Pittsburg, a steel city, is being developed at Port Kembla, Ne\, 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 Proprietory 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 he required for the basic plant. Subsidiary industries will grow around the main unit, providing work for thousands more.

The companies interested in Australian Iron and Steel are Dorman, Lang, and Co., who are constructing the' Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Hoskins Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., an Australian concern that lias been very successful, Baldwins, Ltd., the well-known 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, The blast furnace which has already been erected is said to be giving results equal to anything in the world. A large, openhearth, steel plant, 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 new 1 Australian tariff has greatly encouraged the directors of this vast concern, which icpresents an enormous outlay in capital. Mr L. Ennis, one ’of the directors, and supervising engineer in the erection of the harbeur 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 the past 38 years, and he has nothing but praise for the Australian 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 Hire fatal accidents, and that was a world record for a structure of such vast dimensions. The arches were now halfway across, and the margin of error so far was not more than Jin —a margin that could be simply corrected.

It will be of interest o know that Mr Ennis officially forecasts the 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.