Becoming A City: Industry & Manufacturing

So many things were "made in Ipswich"
If you look around a modern household, relatively few items are likely to have been made in Ipswich with the possible exception of bricks, hardboard, plywood or furniture. The situation in a 1904 household was different. Although many items were imported from overseas or made elsewhere in Australia, the city was relatively self-contained for essentials.

When a 1904 family rose in the morning, they could wash in a bath made in Ipswich with soap made in Ipswich and when they dressed, they were likely to wear fabric woven at the woollen mill at North Ipswich and made up by a local tailor or dressmaker. Hats for women and girls were made at the local milliner and shoes were made at one of several bootmakers. The clothes were washed in locally-made laundry tubs and coppers. Water was stored in a locally-made tank. [1]

Railway expansion boots prosperity
Although Ipswich was often referred to as a coal-mining city, the Railway Workshops at North Ipswich was consistently the single biggest employer throughout the 20th century. Some workers came from Brisbane and nearby country areas, but most lived locally and, like the miners, they represented a significant proportion of the Ipswich population. By 1914, there were about 1500 employees at the Workshops and the daily movement of this number of people was a conspicuous event. “Workers’ trains” took men to and from North Ipswich, one coming from Grandchester and one from Brisbane. At this time, about 700 men used the train daily.

Industries flourished
Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company had started operating at North Ipswich in 1877. By 1910, it employed 200 people and was producing about 300,000 metres of cloth annually. It had supplied material for uniforms during the Boer War and in 1910, had a contract to supply the serge material for all Queensland railway uniforms.

Ipswich Cotton Mill had opened in 1892 but had then struggled. It closed within a few years and the premises were taken over by the Queensland National Bank. Some of the equipment remained on the site, including the gins which were used to separate the cotton seed from the cotton. Local farmers were still growing cotton and in 1905, the Department of Agriculture arranged for the mill to be re-opened under government supervision to gin the local crop. The government also undertook to export the crop on behalf of the farmers. In a return to the methods of the 1860s, the cotton was transported to Brisbane by the river steamer Essex. [2]

Apart from the major industries of mining, railways, foundries and textile mills, a wide range of smaller enterprises flourished.

The War affects business and industry (World War I)
With so many young men away at the war, it might seem a logical consequence that there would be a shortage of labour at home, but in fact the reverse was true. Ipswich and district, along with most of Queensland, suffered a slump. As early as December 1914, business in the city was said to be “very slack”, and even women employees in industries such as dressmaking feared they would lose their jobs. [3]

There were some exceptions to the general wartime slump. The Queensland Woollen Mill at North Ipswich was extremely busy making army blankets and cloth for military uniforms. The skills available at Ipswich Railway Workshops were also used in the war effort, with about 300 employees manufacturing munitions. A new building was constructed to accommodate the extra war work (this later became a brass shop). The main items produced were 18-lb shells, a surprisingly complex task which involved 30 separate parts and many separate operations. The equipment used included a special lathe manufactured in the Workshops. The workshops' gauge makers were specifically commended for their work which ensured absolute accuracy in turning the shells. [4]