Manufacturing Industry

This content is currently under review. Statistics are from 1990.

Manufacturing activity is defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as "the physical or chemical transformation of materials or components into new products, whether by manual or automated means". It thus covers a wide range of activities, from large paper mills and automotive components manufacturers through to very small concerns, such as a baker or blacksmith in a small country town. Given such a definition, there are few towns in the Murray-Darling Basin that do not have some manufacturing industry, except perhaps the smallest ones. In this section, however, the focus is on the larger and more significant manufacturing industries and industrial centres, without putting a precise definition on those words.

Manufacturing industry in the MDB

Data limitations are particularly relevant to this section, as for reasons of confidentiality, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) can only make available limited information. It is thus only possible to present a rather general picture, supplemented with more detail about particular industries and locations. Nonetheless, it is clear that manufacturing industry is a significant activity in the MDB, in terms of numbers of establishments, employment, turnover, and range of activities. Not surprisingly, it is dominated by activities associated with the Basin's resource-based industries, in particular agriculture, and to a lesser extent, forestry and mining. Such enterprises, for example, abattoirs, wineries, flour mills, and saw mills, are scattered throughout the Basin, close to the sources of their raw materials. Other manufacturing industries, especially in the engineering area, support local resource-based and other industries, as well as providing services to their local community. Many of the manufacturing industries also play a role in the tourist industry, such as the large rice mills in the Riverina through to very small concerns such as the manufacture of millet brooms in Tumut.

Figure 1 Manufacturing industries in the MDB

Australian Bureau of Statistics' data indicate that in 1991-92, for the whole of the Murray-Darling Basin, there were some 3,280 manufacturing 'locations' (essentially establishments), employing over 62,400 people, and with a turnover (essentially sales of goods produced) of over $10,750 million (6.4 per cent of the Australian total) (Table 1). By far the biggest sector is 'food, beverages and tobacco', for which the Basin accounts for 17.2 per cent of the Australian total*. The Basin also accounts for 16.8 per cent of the total Australian 'textiles' category. Within the MDB, 'food, beverages and tobacco' account for 20 per cent of manufacturing locations, but 45 per cent of total employment, 48 per cent of wages and salaries and 57 per cent of turnover. In terms of numbers of locations, the next largest sector is 'wood, wood products and furniture'; it is third largest in terms of employment, but relatively small in terms of wages and salaries and turnover.

Food, beverages and textiles account for 63.5 per cent of the Basin's manufacturing turnover. But it is not only these sectors of manufacturing that are dependent on the Basin's agriculture. So, too, are a number of the others, especially 'fabricated metal products' and 'other machinery and equipment', industries that supply much equipment to farmers. The total figure for agriculturally dependent manufacturing is almost certainly in the range of at least 70 to 75 per cent, i.e. a turnover close to $8,000 million.

The following groupings do not accord exactly with the ABS classification and the data provided in the tables. However, they provide a clearer overview of the main sectors of manufacturing industry in the MDB.

* : On the basis of available information, none of the five Australian tobacco manufacturing establishments are in the MDB. In terms of the Australian totals in ASIC Code 21, they only account for 1.7 per cent of employment and 2.7 per cent of turnover.

Agricultural-based industries

In terms of the industry classification, agricultural-based industries include the following groups: food, beverages and tobacco; clothing and footwear, textiles, and leather products (though the latter are included in miscellaneous manufacturing by the ABS) (Table 2). It is by far the biggest manufacturing sector in the MDB, adding significantly to the value of agricultural production, especially from the irrigation sector (see Agriculture and Irrigation).

Agricultural-based industries are to be found in country towns of all sizes, some of them quite small. They include cotton gins (at a number of locations in the northern Darling Basin); flour mills at numerous locations, including one of the largest at Manildra, with an associated starch and gluten plant that is one of the largest in the world (Manildra is also the location of the National Bread Show); oilseed crushing plants at Narrabri, Moree, Cudal, Cootamundra, and Numurkah; fruit canning and juices (mainly in the irrigation areas, but also at places like Narromine); abattoirs and meatworks, often in the same locations as livestock marketing centres, such as Wagga Wagga; wineries (in areas to the north of Canberra as well as more well known locations such as Mudgee and many of the irrigation areas); the new tomato processing plant at Echuca; and stockfeeds at such places as Toowoomba, Tamworth, Corowa, Mooroopna, Bendigo, St Arnaud, and Murray Bridge.

Many well-known food items are produced in the Basin, such as 'Sun' rice, Berri and Quelch fruit juices, Ardmona and SPC canned fruits, Sunbeam dried fruits, Nestles powdered milk, Murray-Goulburn dairy products (including a new export-oriented infant powdered formula milk plant at Cobram as a joint venture with two Japanese companies), Edgell's canned products from Bathurst, and Heinz tomato soups. Among the pet food manufacturers are Uncle Bens in Albury-Wodonga and Bathurst, Friskies in Blayney, and generic brands from Pyramid Hill.

There are also numerous textiles, clothing and footwear factories, such as Bradmills and Stafford Ellinson in Bendigo, Holeproof underwear in Horsham, Jockey Australia in Kyabram and Maryborough, Yakka in Shepparton and Albury, Robins Shoes in Bathurst, and Bruck Textiles in Wangaratta. A more recent development is the area of top making, a process that reduces the weight and volume of greasy wool by some 40 per cent. Australian Topmaking Services at Parkes was established in 1994 and is already considering doubling its capacity to 12,000 tonnes per annum (and building a second plant at Hamilton with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes per annum). Spinners have also expressed interest in establishing alongside the Parkes plant, to convert the tops into yarn.

Largely in response to poor commodity prices, many farmers are now processing their own produce or having it processed directly, such as individual and small groups of wool growers producing woollen clothing. These are in addition to many ‘cottage industries’, which are often involved in making such things as jams and clothing.

Forestry-based industries

In terms of the industry classification, this includes the following groups: wood, wood products and furniture, paper and paper products (see Forestry). Saw mills are found in many communities, but the other activities are much more localised, being dependent on both native hardwood forests and softwood plantations. The latter are found in such areas as Tumut, Oberon, and north-east Victoria's Kiewa Valley. The native hardwood forests of the Basin are of limited commercial value, with the exception of the cypress pines of the Pilliga State Forest, where there is an important saw milling industry. As well as mills producing sawn timber, manufacturing plants produce various types of fibreboard (as at Oberon, where CSR is undertaking a $250 million expansion of its medium density fibreboard mill to a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per annum, building a new sawmill, and setting up a research and development centre) and particle board (as at Tumut), in fully integrated operations. CSR is Australia's largest sawmiller and producer of sawn softwood timber. Australia's largest newsprint mill is located at Albury, using timber from Pinus radiata plantations in the region and recycled paper.

Mining-based industries

This group covers the initial processing of minerals mined in the Basin and the processing and manufacture of minerals mined elsewhere. Though not a large sector, it is locally important, especially in terms of the large mining operations (see the Mining and Minerals Production). Other industries include such activities as Stonetile (stone tiles for an international market) at Orange and brick making at numerous locations.

Metal products industries

In terms of the industry classification, this includes the following groups: basic metal products, fabricated metal products, transport equipment, other machinery and equipment. This is the most diverse sector of manufacturing industry within the Basin, in terms of types of activities and size of operations. There are some larger firms, such as Southern Cross at Toowoomba and Horwood Bagshaw (formerly Shearers) at Mannum, both manufacturers of farm equipment. The majority, however, are small engineering firms, providing traditional products on a limited or one-off basis for local consumers, especially in agriculture. They include farmers who have moved from a maintenance and repair facility for their own equipment to the manufacture of farm and other equipment, such as Pendulum Dairy Gates, a stall gate system for farm dairies developed by a Wodonga dairy farmer (Carson 1995), a farmer near Warialda (near Inverell) producing loading ramps, cattle and sheep feeders, and basketball backboards (The Australian, February 3, 1995), and one near Moree who has developed an infra-red guidance system for row-crop operations (Lyon 1994). Others are small but highly innovative concerns, such as UR Machinery at Mildura, which manufactures grape harvesters that have a market in California as well as Australia.

In addition to the above metal products industries, there are others that are not linked to agriculture. Some are large and well-known, though the fact that they are located within the MDB may not be so well known. They include Email in Orange, where it has consolidated its refrigerator manufacturing in a new plant; BTR Engineering at Albury which manufactures automatic and manual transmissions; Jakab Industries at Tamworth that produces specialist motor vehicle bodies such as ambulances; and Clyde Industries at Bathurst which produces railway rolling stock.

Other manufacturing industries

There is a wide variety of other manufacturing activities in the Basin, including printing and allied industries and computing and hi-tech industries. They are certainly major activities in the Canberra-Queanbeyan area, where there are also a number of defence-based and other high-tech industries, including computing, optical goods and optical-fibre manufacture, as well as computers at Wangaratta.

Beyond the Basin

The Adelaide metropolitan area, much of rural South Australia and the Iron Triangle industrial towns of Port Pirie, Port August and Whyalla are not within the MDB. However, the Murray is an absolutely essential source of water for the Iron Triangle and a major source for Adelaide and much of the rest of South Australia. The manufacturing activities in these three Iron Triangle towns, made possible by Murray water, account for most of the manufacturing in the Northern Statistical Division, which has a turnover of $1,177.9 million in 1991-92. For the Adelaide Statistical Division, manufacturing turnover in 1991-92 was valued at $12,319.8 million. Most of this would not be possible without water from the River Murray.

Case studies

It is possible to identify a number of towns in the Basin that have an important manufacturing sector, such as Canberra-Queanbeyan, Tamworth, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, Toowoomba, Wangaratta, and Bendigo, and on a somewhat smaller scale, such places as Benalla, Castlemaine, Echuca, Maryborough, Orange, Dubbo, and Leeton.

Shepparton and district - manufacturing based on agriculture

Shepparton is located at heart of the Goulburn Valley irrigation area in northern Victoria. Directly and indirectly, its manufacturing industry is almost entirely based on the region's agricultural production, of which the following are some of the more well known operations. Central are a number of major food processing companies. The Shepparton Preserving Company (SPC) is Australia's largest producer and exporter of canned deciduous fruit; it also produces vegetable products (e.g. tomatoes, baked beans and spaghetti) in order to extend the use of its canning lines. It has some 400 permanent employees, with numbers rising to 1,100 during the main processing season. At nearby Mooroopna is Ardmona Fruit Products. Using the "Ardmona" and "Goulburn Valley" brand names, it processes over 90,000 tonnes of fruit per year. The company was the first to successfully pack fruit in natural juices and to produced diced fruit in longlife plastic tubs. A Campbell's Soups factory produces soups, fruit and vegetable juices, and diet portion meals. There are a number of dairy products factories, including Kraft, Nestlés, Bonlac Foods, Tatura Milk Products, and Midland Milk. There is a stockfeed mill at Mooroopna and some dozen wineries in the district. The clothing and textiles sector includes the Jockey Australia factory at Kyabram, the Panda-Cleckheaton wools factory, and Yakka Australia.

A number of engineering and metal fabrication companies provide services to the food, beverage and dairy industries, as well as to agriculture and other activities. Southcorp and Associated Packaging produce cans and other packaging materials for the food and other industries. Others are more specialised, such as Furphy's Foundry (famous for the Furphy Water Cart), which produces cast iron combustion stoves, indoor and outdoor iron furniture and street furniture; Carmody Specialist Engineering, which makes machinery for non-woven textiles industry (a subsidiary makes disposable caps for hospitality and food industries and hospitals); Environmental Products Amalgamated, Australia's biggest manufacturer of refrigerant recycling equipment); and Digital Signal Processing Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ardmona Fruit Products (starting from computerised controls for a peach sorting machine and a peach pitting system, it now designs and makes production and control and monitoring systems).

Out of total employment in Shepparton of over 21,200, some 3,200 or 14 per cent is in manufacturing. There are over 110 manufacturing businesses with a turnover of some $600 million.

Tumut - manufacturing based on forestry

Tumut is one of Australia's leading timber towns. The nearly 140,000 ha of softwood plantations, as well as the hardwood forests, in the Tumut-Batlow-Tumbarumba area provide the raw materials for a number of saw mills (producing sawn timber) and industries in Tumut and other locations (See Forestry).

With its 1994 expansion, CSR Forest Products Sawmill now has an annual throughput capacity of 450,000 cubic metres of wood, producing sawn timber (225,000 cubic metres, valued at some $66 million for domestic and export markets), paneling, woodchips for particle board manufacture, fuel for boilers, and bark for gardens. The adjoining Wood Panels factory produces raw particleboard and low pressure laminates, including 'Pyneboard' and 'Glamapyne' for the building and furniture industries. Nearby is the Gilmore timber treatment plant. CSR is the largest employer in Tumut. There is also a hardwood sawmill in Tumut. At Wagga Wagga, using timber from the same sources as Tumut, is Customwood Laminex, that produces laminated fibreboard and medium density pineboard, and a plywood plant.

The Tumut pine plantations, as well as those in the Ovens Valley, provide timber for the pulp and paper mill near Albury, which produces some 210,000 tonnes of newsprint a year, over half of Australia's newsprint (see below). The forests and forest-based industries are important sources of rural employment. In the Tumut area alone, they directly and indirectly employ close to two thousand people. Almost 30 per cent of the Tumut district's workforce is employed in timber harvesting, haulage, and processing operations, making the timber industry the dominant activity in the district.

Albury-Wodonga - manufacturing in a growth centre

Albury-Wodonga is Australia's fourth largest inland urban centre, after Canberra-Queanbeyan, Toowoomba and Ballarat. Between 1971 and 1991, it experienced the largest population growth of all inland centres in New South Wales and Victoria, reaching some 91,000. Much of this growth has been associated with the expansion of manufacturing industry, which accounts for 17 per cent of the total employment number of 33,750.

As in the case of Shepparton, much of the manufacturing industry is related to the region's agricultural activities. Companies include Wodonga Meats, Haberfields Milk and Murray Goulburn Co-operative (milk and dairy products), Bunge Albury Mills (flours, cereal products, and stockfeeds), and Uncle Ben's (Australia's largest pet food manufacturer, accounting for more than half of processed pet food sales in Australia, as well as exports). The Southcorp can factory essentially serves Uncle Bens. There are a number of clothing and textiles factories, including Macquarie Worsteds and Yakka, and Gadean Footwear.

One of Albury-Wodonga's largest manufacturing concerns is Australian Newsprint Mills, commissioned in 1981. It is another industry based on local resources, in this case Pinus radiata plantations, some 80,000 ha in NSW and 60,000 ha in Victoria. A major expansion program, completed in two stages in 1993 and 1995, involved a $100 million recycling/de-inking plant which uses 160,000 tonnes of newspapers and other waste paper to produce 130,000 tonnes of de-inked pulp per year, 45,000 tonnes of which is sent to ANM's plant at Boyer in southern Tasmania. This has lifted Australia's recycling of newspapers rate from 28 to over 40 per cent. The recycled pulp is mixed 40:60 with new pulp, which has involved modifications to the existing paper mill, thus reducing consumption of new pulpwood. The increased use of recycled pulp has resulted in a more colour-consistent product and reduced the quantities of chemicals required for newsprint brightening (which makes possible colour illustrations in newspapers). Overall newsprint output has increased to some 210,000 tonnes per annum.

There is a variety of other industries, many attracted to Albury-Wodonga by its former growth centre status, with some relocating from Sydney. Industries include Moore Paragon (computer and continuous stationery), 'The Border Mail' (printing), Rocla Poles (concrete light and power poles), Smorgan Cyclone Rural (rural gates, fencing, silos), Bradken (steel foundry), Van Leer (polystyrene and foam packaging for meat and fast foods), Bradfor Air (air conditioning and central heating components; expansion following closure of Sydney plant), Braemar (gas ducted heating and evaporative cooling products), Cooper Tools (hand tools), BTR Engineering (manual and automatic transmissions for motor vehicles), Australian Defence Industries (military electronic target range systems), Wilson Transformer Co (transformers), Shorko Australia (polypropylene packaging film), Kimberly-Clark (non-woven fabrics), Gadean Footwear, and Overall Forge (open die forge shop; relocated from Sydney).

Wangaratta

Wangaratta has over 19 per cent of its total employment in manufacturing, a high figure for a country town of its size. This is due to a relatively small number of large companies, which are well known nationally. Bruck Textiles is Australia's largest fabric manufacturer, producing dyed woven fabric for such companies as Sheraton and Actil. The Wangaratta Woollen Mills is a major spinner of wool and some synthetic fibre. The other major employer is the former IBM computer plant, now owned by the Australian company, Bluegum Technology. The factory was set up in the 1970s to make typewriters. In the 1980s, it became a computer assembly and chip-development plant. It produces computer hardware and software for IBM and other companies (such as Macintosh), including PCs, other computers, and other equipment, such as printed circuit boards and disk duplication, for Australian and overseas markets. Total production in 1993 was valued at over $400 million.

There are a number of smaller manufacturing concerns in Wangaratta, including Yakka clothing (producing jeans and workwear), Rota Stanley Tools (light sheetmetal, tool boxes, etc), Uncle Toby's (breakfast cereals and confectionery), ICI-Valchem (chemicals and polymer manufacture), Mackay Casings (for the food industry), and some ten wineries in the district. A particleboard factory is being established.

Murray Bridge

Apart from its proximity to Adelaide and being the lowest road and rail bridging point on the River Murray, Murray Bridge is a typical, medium sized country town. It is a rural service centre and its manufacturing activities by and large reflect the agricultural activities in its region. These include Allowrie Foods (milk, cheese, and other dairy products, including Fruche), Dairy Vale Co-operative dairy, Metro Meats abattoir, and Milling Industries flour and stockfeed mill. Other firms produce equipment related to farming, such as Steriline Manufacturing (centre pivot irrigation equipment, racecourse starting gates, gymnasium equipment) and Hardies Irrigation (domestic irrigation equipment). Others manufacturers include Clipseal Switchgear (part of the Gerard Industries group) and Nilsen Electrical.

Conclusion

With a turnover of $10.75 billion, manufacturing makes a major contribution to the economy of the Murray-Darling Basin. Critical to the manufacturing are the Basin's natural resources, with at least three-quarters of this is based on the agricultural and natural resources. Further, much of the metal products industries sector is associated with agriculture. In addition, there are other industries with no such relationship with the Basin, such as Bluegum Technology in Wangaratta and Email in Orange, but which make important contributions to their local economies. Finally, a number of locations can now correctly be termed important manufacturing centres, especially Albury-Wodonga (turnover $1,275 billion), Canberra-Queanbeyan ($660 million), Bathurst-Orange ($635 million), Toowoomba ($623 million), Shepparton-Mooroopna ($467 million), and Wagga Wagga ($357 million).

References

This chapters is based on information collected from a large and varied number of sources, in particular publicity brochures from individual towns and cities, development agencies, and state government sources. Material has also been obtained directly from some of the larger manufacturing enterprises.

The main statistical data were specially provided by the Manufacturing section of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Sydney.

ABS (1994): 1991-92 Manufacturing Industry Australia. Catalogue 8221.0. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

ABS (1994): 1991-92 Manufacturing Industry New South Wales. Catalogue 8221.1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

ABS (1994): 1991-92 Manufacturing Industry Victoria. Catalogue 8221.2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

ABS (1994): 1991-92 Manufacturing Industry Queensland. Catalogue 8221.3. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

ABS (1994): 1991-92 Manufacturing Industry South Australia. Catalogue 8224.0. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

Carson, J. (1995): "Dairyfarmer's gate way to success". Australian Farm Journal, 5(7), 16-17.

Dick, A. (1994): "Austop: value-adding overnight success". Australian Farm Journal, 4(10), 58-61.

Lyon, N. (1994): "Infra-red guidance system success". Australian Farm Journal, 4(10), 66.

Table 1  Manufacturing Activities, by industry subdivisions, in the Murray-Darling Basin 1991-92 (source: data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Sydney)

* In most cases, a 'location' is equivalent to an 'establishment'.

Table 2  Manufacturing Activities, by industry subdivision, in the Murray-Darling Basin 1991-92, by Statistical Divisions, Statistical Subdivisions, and Statistical Local Areas (source: data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Sydney)