Stuart & Lloyds Tubemakers

Stewart & Lloyds

From the early 1800s, pipes and tubes were imported into Australia and in 1882, Lloyds & Lloyds established a sales office in Sydney. In the decades that followed, a number of other companies were established, setting up in competition throughout Australia.

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Stewart & Lloyds formed in 1911, establishing sales offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

The manufacturing of steel pipes in Australia didn’t begin until 1934 when Stewart & Lloyds of Britain formed a partnership with the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited “to produce steel pipe on a continuous weld mill at a site near the Newcastle Steelworks”. BHP had established their Newcastle Steelworks in 1915.

Stewart & Lloyds (Australia) Pty Ltd and Tube Investments Ltd of Britain jointly form the British Tube Mills (Australia) Pty Ltd (BTM), which sees them establishing a factory in Kilburn, South Australia.

Production of tubes began on 27 September 1939, around the time World War 2 broke out. Stewart & Lloyds initially began producing products such as “steel pipes, boiler and stay tubes and water bore casing” but would go on to supply the tubing for aircraft guns and navy boilers.

In 1947 when the first Holden car was manufactured in Australia, British Tube Mills began producing automotive components. Since then, their range of products have expanded to “motor cycle frames and rims, gold shafts, chairs, bobbins, HPG and LPG cylinders, hydraulic tappets and defence equipment”.

A holding company called Tubemakers of Australia was established in 1946 “to consolidate the various Australian interests of Stewarts & Lloyds, BHP and Tube Investments”. In 1969, they restructured and were publicly listed.

 

William Adams & Company were absorbed by Tubemakers of Australia Limited on 7 December 1983.

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Founded in 1884, William Adams & Company were initially established as a “wholesaler and distributor for construction equipment and engineering industries”. They opened their first office in Murray Street Perth in 1911. Upon becoming incorporated on 5 September 1912, they soon became one of the biggest distributors in Australia for “steel and aluminium, machine tools, power transmission equipment, earthmoving and materials handling equipment, facsimile transceivers and telephone answering equipment”.

 

During the 1990s, BHP maintained a 48% interest in Tubemakers with three of their Directors on the board until they bought them out in April 1996.

The company was then split into two, with Tubemakers Water in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and Tubemakers Oil and Gas Division at Kembla Grange, NSW.

OneSteel was established by BHP in 2000 (the name known in lieu of Tubemakers) and they began utilising the Stirling Highway premises around this time. (“OneSteel” appears to be referred to when discussing the site of the contentious redevelopment proposal, particularly in Google search results).

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Industry in Post War

The part of North Fremantle in close proximity to the river’s edge and direct rail access, made the area closely associated with industry as far back as colonial times.

Workers resided in cottages interspersed between factories and places of work, with much of the land owned by the Commonwealth Government and University of Western Australia, before and during the World War 2 era.

Prior to relocating to their new North Fremantle office, Stuart & Lloyds were located in Price Street, South Fremantle from 1910, with a premises used to manufacture steel pipes and wrought iron. Price Street has since been renamed Marine Terrace.

From 1905, they had offices in Queen Street Fremantle, Kalgoorlie and an administration office at 959-961 Hay Street Perth, which was also designed by Summerhayes in 1932.

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Redevelopment

Exal Property Development’s $500m development application for the 31,100 sqm OneSteel block encompasses a mix of residential and commercial buildings:

• 2 x 23 storey apartments

• 13 storey apartments

• 7 storey apartments

• 6 storey apartments and

• 4 x 3 storey townhouses.

 

It wouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that the City of Fremantle did not support the proposed redevelopment, nor almost 200 community members who lodged submissions, mostly in fears of traffic jams and overshadowing.