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RE-OPENING THE BEECHWORTH
FOUNDRY.
CASTING THE FIRST BAR.
An event which promises to be of
considerable prospective importance to
Beechworth from an industrial point of
view was celebrated on Friday afternoon,
when the first practical steps were taken
to resuscitate the local iron-works known
far and wide a few years ago as Duncan's
Beechworth Foundry. In the early days
this business was one of the most pro-
minent features of the town, and its vast
and superior mechanical resources were
then considered to be of indispensable
value to manufacturers and mining en-
gineers, who found it of immense con-
venience in every department of iron
construction. Its .numerous forges, its
two foundries, its masses of patterns and
its gigantic and thoroughly superior
machinery, and its ample space accom-
modation still bear ample testimony to the
extent and importance of its past opera-
tions. After the death about nine years ago
of Mr. Duncan, the originator and pro-
prietor of the works, however, the busi-
ness, which was for the moment in a state
of depression, collapsed, and the doors
have remained closed until this week,
when the property passed into the hands
of Mr. W. H. Phillips, who has decided
to respond to a general invitation to re-
open the works and to carry on the busi-
ness after the style of his capable pre-
decessor.
The re-establishment of the foundry
was accordingly signalised on Friday by a
formal re-opening, when a number of
local business men and prospective
patrons attended to witness the ceremony
of casting the first mouldings under the
new regime, and to do honor to the energy
and courage of the new proprietor.
The company on th....
.... the workshops, where
the machinery was found to be in
excellent working order, and of a
variety and capacity which astoni-
shed those who had never previously
been within its doors. The large steam
drill, which was in the act of bor-
ing three-quarter inch holes through a
grave-railing, and a powerful lathe which
was being set to turn an inch and three-
quarter bar for Fletcher's Yackandandah
claim, first attracted attention, then the
magnificent lathe, originally costing £600,
for turning large cast-iron wheels and
huge cranks, used in mining and other
machinery, next claimed admiring notice,
with all the accessories of the engineering
department. Passing on into the foun-
dry, a pause was made before the smooth-
working 9 horse-power vertical steam
engine, and the humming blast fan, in
full swing, before a furnace, in which
half a ton of iron was in process of being
heated. All over the floor were the
finely moulded black sand matrices, wait-
ing for the fiery liquid to give them their
cast. On one side were moulds for truck
wheels and spindles to the order of the
Wooragee Freehold G.M. Co. ; further
along were others for large fire bars
and a cog-wheel, while in another
quarter were gratings of various kinds.
Altogether the new firm appeared to have
quite a large number of orders on hand.
When all was ready the Messrs. Duncan,
trained founders and engineers, opened
the base aperture, and filling the casting
pan with molten iron proceeded to pour
the yellow watery looking liquid into the
moulds, to the gieat interest of the
spectators, many of whom had never seen
the operation performed previously.
Finally, one of the castings was unearthed
and triumphantly held up as the first iron
moulding under the new proprietorship.
The party then adjourned to the smith-
shops adjoining, where the President of
the Shire of Beechworth (Cr. Bowen)
proposed " Success to the Beechworth
Foundry," coupled with the name of the
new proprietor, Mr. W. H. Phillips. It
gave him great pleasure, he said,
to be present to witness such an
important enterprise as that which
his friend, Mr. Phillips, had inaugu-
rated that day. He saw no reason why
the foundry should not have a good
and prosperous career before it. It had
done great tilings in the past, turned out
really good work, and obtained a first-
rate connection throughout the district. It
should be able to do so again. A foundry
was very much needed in Beechworth
still. Mining was reviving, and iron-
work on a large scale was again wanted,
and he hoped that, like the Phœnix of old,
the Beechworth Foundry would rise from
its ashes, and be strong with new life.
(Hear, hear.) He was pleased that Mr.
Phillips had had the energy and pluck to
undertake this enterprise, and to have
had an opportunity of witnessing the first
casting. He noticed among the orders
being executed a casting for the Victorian
Railways. The Phœnix Foundry at Bal-
larat was now closed, and he saw no
reason why the Railway Department
should not patronise the Beechworth
establishment, when it wanted work of
this kind done, if it could be shown that
such work could be done as well here as
in other parts of the State.
Mr. A. M. ZWAR, in supporting the
toast, wished to endorse the remarks of
Mr. Bowen with respeot to the credit
which Mr. Phillips deserved for the
energy he had displayed in this new
venture. Mr. Phillips did not merely
talk about helping on the district ; he
went and did it. (Hear, hear.) It was
a great pleasure to him (Mr. Zwar) to see
the flue machinery which had been set in
motion that day for the purpose of carry-
ing on the foundry work in Beechworth.
The foundry had had a prosperous career
in the past, and would never have been
shut down but for an unfortunate mis-
understanding at the late Mr. Duncan's
death. He felt confident the new enter-
prise would prove successful. It would
be of great service to his own tannery,
where a good deal of inconvenience had
been caused by the necessity of having to
send a long distance away to get engineer-
ing repairs done. He hoped the Beech-
worth Foundry would prosper. (Applause.)
Mr. PHILLIPS responded, thanking
his frieuds for the kind manner in which
they had drunk to the success of his new
enterprise. He did net think the oiroum-
stances ever warranted the foundry beiog
closed. With the revival of mining going
on all around them, he felt the present
was a splendid opportunity to re-open the
works to meet the requirements of this
district. There was, he believed, ten
times more mining machinery in use in
this district now than when the foundry
was going before. (Hear, hear.) The local
tannery was ' an instance of the great
reoent advance which had been made in
machinery requirements. He thanked
those present tor their -kindness in coming
down to see the- first casting, and trusted
he might iu a short time have twenty men
at work. (Applause.)
Mr. A. T. FROST proposed " Our
Local Industries," and in the course of
his remarks observed that the new foun
dry was a much felt want even at the local
gas works, which had often been put to
inconvenience by having to send to Mel
bourne for engineering repairs, which
could now be done as well at home.
Mr. A. M. ZWAR supported the sen-
timent, in the course of a comparatively
lengthy speech, in which he alluded in
deprecatory terms to the stagnation in
trade which, during the past several
years, had been a marked feature of the
industrial condition of the State. Whe
ther that stagnation was due to the
people's own fault, or whether it was due
to bad legislation, it was a serious thing.
At the same time, while he had to ac
knowledge that during the past three
years he had been unable at times to
meet expenses, he had refrained from
discharging his men, though other firms
in the same circumstances had done so.
He was happy to state, however, that
things were now brightening, and last
week his firm had despatched £500 worth
of leather to Calcutta, Tasmania, South
Africa and London. (Applause.)
The toast of " The Press" was duly
proposed and responded to by Mr. G. E.
TERRY, for the " Ovens and Murray
Advertiser," and by Mr. T. F. R. POR-
RITT, for the " Ovens Register,"
The proceedings closed.
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