Document 65BMwK3Gm7aYVYQre7VxNbyKg

FILE NAME Colonial Sugar Refinery CSR DATE 1956 DOC CSR031 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Book Excerpt - South Pacific Enterprise The Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd SOUTH PACIFIC | ENTERPRISE ; THE COLONIAL SUGAR REFINING COMPANY LIMITED Oe me re SNORE pa ANGUS AND ROBERTSON SYDNEY LONDON MELBOURNE WELLINGTON First Published 1956 SET IN MONOTYPE BASKERVILLE SUND IN AUSTRALIA BY HALSTEAD PRESS SYDNEY USTRALIA FOR TRANSMISSION BY POST AS A BOOK CONTENTS CHAPTER EDITOR'S PREFACE PAGE A. G. Lowndes vii INTRODUCTION R. Knox xi I. Sugar and The Sugar Cane PlaNT Various I 2 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Alan Birch & J. F. Blaxland I 3. THE STRUCTURE OF SUGAR MARKETS + THE SUGAR INDUSTRY OF Fijt J. M. Dixon 55 A. G. Lowndes 67 5 THE AUSTRALIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY W. Herbert 555 6. Sugar MILLING BY C.S.R. J. M. Dixon 119 7. Sugar Marketing OpeRATIONS J. M. Dixon 147 8. SUGAR REFINING BY C.S.R. J. Vernon 167 . t 9. C.S.R.'s UNUSUAL FUNCTIONS IN THE AUSTRALIAN Sugar INDUSTRY J. M. Dixon 186 10 SUGAR IN New ZealanD A. Isaacs 199 : II WIDENING THE FIELD 12 MEN AND ORGANIZATION Clive Turnbull 207 R. W. Harman 231 13 PEOPLE AND WORK IN FACTORIES W. Harman 257 1+ THE DIVERSE OWNERSHIP OF C.S.R. Clive Turnbull 271 15. THE REWARDS OF ENTERPRISE EDITOR'S EPILOGUE NOTES ON SOME EFFECTS OF INFLATION Taxation AND DIRECT CONTROLS J. M. Dixon = 285 A. G. Lowndes 343 J. M. Dixon 355 APPENDICES 393 TABLE OF GRAPHS DIAGRAMS TABLES AND MAPS 485 . INDEX 49I SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERPRISE Sugar today is not only a foodstuff Sugar is the basis of a group of industries as yet so new that by most people their extent in some cases even their existence is scarcely realized Thus it would surprise the average Australian at breakfast to realize that the company which provided the sugar that he has just put into his tea also produces enough building material to cover the inside and outside of a quarter of the 80,000 houses which Australia builds each year He would be surprised too to realize that the same company provided part of the raw material of the aspirin in his medicine cupboard and of the paint as he would call it on his refrigerator What have these things to do with sugar he might ask Have building materials and chemicals any connection with the cane fields of Queensland and northern New South Wales The answer is Yes These are logical developments Businesses if they are successful and efficient follow a consistent pattern of development aimed at the profitable use of the whole of the basic raw material There are many instances the simplest summed up in the old joke that the Chicago meatworks use all of the pig but the squeal It is apparent that a big business seeking ways of expansion will be interested in certain kinds of development adapted to its character and capacity Thus it will not generally be interested in small batch production suited to small enterprises but it will be interested in mass production by continuous processes Such processes usually demand large capital expenditure and a high degree of know and therefore their development has generally to await the interest and attention of large companies Because these ventures are costly because they take a long time to start and an even longer time to become profitable it is obvious that they must be of the kind which can take a natural place in an expanding national economy neither too soon nor too late When the time the place and the raw material are perfectly matched is the moment to move Traditionally expansion of C.S.R. interests has been with solid basic lines of permanent value to the community Opportunistic or lived products and luxury lines have been avoided A look at the situation in the twenties and thirties shows how these forces acted in Australia Megass the fibre which remains after the sugar cane has been crushed is used in firing the boilers of the sugar mills but sometimes its production outruns need In mills in northern New South Wales there is normally a surplus of megass towards the end of the crushing season but even when there is not a great surplus the megass is worth only the cost of enough coal to replace it When both coal and transport were inexpensive megass from northern 208 New South V molasses had industrial and In the late consideration in Australia o The company in other cour not to do so proved use of logical proce purpose of th There is n material Ve paper and in that it was po question whi was the basi market justi Developme demanding a 3 ft to 4 ft the demand increased wi not be obtai making ther to that used lacks softwo using the s such purpos overseas ma wall boards it remained practicable A survey had been ir 1930 onwar would be no per capita c and it was of overseas Macknade of a group of ztent in some would surprise ompany which also produces le of a quarter He would be Eed part of the ad of the paint these things to and chemicals northern New developments w a consistent he whole of the mplest summed of the pig but pansion will be o its character | in small Il be interested rocesses usually f know ait the interest ures are costly longer time to the kind which conomy neither ne raw material ally expansion ermanent value acts and luxury hows how these mains after the ers of the sugar ills in northern gass towards the a great surplus eplace it When from northern WIDENING THE FIELD New South Wales was available at low cost A second product molasses had been used since last century as the raw material of industrial and potable alcohols in the company's distilleries In the late twenties and early thirties all these matters had long a consideration Large expansion of sugar production as such in Australia or Fiji was not feasible because markets were then saturated The had even explored the possibility of entering the industry in company other countries such as India but for various reasons it decided not to do so Expansion by diversification of interests through im- proved use of the products megass and molasses appeared to be the logical procedure How these aims were eventually realized it is the purpose of this chapter to describe There is no theoretical difficulty in making use of megass as a raw material Vegetable fibres have been used for centuries in making paper and in more recent times cardboard Although it was apparent that it was possible to use megass for a variety of purposes the immediate question which faced the company in the twenties was whether it was the basis of any product which would command a term expenditure market justifying the high initial in the United States pointed the way Builders were Developments least 6 ft to 8 ft long and demanding a wallboard of light weight at ft to ft wide Such a board would facilitate building and meet 3 4 and offices a demand which the demand for more homes factories increased with the lifting of the depression Boards of this size could not be obtained from sawn timber but overseas manufacturers were making them in factories from fibres of softwoods by a process akin to that used in the manufacture of paper and cardboasrudccAeuesdterdaliian no one had lacks softwoods and twenty years ago the fibred Australian eucalypts commercially for any using officers however had noted that some such purpose The company's fibres to make their overseas manufacturers were using sugar cane wall boards Here then was a potential use for the Australian market it remained to be determined whether it was also economically practicable market demand for wallboards which A survey of the Australian had been imported from the United States in small quantities from onwards showed that from 10,000 to 15,000 tons of cane fibre 1930 material if the industry attained the would be needed yearly as raw of the United States The fibre was available paenrd ciatpiwtaascdoencsiudmepdtitoon proceed with the project After further study of overseas development the company erected a small pilot plant at Macknade Mill in Queensland in 1936. This plant pulped megass 209 SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERPRISE and made wallboard by a batch mation for the company's process technicians which gave sufficient infor- later to design a continuous board 7 commercial scale Both insulation similar | Cane and hardboard similar to to present factured in ft by 4 ft sheets and sold Timbrock were manu- land and New South Wales At to the building trade in Queens- took place in the the same time intensive investigation Sydney central research and design departments in In 1937 having acquired a good background of practical operation of a pilot plant and laboratory research requirements C.S.R. sent two officers of understanding of market large manufacture of the company to study the and on the continent of wallboard in the United States in England was pooled and studied UEpuornoptehisInbafsoirsmaation from all these sources and erected at Pyrmont on the large factory was designed harbour company's Sydney adjacent to the refinery distillery this factory with the and central workshops The plant for was exception made in Australia In of some very specialized equipment wallboard known 1939 it began production of the density as Cane at the rate of per annum Today it can produce 10,000,000 square feet All contingencies had been 40,000,000 square feet per annum hazards of provided except the inevitable a economic change In the years since 1939 the Australian ae cost structure has altered radically Coal is now four times its 1939. Transport costs between price in Wales sugar mills have risen Sydney and the northern New South in great demand as mill fuel even more steeply Megass is therefore as it and consequently is no longer as attractive was as a raw material for building boards Because of this research has been done to find other much keep costs to a minimum raw Cane materials and today to SA megass special grades of is made from a mixture of SE types of Australian waste paper and pulp made from inferior OE eucalypt trees which have no other economic use Oe a creased cost of the raw material which the Ne based Cane today at double its industry was favourable position in the price in 1939 has retained a asbestos cement fibrous building industry's cost structure Plaster plaster and Portland cement are two and half to three times their more than are three to four times their 1939 price bricks and plywood 1939 price In all about 585,000 has been and the venture has been spent on the Cane project it was a logical successful It has been successful because development the company had the know 210 Marta Abre crushe Used Sold sheets TIMI Mada otheri for the Used Nexible supplie width GYPT Mada plaster tough Used in its stre make a age e sufficient infor- gn a continuous uple of years on a ar to present " were manu- trade in Queens- owe, sive investigation departments in oratory research ding of market ny to study the ates in England all these sources ory was designed adjacent to the . The plant for ized equipment I the density 000 square feet et per annum I the inevitable O the Australian imes its price in ern New South gass is therefore ger as attractive use of this much and today to n a mixture of le from inferior r economic use the heavy in- he industry was OO has retained a sein ucture Plaster are more than Is and plywood se a ane project RO ccessful because oe e know C.S.R. BUILDING MATERIALS MADE IN AUSTRALIA CANE Wallboard Made largely from megass which is the fibre left over when the juice has been crushed from sugar cane Used as an insulating Interior wallboard Sold in standard white proofed sheets with a variety of finishes TIMBROCK Hardboard Made from Australian scrub eucalypts and other local hardwoods not normally suitable for the building trade Used for Interior walls and fittings It is flexible grainless and splinterless and is supplied in a variety of lengths of 4 6 width FIBROCK Building Products Made from white and blue asbestos the latter mined by Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd. In the Hamersley Ranges of Western Australla Used for corrugated roofing guttering and down flat exterior wall sheets exterior wall sidings and accessories . CANE ACOUSTI Made in Inch squares from CANE Each tile has 484 small holes in its surface to absorb sound Used on the walls and cellings of offices shops factories and telephone booths to reduce noise The tiles are easy to fit and attractive in appearance GYPROCK Wallboard Made from a core of aerated gypsum plaster sandwiched between layers of special fibred chipboard Used for Interior walls and cellings where its strength smooth surface and ability to make a completely flush joint are an advant- age C.S.R. FLOOR TILES Made in 17 colours to allow an almost un- limited variety of combinations A flexible floor tile Vinylflex made from vinyl plastic has recently been introduced in Australia Used where a fresh modern effect is re- quired or where traffic is especially heavy In shops theatres factories and offices C.S.R. BUILDING PLASTERS Made in N.S.W. by Concord Plaster Mills and in Victoria by Brunswick Plaster Mills from locally gypsum Used for the making of fibrous plaster sheeting by many small manufacturing organizations Also used by plasterers for special effects sth tr onthe SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERPRISE Sy Rally 1 and the capital to carry it through a market potentially existed and EN has been successfully established A MESO This was the beginning and thus the company entered the building BA materials business perhaps the most highly competitive in Australia ne When the Cane factory was erected it had been decided to INE hp manufacture only insulation board and not to proceed further with the manufacture of the hardboard developed at Macknade because the a Masonite Corporation of America was sponsoring the erection of a pp Hee hardboard factory at Raymond Terrace near Newcastle C.S.R. NR undertook the sale and distribution of Australian Masonite and this aR arrangement continued for five years er Ae With a sales organization set up to sell Cane and hardboard a ROOM throughout Australia it was natural that the company should seek other types of basic building materials to make and sell An Australia- wide sales organization is expensive and the more products that can be sold by the same sales force the cheaper the selling overhead be- comes per unit The more lines of the same type handled by the same sales organization the better pleased is the prospective customer who can perhaps order from one source much of the material he requires It was realized that the building trade despite its basic nature is . liable to severe fluctuations in demand for various products To guard against this American manufacturers commonly follow a policy of producing a number of complementary materials and external linings roofing materials and floor covering for exampleand the company kept this aspect firmly in mind The wisdom of such a policy has become apparent in recent years when despite a drop in demand for one or other of the Building Materials Division's products the total sales volume has steadily increased as shown in the accom- panying graph of sales volume Among other materials investigated were a fireproof asbestos cement a board and plaster wallboard of the type very popular in the United States and known there as gypsum wallboard The gypsum wallboard now marketed as Gyprock had its immediate origins in the needs and shortages of World War II Despite the priorities they enjoyed the Army and the Allied Works Council both suffered by reason of the acute shortage of building boards of all kinds American army authorities accustomed to the use of gypsum wallboard proposed to Commonwealth officials that it be manufactured here Officers of the company who had been overseas had observed that in the United States this board had superseded others and that it was the cheapest wallboard there obtainable When the American suggestions were 212 4 Us supporte the cons The c time wa as a br gypsum out New gypsum the buil already was beir gypsum the Uni import and buil By m tralian pulp for been in contrast most po flame cost in / follow d use of th successf business Abou gypsum board a occasion and dev The |] asbestos When 1 importe Canada materia suitable the asb the wal used mi xisted and e building Australia lecided to r with the cause the tion of a e C.S.R. : and this aardboard ould seek Australia; that can rhead bethe same customer aterial he nature is To guard policy of rnal and example- m of such a drop in products e accom- os cement he United wallboard the needs y enjoyed son of the an army oposed to crs of the ie United cheapest ons were WIDENING THE Field supported by the Allied Works Council the company decided upon the construction of a plant at Concord a suburb of Sydney The company had in fact decided some years earlier that when the time was ripe it would manufacture gypsum board in Australia and as a beginning had concentrated on obtaining the raw material gypsum needed to manufacture plaster Leases were taken up throughout New South Wales A plaster mill was erected in 1941 and the gypsum was processed for the manufacture of plaster of Paris for sale to the building trade and for other special purposes thus plaster was already being manufactured and marketed while the wallboard factory was being designed and erected Although plant and equipment for a gypsum wallboard factory could normally have been obtained from the United States it was Commonwealth policy during the war to import as little plant as possible The company therefore designed and built the whole of the necessary equipment itself By making Gyprock the company has helped to develop Australian raw materials for the inside of the board wood pulp for the paper surfaces To date however Gyprock has not been in such keen demand as have some other building boards contrast to experience overseas where similar gypsum wallboards are the most popular of all partly because of their strength rigidity and proof qualities and particularly because of their low cost The cost in Australia will decrease with the increased production which will follow demand as the building trade becomes more accustomed to the use of the product Meantime the plaster side of the business has been successful and sales have steadily increased A successful plaster business has also been built up in Victoria About the time that the company began to take an active interest in gypsum wallboard it also became interested in other types of proof board and so turned its attention to asbestos cement products On this occasion a small asbestos cement plant was bought as a going concern and developed by the company's engineers The heart of the manufacturing problem in this case is the supply of asbestos for the other materials are readily available in Australia When the company first became interested in the project Australia imported all her requirements of asbestos 15,000 tons per annum from Canada and South Africa Concerned that such an essential raw material had to be imported the company set out to see whether a suitable fibre could be obtained locally In making asbestos cement the asbestos fibre is mixed with Portland cement and water and later the water must be drained and pressed from the mixture The fibre used must therefore drain easily Three main kinds of asbestos are 213 SOUTH Pacific enTERPRISE used in Australia blue crocidolite asbestos which is fibred drains readily in the manufacturing process and is very strong white asbestos which is fibred drains poorly and is slightly weaker and amosite asbestos which is fibred drains well but is weak and is the cheapest of all asbestos fibres The company's inquiries led first to Tasmania and there it took leases of asbestos deposits In these leases it mined a fibred white asbestos But production ceased after the war as the deposits were not extensive there are no known large deposits of white asbestos in Australia though there are a considerable number of quite small deposits and there are no known amosite deposits at all There remains blue asbestos or crocidolite which occurs in the Hamersley Ranges in Western Australia and in particular at Wittenoom Gorge 700 miles north of Perth and 100 miles southwest of Marble Bar a place legendary in Australia for its extreme heat and its isolation from the rest of the continent It was to this forbidding area with mere tracks leading to it that the company turned The SALES OF C.S.R. BUILDING MATERIALS 1940 43 44 50 53 55 4 3 MILLIONS MILLIONS MILLIONS MIL IONS MILLIONS V / TONS Ly TONS THOUSAND ex ex THOUSAND 200 THOUSAND THOUSAND THOUSAND SALES SALES OF VALUE _ VALUE | VALUE + 1940 na Praah ae YEARS ENDING 31st MARCH 100 SOLD QUANTITY QUANTITY 1955 Sales of the company's building materials have steadily risen since the entered this field The Increase in value of sales has been substantially Incfolmuepnacneyd by monetary inflation But total sales expressed in tons arrived at by adding together tonnages of the several kinds of building materials show a steady overall increase in physical quantity of products sold ve unser s ites er de en the of -- sor OCC suc pro in mi Rh Wi bro An det Au COL faci fro nor boi Wi 150 ra Wee by mil the Wit dep wea imp pres The ligh fibred -g white weaker is weak it took fibred deposits posits of number deposits rs in the ular at es southcme heat rbidding ed The TONS a 200200 THOUSAND ONS IN 8 SOLD QUANTIY 1955 mpany enced adding steady WIDENING THE FIELD development of the area is one of the romantic stories of industrial enterprise and incidentally a very considerable contribution to national wealth in strategic minerals The story of Wittenoom asbestos deposits begins with early prospectors the lone and hardy pioneers of many mineral fields picking at outcrops of asbestos The method of occurrence itself is odd The asbestos occurs in horizontal veins averaging half an inch in width though sometimes measuring as much as two inches Several of these veins occur over a total seam height of two feet The economic mining of such a narrow horizontal seam in extremely hard rock was a new problem for Australia Here then was the first problem to be solved Company officers in a world search for a suitable mining technique visited iron mines in Alabama silver mines in Canada asbestos mines in Rhodesia and diamond mines in South Africa They adapted to Wittenoom conditions the various techniques examined The company brought mining consultants from America It brought Canadian and American shift bosses on a short basis to instruct the miners in the details of the methods to be used The company could not get sufficient Australian miners to go to this isolated spot and when the war was over miners were brought from Italy Holland Austria and other countries to make up the numbers needed 4 In the beginning there was no town Transport and communication facilities were poor Much of the early equipment had to be flown from Perth 700 miles away Even today transport is not easy Stores normally come from Perth by sea to Point Samson the port of Roe- bourne Thence trucks take the stores 200 miles south to Wittenoom Dry weather roads connect to Roebourne Port Hedland 150 miles north Marble Bar 100 miles north and Meekatharra a railhead 300 miles south There is an airmail to Perth three times a week and urgent messages may be radioed to Port Hedland for relay by telegraph to Perth The original settlement was in a narrow gorge near the mine and the mill Later it was replaced by a second settlement seven miles away on the tableland outside the mouth of the gorge Today this is the town of Wittenoom largest inland town in the north and completely dependent on the blue asbestos industry Largely built by the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments which recognized the importance of the industry and sponsored its early development its present population is about 750 of whom about 200 are children The people of Wittenoom have all the facilities of civilization light running water and septic installations for their homes a large 215 SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERPRISE general store a cinema cafe hotel and school There are tennis courts equipped for night tennis a recreation room a racecourse and sports ground a modern hospital a bus service to the mine and a regular air service to Perth Such is life in the outback today when large national development makes necessary the provision of such naturally expensive amenities ' The Wittenoom ore is processed in a mill near the mine and blue asbestos is separated by blowing processes The product is a strong filtering fibre used by asbestos cement manufacturers to mix with white asbestos fibre Certain industries use it for its chemical resistance Thus the battery case in a car may be made from short blue asbestos fibres held together with plastic resin The operating company Australian Blue Asbestos Limited in which C.S.R. has a 97 per cent shareholding is increasing the output of the mine and developing a market in competition with such countries as South Africa which produces 30,000 tons of blue asbestos per annum largely with coloured labour and Canada which produces 1,000,000 tons of white asbestos With steady progress at Wittenoom the cost per ton of the Australian fibre has been halved and additional increase in production will reduce the cost still further The present aim is an output of 8,000 tons per annum but the deposits are of such extent that once the industry is firmly established output could be increased to 30,000 tons per annum or more if necessary The situation is not without difficulty however The use of Australian WITTENOOM ASBESTOS MINE Tropic of Capricorn WESTERN AUSTRALIA _ S.A S.A Kalgoorlie ii LOCATION OF WITTENOOM The Wittenoom Gorge asbestos mine of Australian Blue Asbestos Limited is located in the Hamers- ley Ranges of Western Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn blu cen lars con the ash the pro tha loc im Au tot poj ap 30 WO tha cen rec as con app tak Au ber by Du the scar cur sto noi has  tennis courts rse and sports Lund a regular y when large Luch naturally ine and blue It is a strong urers to mix its chemical le from short ited in which output of the 1 countries as ) per annum ices 1,000,000 n the cost per al increase in aim is an out- h extent that - increased to of Australian M asbestos Asbestos Hamers- Australia apricorn * WIDENING THE FIELD blue fibre has not yet been accepted by the established asbestos cement manufacturers in Australia and the industry has had to depend largely on sales to overseas markets developed during the visits of company officers abroad The local blue fibre is at present dearer than the particular grades of imported fibre used in Australia and the asbestos cement industry generally does consider that it should use the Wittenoom product at higher cost although with the increased production made possible by such use the price could be reduced to that of comparable imported fibre After all other means of encouraging local use of Australian blue fibre had been tried application was made to the Tariff Board in June 1954 for protection by a duty on imported fibre The company proposed that as long as consumers in Australia used local blue fibre to the extent of 15 per cent of their total usage of asbestos no duty be applied on any asbestos fibre imported but that failing this a protective duty of 40 per cent should be applied As Australia now obtains from abroad slightly more than 30,000 tons of fibre per annum this proposal would mean that Australia would use about 4,000 tons of blue fibre per annum It is estimated that the protection requested would increase the cost of asbestos cement products by about 3 per cent only The Tariff Board Report tabled in Parliament in September 1955 recommended however that no assistance be granted to the industry as it considered the extra cost to Australian industry unjustified and considered protection by the method suggested to be coercive It appeared that the Tariff Board made its recommendation without taking account of such matters as the development of a remote area of Australia the strategic and defence value of the industry and the benefit to the overseas trade balance given by export of blue fibre and by the saving in imports if local blue asbestos fibre is used in Australia During the calendar year 1955 sales of blue asbestos fibre to Europe and the United States will amount to 8,000 tons and the credit to the overseas trade balance will be 800,000 almost half of this being in dollar currency Irrespective of earning and contributions to the national stocks of raw materials all industry of whatever size in Australia's north is strategically important Thus the portion of Western Australia north of the 26th parallel usually referred to as the North has an area of 527,000 square miles and a total white population of only 8,400 Of this total 2,700 are in the coastal town of Carnarvon on the 25th parallel leaving only 5,700 in the main north area Wittenoom has become the largest inland town in this area with a population of 750. The asbestos fibre industry has also established 217 SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERPRISE the important but lately moribund centre of Roebourne with its port at Point Samson Shipping services and air services have derived increased revenue Asbestos production at its present stage of development directly responsible for goo additional residents an increase of about 17 per cent in the population of the main north area Though the figures are small in themselves these are significant contributions towards solving a national problem Perhaps it is appropriate that the sugar industry on which the integrity of eastern Australia depends should have done its share towards the development of the north area By the decision of the Tariff Board however continuation of this industry in the North will be dependent on finding adequate export markets for the blue fibre produced while Australia continues to import fibre from abroad to a total value of million per annum The company's own present use of asbestos is in a wide range of asbestos cement products Fibrock sheeting sidings and roofing and in various types of floor tiles including Vinylflex a vinyl floor covering previously almost unknown in Australia though popular in the United States and England for a number of years These tiles manufactured at Concord Sydney are used in shops offices factories hallways vestibules theatre entrances restaurants and homes In developing their manufacture C.S.R. leaned heavily for know on one of the largest manufacturers of building materials in the United States the Manville Corporation with which the company has long had friendly associations While the asbestos mining venture makes a colourful story and has interesting and important national implications it forms only a small part of the company's overall operations in the building materials field The hardboard manufacturing venture for instance has grown to be a big business in itself and has proved an outstanding commercial success The product Timbrock is a strong density hardboard the natural accompaniment of Cane a light density board As Cane is made largely from megass so Timbrock is made from grade eucalypt timber useless for other purposes Peculiarly suited to the needs and to the resources of the building industry hardboard has already achieved in Australia a per capita consumption three times that in the United States It is in itself a lesson in the results of mass production When hardboard was introduced to the Australian market after the depression plywood was cheap and hardboard comparatively dear But with the mass production of hardboard in the war years its price fell in contrast to the rising prices of the vast majority of products including its old rival plywood 218 Uses of some C Mater Timbrock upper wal ceiling in the gy Burwood Domestic Sydney The foyer of the A Provident Society's ' Sydney is paved wi Asbestos Mining The mine buildings of Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd. at Wittenpom Gorge Western Australia The mine produces highgrade blue asbestos Blue asbestos is a fibred mineral This sample of asbestos ore from Wittenoom shows the length of the fibres A factory building constructed from C.S.R. Fibrock corrugated asbestos cement wall and roof sheets Down pipes corner strips and curved roof ridges are also made of asbestos cement Below Acousti in an pravns bay BATS yi isaueces eb +. te ADR