company

In the early 1940s a number of factories opened, staffed mainly by women. These included a munitions factory at Rocklea and 12 textile factories in Brisbane. At one textile factory in Roma Street an incredible 19,000 garments were produced each week by only 200 women. Their work was grueling, poorly paid and it demanded long hours. World War II was important symbolically because it was the first time women could join the armed services. Their participation in the war effort did improve their rights as citizens. This was very different to World War I where the war effort was not compulsory. Women's responsibility as citizens was crucial in redefining their more elevated status after World War II. A positive effect of the war has been the close friendships between women, borne of shared experience, that have endured. Most of the women who worked in World War II are now in their eighties and nineties and find the ex-service clubs and associations they belong to an immense source of support. Source: www.couriermail.com.au/extras/ww2/women.htm

Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company mill is a heritage-listed mill at 42 & 42B The Terrace, North Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Australian Fabric Manufacturers Ltd and Boral Hancock Plywood. The Second World War saw the woollen mill playing a similar role to that of the First, making blankets and cloth for the armed services. During the war years, the Federal Government declared dismissals forbidden from vital or "protected industries" such as the cloth manufacturing industry; prices and wages were pegged. For the workers, this was a favourable climate to demand improvements. A larger number of females were employed in the mill during the war due to decreased male employment. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_Woollen_Manufacturing_Co...

Now that's a crankshaft!!!

There is an excellent set of colour photos here.

I was just going to link to those. ^^

Good aren't they. Rather begs the question of why such a huge investment in capital equipment and human capital folded?

The images are fantastic. Photos tell a thousand words and to me they say they were done to promote the company - for a brochure perhaps? Almost every one of them has someone measuring or checking quality - again it would look good to prospective buyers. Our industries in the north were destroyed. Literally torn up and thrown away. There were many reasons but probably the same as how nowadays the likes of Siemens shut units at Newcastle and moved production to Eastern Europe. It's went on for several decades now and has left this area with nothing. Yes we have a few small engineering businesses going but still - it's not enough.. I was devastated when my son left school - there's nothing of real value left for those of his age (19 now) but still they struggle on. If only the skills that the folk had in these old photos had been passed down to the younger ones..

Thank you for sharing these wonderful photos!