W.L. Baillieu in the Archives
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UMA Bulletin NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE ARCHIVES www. lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives No. 24, December 2008 Searching for a Forgotten Life W.L. Baillieu in the Archives opular perception is a strange and At the same time he took over the fickle thing. I recently wrote a stricken stockbroking firm of W.J. Malpas Phistory of Australia’s Collins Class & Co. and built up a stockbroking busi- submarines. I began that project sharing ness with his brothers Edward (Prince), the almost universal belief that these Clive (Joe), Norman and Maurice (Jac), submarines are ‘noisy as a rock concert’ which as E.L. & C. Baillieu has been one — I was rather surprised to find out that of the leading stockbrokers in Melbourne they are, in fact, the second quietest for over 100 years. Throughout his busi- submarines in the world. ness life WL worked closely with five of Since I have begun working on a his brothers and, while he was always biography of W.L. Baillieu I have discov- acknowledged as the leader, their business ered that, while the Baillieu family is well success was very much a joint effort. W.L. Baillieu, 1911. known, for most people WL (as he was W.L. Baillieu played a large part in a universally known) is remembered solely dramatic resurgence of Victorian gold- alliance of companies, of which WL was as a landboomer who paid sixpence in the mining in the 1890s, promoting, man- the unofficial but unquestioned leader. pound on his debts when the land boom aging and raising capital for several of the The group was named for Collins House collapsed in the early 1890s. I suggest this most productive mines, notably the Duke at 360 Collins Street, an office building is like remembering Don Bradman for his mines at Maryborough and the Jubilee built and owned by the Baillieus in which bowling or Robert Menzies for his contri- mines at Scarsdale. In the same decade he most of the companies, as well as associ- butions to the Wesley College magazine. also worked closely with Theodore Fink ated professional partnerships such as It is true that Baillieu was a leading to put together the Herald and Weekly lawyers Arthur Robinson & Co. and figure in the Melbourne land boom of Times group. He was a director of the mining agents Bewick Moreing had their 1885–1889, the wildest and most extra- Herald for about 40 years and was respon- offices. ordinary boom in Australian history, and sible for Keith Murdoch rather than Closely associated companies one of the notorious group who made Thorold Fink taking charge of the com- included Carlton & United Breweries — secret compositions with their creditors pany after World War I. put together by W.L. Baillieu and Monty in 1892. But it is easy to forget that he In 1905 WL joined with Herbert Cohen in 1907, the Herald & Weekly was only 33 when this happened — and Hoover, W.S. Robinson and Francis Times, Dunlop, Yarra Falls textiles, what is truly remarkable is the way he Govett to establish the Zinc Corporation, Melbourne City Electric Company, and recovered from the collapse of his first and with Montague Cohen to establish numerous other mining, refining and career and built a career in business Amalgamated Zinc. These two companies smelting companies. without parallel in Australia. developed the minerals flotation At the outbreak of World War I over In September 1892 the real estate firm processes which solved the problem of half the lead and almost all the zinc from of Munro & Baillieu was dissolved and separating zinc from the complex Broken Broken Hill was sent to Germany or WL began his own business under the Hill ores and made the Broken Hill mines Belgium for smelting and refining. In name W.L. Baillieu & Co. In spite of the highly profitable for another 70 years. 1915 W.L. Baillieu negotiated the disastrous state of the economy, he made At the same time he became the domi- takeover by the Collins House group of a success of this business, taking in his nant figure in the North Broken Hill and BHP’s run-down lead smelter at Port Pirie, brother Arthur as a partner and devel- Broken Hill South mining companies. which was modernised and became the oping it into one of the largest real estate It was the wealth from these mines which largest lead smelter in the world. The agencies in Melbourne under the name financed most of his later activities and new company Broken Hill Associated Baillieu Allard. To the end of his life he they formed the core of the Collins Smelters was jointly owned by the described himself as an ‘auctioneer’. House group, an informal but close Collins House mining companies. UMA Bulletin, No. 24, December 2008 1 WL was also the driving force behind the formation of Electrolytic Zinc which built the zinc refinery at Risdon near Hobart, one of the world’s first refineries to use electrolysis rather than distillation. It is often forgotten that the Electrolytic Zinc refinery was on the same scale as BHP’s steel works at Newcastle — with the capital raising by E.L. & C. Baillieu the largest in Australia to that date. During World War I the Collins House group also took over the copper- refining works of Electrolytic Refining & Smelting at Port Kembla — previously one-third German owned — and set up Metal Manufactures Ltd, one of Australia’s largest manufacturers. By the end of the War the Collins House Group controlled three of the four enterprises at the heart of Australia’s heavy industry — Port Pirie, Risdon and Port Kembla, as well as the largest and most profitable mines in Australia at Broken Hill. In the 1920s the Collins House Group Broken Hill Associated Smelters plant at Port Pirie, c.1915. led Australia’s industrial expansion with new ventures in paper manufacture, biography in Australian history. Why has Baillieu I was worried that it might end up textiles, cotton growing and many other there been no published biography? being a very shallow study. I had just fin- areas. New companies formed by or There have been several attempts to pro- ished a biography of Sir Ian Potter which closely associated with the Collins House duce one. Several hagiographies were was somewhat handicapped because there group included Associated Pulp & Paper written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, were not more than four accurately Manufacturers, Western Mining, Gold but fortunately they were never pub- recorded facts about him before the age Mines of Australia, British Australian lished. They were totally unbalanced and of 33 and no more than half a dozen sur- Lead Manufacturers, ICIANZ and the riddled with errors of fact, having been viving letters written in the first half of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. based solely on the recollections of a few his life — and he lived for 92 years. The group also financed numerous individuals. However, there turned out to be no attempts to find payable oil fields in The next obstacle to a biography of such problem with W.L. Baillieu. After Australia and New Zealand, developed WL was the ‘landboomer effect’. In about a year of research the over- copper mines in New Guinea — which 1966 Michael Cannon published The whelming problem has become the sheer failed because the only skilled workers Landboomers, a brilliant, if flawed, account volume of material by and about WL. It who would go there were fleeing from of the land boom and bust. This book has has got to the stage where I am almost either justice or their wives — and turned been continually in print ever since, pop- scared to explore new avenues in case down the chance to develop Mt Isa on ularising the view of the land boom as a they open up another cornucopia of WL’s the grounds that the transport costs conspiracy to defraud the public and the correspondence. Far from being a poor would be too high. landboomers as a criminal gang who correspondent, WL was a prolific and Even while building up the biggest should all have been jailed. It is not sur- articulate letter-writer and literally thou- mining and industrial conglomerate in prising that the reaction of many Baillieu sands of his letters have survived. In addi- Australia, WL was also an active politi- family members was to shy away from tion there are a smaller number of letters cian, being a member of the Victorian publicity and public scrutiny. Collections written by his brothers, numerous com- Legislative Council from 1901 until 1922 of letters disappeared from sight and pany records, share registers, account and a minister from 1909 to 1917. During enquiries from historians were met with books and other documents — in fact much of this period he was regarded as responses ranging from polite evasion to enough material to write several books. the power behind the throne in both state blank refusals to cooperate. My search for W.L. Baillieu began — and federal politics, having particularly A further obstacle was that the belief as all such searches should do — in the close relations with Alfred Deakin, developed that WL was barely literate University of Melbourne Archives. I knew Stanley Bruce, W.A. Watt and Walter and consequently there could not pos- that the collections held by the Archives Massey Greene, the latter two both sibly be many letters. Michael Cannon would be the most likely place to find working for Collins House after leaving wrote of WL that ‘handicapped by his material on WL, but I did not expect to politics.