THE EMERALD STRAND The Irish-born Manufacturers of Nineteenth-century Victoria The AuThor After a long career in finance and management with a large Australian manufacturing company, founded in Melbourne in 1860 by a Scots immigrant, Keith Pescod enrolled at La Trobe University, where he completed an honours degree in History and Religious Studies and received a Doctorate of Philosophy. In his first book, Good Food, Bright Fires & Civility, he related how the British Colonial Office of the nineteenth century assembled, protected and accommodated over 330,000 government-assisted emigrants in depots of its own creation before shepherding them on to chartered ships bound for the Australian colonies. His second book, A Place to Lay my Head, followed the British and Irish emigrants to Victoria and told of their reception by a colonial society that believed that newcomers should rapidly become self-reliant contributing workers. The government and philanthropists provided austere shelters in which the inmates were subject to strict rules and regulations. These conditions did not tempt anyone to prolong their stay. Dr Pescod is an Honorary Associate in the School of Historical and European Studies at La Trobe University. THE EMERALD STRAND The Irish-born Manufacturers of Nineteenth-century Victoria Keith Pescod Australian Scholarly Publishing melbourne © Keith Pescod, 2007 First published 2007 Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd 7 Lt Lothian St Nth, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051 Tel: 03 9329 6963 Fax: 03 9329 5452 [email protected] www.scholarly.info A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry for this title has been requested from the National Library of Australia. ISBN 1 74097 148 5 All Rights Reserved Cover design and typesetting by Adam Bextream Index by Rosemary Newman Printing and binding by Griffin Press, Adelaide Cover Image: The Thompsons–Byron Jackson Centennial, La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria. ConTenTs Acknowledgements vi A Matter of Definition vii Introduction ix 1 Who were the Irish immigrants? 1 2 An industrial evolution 19 The MAnuFACTurers 3 Brewers, soft-drink manufacturers, winemakers and distillers 60 4 Grain millers, bakers and confectioners, and frozen-meat exporters 112 5 Footwear, clothing and domestic miscellanea manufacturers 141 6 Printers 152 7 Timber processors, brick makers, lime burners, stonemasons, hide processors and a rope maker 174 8 Furniture manufacturers 216 9 Vehicle builders and saddlers 233 10 Engineers and founders 251 11 Inventors and agricultural implement manufacturers 280 Conclusion 311 AppendiCes A The Irish manufacturers 322 B Irish manufacturers by county of birth 328 C The Breheny brewers and hotel licensees 330 D Factories and employment in Victoria 1871–1891 335 E Denominational distribution in Ireland 337 Notes 338 Bibliography 344 Index 354 v ACknowledgeMenTs Librarians, historians and many others in Victoria’s cities and towns have, in a variety of ways, contributed to this book. In particular, I am indebted to those who have provided me with records, letters and anecdotes of their ancestors and relatives: Kerry Blanc (Peter and Morgan Jageurs), Val Beattie (George Beattie), John M Breheny (John Breheny), Kevin Livy (Thomas Kelly), Keith Leonard (James Henry Leonard), Peter Macdougall (Dugald McDougall), Sandra Motteram (Henry Upton Alcock), Pat Naughtin (Alexander Caughey), Denise Nest (John Tynan) and Mary Reilly (James Reilly and his six sons). Their information has often enabled me to pass beyond the statistics and formal obituaries, and glimpse the wonderful characters of some of our Irish-born manufacturing pioneers. I am also grateful to Paddy McCorry for her meticulous and constructive editing, the skills and experience of those at Australian Scholarly Publishing, and the continuing support from members of the History Program at La Trobe University. Finally, I acknowledge my wife’s unfailing encouragement and assistance, which made this project possible. Keith Pescod Melbourne, March 2007 vi A MATTer oF deFiniTion Early in my exploration of the Irish manufacturers, I found it necessary to define several terms. Failure to do so would leave limitless avenues open, down which I could happily wander. The most significant of these definitions are: MAnuFACTuring I use this term to describe the physical or chemical transformation of materials or components into new products, whether the work is performed by power-driven machinery or by hand. This definition excludes the provision of a service, purchasing and selling a commodity without changing its basic form, and primary operations such as agriculture, fishing, forestry and mining, but not the processing of primary products into food, timber products or metal ingots. Building construction is also excluded, but not the manufacture of building materials such as stone, bricks, cement and timber products. The distinctions between manufacturing and related industries are sometimes finely drawn. For example, book and document printing qualifies as ‘manufacturing’, but I have excluded the publication of newspapers on the grounds that although it includes a printing process, it is primarily an information service. The word ‘industry’ is applied to broad groups within the economy (e.g. manufacturing, agricultural, mining), or a sector within such a group (e.g. metalworking, flour milling, brewing). ‘Industry’ does not describe a sole business or factory. vii The Emerald Strand ViCToriAn MAnuFACTuring business Many so-called factories of nineteenth century Victoria, particularly during the early decades, were very small workshops where the owner, with one or two assistants, produced a small range of necessaries for the local community. Therefore, I have included all manufacturing businesses other than tiny, family- operated activities within the proprietors’ homes. At the other extreme, I have included inter-colonial businesses, provided that their principal factories and centres of operation were in Victoria. The ultimate success, failure or sale of a business has not been a criterion. irish-born MAnuFACTurer This term encompasses all settlers in Victoria, born in Ireland, who founded or purchased, and managed manufacturing businesses. Some of them arrived in Victoria as children. Unfortunately, I was compelled to exclude some eminent Victorian manufacturers such as Hugh Victor McKay and John Hare Furphy as they were born after their Irish parents arrived in Victoria. viii inTroduCTion Each is given a bag of tools, A shapeless mass, A book of rules; And each must make, Ere life is flown, A stumbling-block Or a stepping-stone. R. L. Sharpe Had Plato wandered through early Melbourne, he might have commented that necessity was not only the mother of invention, but also the mother of Victoria’s manufacturing industry. Settlers, using local materials and simple processes, manufactured basic items to replace or supplement the imported products that arrived spasmodically and were not always suitable for Australian conditions. Victoria’s manufacturing industry grew from simple, makeshift factories to outstrip all those of the other Australian colonies. By the end of the nineteenth century, Victoria employed nearly forty per cent of Australia’s factory workforce and its annual value of factory production was the highest in Australia. Victoria had become an industrial powerhouse that would help drive the state’s and Australia’s economic development during much of the twentieth century. A vibrant industrial economy emerges from the confluence of labour, capital, material and opportunity, but it is not a chance circumstance. Robust development is dependent upon special people with imagination, knowledge, courage, tenacity and enthusiasm to ix The Emerald Strand establish factories, farms and mines, introduce processes and machinery, organise workers, sell their products, and adapt to customer demands. Irish-born immigrants were among the enterprising band of manufacturers in Victoria. They were not predominately from one county or region of Ireland, or of one class or religion. Some claimed Irish-Celtic ancestry; others acknowledged Scots, English, Welsh and continental Europeans among their forbears. Only one woman appears in these pages. Perhaps there were others that I failed to discover, but their absence is more likely to reflect the paucity of female immigrants from any country who are recorded as proprietors of manufacturing businesses during the nineteenth century. A few set up small millinery or dressmaking workshops, usually in their homes. No doubt, community attitudes in general, and male antipathy in particular towards women aspiring to own a business, presented formidable barriers against women gaining the necessary experience, advice and finance. Furthermore, a married woman lacked contractual capacity until legislation of the late nineteenth century. Prior to these statutes, her contracts under common law were void, as her property vested in her husband upon marriage. Virtually, she had no legal personality separate from that of her husband. Curiously, in contrast to this general rule, the law permitted the registration of female hotel proprietors. The number of Irish manufacturers was dis- proportionately lower than the Irish presence in Victoria. However, they were significant on account of their individual achievements, the breadth of their activities and their collective contribution both to the foundation of Victoria’s industrial economy and the welfare of its citizens over successive generations. A clearly discernible emerald strand runs through the complex fabric of Victoria’s manufacturing history. x