List of 19th-century iron smelting operations in Australia

This is a list of 19th-century iron smelting operations in Australia.

The earliest commercial iron ore smelting took place in 1848. There was an increase in pig iron prices in the early 1870s, which led to the formation of a number of colonial-era iron-making ventures in Australia. A world-wide shortage caused the price of imported pig-iron to increase, from £4 10s per ton in 1870 to £9 per ton in 1873[1] greatly advantaging locally manufactured iron. This period has been called, 'Australia's age of iron.' However, the high prices did not last long, as global iron-making capacity increased, and pig-iron was once again imported cheaply as ballast in sailing ships returning from England to Australia. After 1884, there was no commercial iron smelting in Australia, until William Sandford built a modern blast furnace at Lithgow in 1907.

Trial smelting in foundries

Trial smelting took place in foundries, typically using existing cupola furnaces usually used to melt iron to manufacture castings. Such furnaces could be adapted to make pig iron if charged with iron ore, coke or charcoal, and some limestone as a flux.

Foundry location Company / Foundry Period of operation Production achieved Client / Source of ore
Mittagong Fitzroy Iron & Coal Mining Company Around July 1858 16 hundredweight trial smelting. Pig iron was made in a 'blast furnace' that was probably an adapted foundry cupola furnace.[2][3] Ore from Mittagong.
Gawler Phoenix Foundry,

James Martin

c. 1871 Small quantity of iron, some of which still survives in a commemorative fence in Murray St, Gawler.[4][5] Ore from Barossa
131 King Street, Melbourne Railway Foundry, owned by Drysdale and Fraser November 1872 Two bells, seven 'pigs' weighing 2-stone (12.7 kg) and one pig weighing 3-hundredweight (152 kg),[6] and "half-a-dozen 18lb. [8.2 kg] cannon balls".[7]

A total of around 400 kg of iron was made.

Ilfracombe Iron Company, Tasmania
October 1873 Half a ton.[8] Ore from near Maldon Victoria, almost certainly from Victorian Iron Company.
June 1874 Unknown quantity [9] Ore from a location "within 70 miles of Melbourne, and not more than a quarter of a mile from a main line of railway"; almost certainly ore from Lal Lal Iron Company
Victoria (Precise location uncertain) (Uncertain, possibly the foundry as above.) Late 1875 Unknown quantity.[10] From an ore deposit at Tarrengower, just west of Maldon, Victoria
Ballarat Union Foundry November 1873 More than one ton.[11] Lal Lal Iron Company
Mittagong Brazenall and Son Late 1889 Local iron ore was smelted in a small furnace capable of smelting 5 hundredweight of iron. Made cast iron pipe samples and pigs. Ore from Mittagong
20 Erskine Street, Sydney Halliday's Engine Works July 1891 Smelted half a hundredweight of ore, under the direction of William Brazenall.[12] Ore from Tasmania

Direct reduction furnaces

Direct reduction furnaces operate at temperatures below the melting point of iron and make a semi-solid product known as sponge iron. with molten slag as the waste product.

Smelter Location Company Period of operation Production achieved Cause of end of production and fate
Mittagong, New South Wales Fitz Roy Iron Mine 1848 to 1851 Small quantities.[13][14] made in a small

Catalan forge.[15]

Expansion of the works
Fitz Roy Iron Mine Company To September 1852 2 tons made in a Catalan forge.[16] Tilt hammer used to make wrought iron broke ending production
Fitz Roy Iron &

Coal Mining Company

1855 - 1856 3 tons[17] made in a

reverbatory furnace[18][19]

Financial problems.

Later became site of first blast furnace in Australia.

Andersons Creek, Northern Tasmania Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company 18 April 1873 Very small quantity The direct-reduction furnace failed due to extreme heat. The venture became the British and Tasmanian Charcoal iron Company, and subsequently built a blast furnace at Redbill Point.

Blast furnaces

Blast furnaces operate at temperatures above the melting point of iron and make molten pig iron, with molten slag as the waste product. In the 19th century, furnaces used either hot-blast technology—like modern blast furnaces, in which the blast air is preheated to a high temperature—or the older cold-blast technology.

There were both cold-blast and hot-blast furnaces in 19th-century Australia. With only one exception—British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company—all the furnaces were originally built as cold-blast furnaces. A cold air blast made it more difficult—but not impossible—to achieve a furnace temperature that allowed molten pig iron and slag to be run from the furnace, avoiding what was known as a 'chilled hearth'. Cold-blast technology was used successfully in some colonial-era blast furnaces—notably the two furnaces at Lal Lal—but it could not be made to work reliably in others. Some furnaces that were initially designed as cold blast—the Fitzroy Iron Works, Tamar Hematite Iron Company, and Lithgow Valley Ironworks—soon switched, with relative success, to hot-blast technology.[20][21] With the exception of the modified blast furnace at the Fitzroy Iron Works, none of the furnaces recycled furnace off-gas as a fuel source.

Blast furnace location Company Period of operation Production achieved Cause of end of production and fate
Mittagong, New South Wales Fitzroy Iron Works Company 30 July 1864 to January 1866 80 tons

(cold blast)[22]

2,394 tons

(hot blast)[23]

Deposits, referred to as 'scaffolding', built up inside Australia's first blast furnace. It was modified and later used again in 1876-1877.
Fitzroy Bessemer Steel, Hematite, Iron and Coal Company 5 February 1876 to 16 March 1877 3,273 tons[24] made in a hot-blast furnace Inability to compete with imported iron on price.

Furnace demolished in 1922.[25][26]

Near Bookham, New South Wales Bogolong Iron Mining Company 31 March 1874 to 20 May 1874 9 iron pigs made in a small cold-blast furnace (samples only)[27][28][29] Failure of the furnace. Venture did not proceed beyond a trial. Abandoned furnace still stands on private land.
Lithgow, New South Wales Lithgow Valley Ironworks (later Eskbank Ironworks) October 1875 to 1882 18,000 tonnes[30] mainly made in a hot-blast furnace. The furnace was converted to hot blast in 1877. Iron-making was uneconomic at prevailing iron prices. The furnace was demolished in 1882. The rest of the ironworks continued in operation, rerolling scrap iron.[31]

Became site of Australia's first modern blast furnace in 1907

Mount Pleasant, New South Wales Patrick Lahiff, of lllawarra Coal Co. at Mount Pleasant Colliery 1872[32] to c.1882 (sporadically) 10 tons, made in a small experimental blast furnace, using local clayband ore and coke made from local coal.[33] The company changed its name to Mt. Pleasant Coal and Iron Co., in 1888 but, up to 1894, failed to obtain investment for a larger furnace, due to limited ore supplies and the unsuccessful outcomes of earlier iron-making ventures.[33][34]
Hindmarsh Tiers

(near Mount Jagged)

South Australia

South Australian Iron and Steel Company 16 July 1874 to 5 Dec 1874. 40 tons[35] made in a cold-blast furnace. Inability to operate its furnace reliably.

Land and assets sold in 1876.

A tributary of Middle Arm Creek, Tasmania Ilfracombe Iron Company November 1873 to December 1873 Possibly 12 iron pigs (total 2 tons), but more likely none.[36] Inability to achieve reliable furnace operation. It remains doubtful that any iron at all was produced.

Remains of the blast furnace still exist on private land.

Middle Arm Cove,

(near modern-day Beaconsfield) Tasmania

Tamar Hematite Iron Company 2 January 1875 to July 1875 600 tons made in a cold-blast furnace that had been converted to hot-blast.[37][38][39] Lack of economies of scale and price competition. Plans to build a larger furnace did not eventuate. Gold was found within the company's mining lease.

Any remnants of the furnace were buried under gold mining tailings in 1980s.

Redbill Point,

(modern-day Beauty Point) Tasmania

British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company 27 May 1876 to August 1877 6,000 tons made in a hot-blast furnace. Excessive chromium content of the iron ore and pig iron. Furnace and other equipment sold, in 1883 and 1885, and reused for other purposes. Slag can still be found near the furnace site.
Battery Point,

Tasmania

Derwent Iron Company (Tasmania) July 1874 and November 1874 > 1.5 tons[40] made in a cold-blast furnace. Initially, a mismatch in furnace capacity and blast capacity. Finally, lack of economies of scale, and uneconomic at prevailing iron prices. Furnace demolished.
Maldon, Victoria Victorian Iron Company 1873 Approximately one ton made in a small brick furnace.[33][41] Unknown.
Lal Lal, Victoria Lal Lal Iron Company 19 October 1875 to January 1876 127 tons made in its first cold-blast furnace[42] Equipment breakdown.

Upgraded in 1878, including higher blast capacity.

Lal Lal Iron Company (No Liability) 18 October 1878 to 1879 Unknown quantity

made in the upgraded first blast furnace[43]

Furnace capacity too low to be economic.

Demolished and replaced by second blast furnace.

Lal Lal Iron Company Limited 20 March 1881 to June 1884 2260 tons made in the second cold-blast furnace [33][44][45] Uneconomic at prevailing iron prices

Remains of the second blast furnace still exist.

Ventures that did not enter operation

These business ventures were established to smelt iron, but did not build furnaces.

Proposed location Company Dates of activity Proposed operations that were never built Reason for demise
Northern Tasmania Swedish Charcoal Iron Company c.1872 Iron ore mine and blast furnace, in the same district as other similar iron smelting ventures of the same period. Venture never went beyond issuing a prospectus..
Near Wallerawang, New South Wales Great Western Iron Works / Great Western Iron & Coal Company / Partners including Enoch Hughes c.1873 Blast furnace and coke ovens to exploit the iron ore, coal and limestone deposits near Wallerawang.[46][47] The site near Wallerawang was, in the eyes of experts at the time, a uniquely promising location for an iron and steelworks. Despite this and a later attempt (see below), nothing was ever built there.[48][49] The partners who held the mining leases fell out with Enoch Hughes.[48]
Near Wallerawang, New South Wales A syndicate of English capitalists, organised by Joseph Mitchell. c. 1890 to

1897

Large iron and steel works based on a contract for steel rails with the N.S.W. Government.[50][51][52] The Illawarra was considered as a site, but final plans were for a works near Pipers Flat railway station, using deposits of iron ore, coal and limestone, all located in the vicinity.[53][54] Death of its main backer, Joseph Mitchell.[55]

References

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