• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

HEM for BMC-Leyland car manufacturing plant - a place of social and he site of the BMC-Leyland car plant at Victoria Park, Zetland in Sydney has been cultural awarded an Historic Engineering Marker. Opened in 1950 with the last employees development, T leaving 25 years later, the plant has a significant place in the history of Australian automotive manufacture. It was the only complete motor vehicle manufacturer ever in NSW. and of As Nuffield Aust., BMC Aust., BLMC manufacturing Aust., and finally Leyland Australia, the company introduced to Australia such innovation! processes as in-line transfer machining (of major mechanical components), the Rotodip process (for priming complete bodies), “just- in-time” supply principles, flexible manufacturing and advanced assembly techniques employing integrated conveyor systems (still applicable today). The only plant to make the complete vehicle on one site in Australia, it is still the only plant to produce four, six and eight cylinder engines under the one roof. Inside this Operating during a period of post war reconstruction and large edition scale migration, BMC played a major role in the assimilation of migrants, who made a large Revisions to the Burra contribution in forming the Charter ............................... 2 ‘Now there’s an interesting Australian culture of today. shed’… ............................... 2 Significant in justifying the A hundred years ago, Nostalgic photos from the heyday of BMC-Leyland award were: Sydney’s year of the tram .. 3 • the world class processes Vincents Rivulet Bridge ..... 4 introduced into Australia, the wide range of problems Professor W H Warren faced and solved and the extensive model range including: biography ........................... 4 Austin: A60, A90, Lancer, Freeway, 1800, and Kimberley, HEM for the Overland Morris: Minor, Oxford, Major, Marshall, Mini-Minor, Telegraph ........................... 5 1100, Cooper “S” and Marina, Wolseley: 1500 and 24/80, Pioneers of refrigeration in Australia ............................. 5 MGB and, of course, Leyland P76); The “Snowy’s” living • the key role BMC played in Australia’s social and cultural treasures - oral history development during post war reconstruction and large captures their memories .... 6 scale immigration; 2001 Conference planning • the large scale and complexity of the operation - the advances ............................ 6 largest private employer in the Sydney region with a Australia’s heritage dams ... 7 typical workforce of 5,000, peaking at 7000 and Achievements of the National enlightened employment policies which coped with Committee on Engineering employees from 35 nationalities. Heritage - 1999 to 2000 ..... 7 Engineering Heritage After spending two decades as the a Naval storage depot, the Conference, Auckland site is now being re-developed for commercial and February 2000 .................... 8 housing use by Landcom. Jottings from Prof. Ray - Barry Anderson Whitmore... What is heritage? ............................ 8 This newsletter is published by the National Committee on Engineering Heritage of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. Revisions to the Burra Charter than just the fabric of a place, and that there may be different but coexisting perceptions about the significance of places, led to the review of the Charter and the recent revisions. t its recent meeting in Sydney, The National The review addressed the need to involve the community Committee on Engineering Heritage endorsed the in heritage processes, advances made in understanding and use of the revised Burra Charter for the A assessing the social value of heritage places and the need to conservation of engineering heritage. more clearly explain the conservation planning process. The The Burra Charter has been the principal standard for revised Charter can be viewed on the web site http:// cultural heritage conservation in Australia for twenty years. www.icomos.org/australia/. Its proven usefulness and good sense have led to its While heritage engineers have embraced the Burra widespread use by all levels of government and to the Charter for conservation of places, they have been mindful development of similar guidelines for the indigenous and that it concentrates on place and not on movable heritage, natural heritage environments, and for engineering heritage. except where objects are associated with a place. Thus the In November 1999 Australia ICOMOS adopted revisions to Burra Charter forms an appropriate and important set of rules the Burra Charter to bring it up to date as a for the conservation of buildings, bridges, best practice standard. engineering structures, and sites of Australia ICOMOS is affiliated with engineering or industrial significance, but the International Council on Monuments much of the machinery and equipment of and Sites, and is made up of a wide range interest to engineers is mobile, and has of professionals including historians, intrinsic engineering significance which is archaeologists, architects, engineers, independent of location. For this reason materials specialists and cultural heritage the Institution of Engineers (Australia) managers practicing in conservation developed “Engineering Heritage and around Australia. The Burra Charter (The Conservation Guidelines” in 1992, based Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of on the Burra Charter. These guidelines Cultural Significance) takes its name from Locomotive 1210, significant as an item featured Locomotive 3801 on the cover to the historic mining town of Burra in South of movable heritage dating from 1897, and also for its social value, having emphasise the need to recognise consistent Australia. This is where in 1979 a hauled the first train to arrive at conservation principles without being tied meeting of Australia ICOMOS adopted its Canberra Railway Station in 1914. Still to a particular place. The engineering Charter after considering earlier European operational in Canberra but hardly a guidelines will be revised to keep them charters for conservation of places, and "place" in terms of the Burra Charter. consistent with the new version of the adapting their concepts for use in Burra Charter. Other issues may also be addressed at that Australia. Since its adoption the Burra Charter has been the time such as the differences in perception between engineers accepted standard for conservation of places in Australia, and and architects about the significance of some places, and a widely respected as a model for use in other countries. strengthening of the interpretation of former engineering However changing understanding about heritage values, functions in buildings that are being adaptively reused. including the recognition that significance may lie in more - Keith Baker Now there’s an interesting shed… About ten years ago Dave, a friend who is a gardener and hickory ones or the correct angle at which a blade should be odd job man, came around to see me. He’d just had a rather sharpened. disturbing experience. The old shed still glowed with the presence of the man One of regular customers rang him up with some bad and his life of unique and gentle obsession - and it was all news. Her husband had just died and there was an urgent job about to disappear under tons of far more mundane household that she wanted Dave to attend to. When he got there, the rubbish at the dump. distressed wife demanded that Dave “clean out the shed It was a one man, highly personal museum, a one person- immediately - take everything down the dump right now.” sized piece of history. The shed had long been a bone of contention between the I quickly found that it was what went on in the shed that husband and wife. really mattered. How people gave people meaning to their When Dave went down to the shed, which was at the far lives, how they found self-expression or satisfaction. end of the yard and backed onto a laneway, he opened the For many men the shed is a still place, a central point in a door on a revelation. world that is whizzing around at an ever-increasing pace, Inside were dozens of push lawnmowers, handles, blades, getting madder and madder every year. But your shed can sharpening tools, everything that the connoisseur of the stay just about the same; that 3/8” spanner you put on the human powered lawnmower could ever need or want. All corner of the bench last October will still be there next beautifully ordered and kept in good nick. October. The shed is a place for reflection and meditation. It turned out that this bloke ran a Saturday morning swap Not everyone chooses a church or a yoga centre for shop for those who appreciated a good push lawnmower. meditation and the pondering of life’s great mysteries. Other lawnmower fanciers would come around and discuss the virtues of the mountain ash handle as against the imported Continued page 3 A hundred years ago, Sydney’s year of the tram The first electric tram service in the City of Sydney commenced operation in George Street on 8 December 1899. The previous day there had been free demonstration trips provided by a fleet of 41 trams. There were over 40,000 passengers on the opening day, and at the end of 1900 the Railways Commissioners reported that 25 million passengers had been carried by this tramway, vastly exceeding expectations. Experimental battery powered trams had run in Sydney from 1888, but with little success. In 1889 an electric tramway with overhead wires had opened in Melbourne between Box Hill and Doncaster, and in 1890 electric trams were carrying passengers in Sydney between Randwick and Waverley. Conversion of the North Sydney cable tramway to electric traction quickly followed. By 1900 there were 20 km of electric Tram No. 2 (SRA Archives). Tram is one tramway operating on Sydney’s North Shore. of three prototypes, built originally for Ultimo Power House was built to provide electricity for the George Street trams. It the Waverley line, was generously planned for a capacity of 20,000 kilowatt. By the end of 1900 three and later used in the North Sydney 850 kilowatt generators were running continuously to supply the trams.

Load more

  8

Copy Link