Thompsons Castlemaine Pty Ltd

Description

Agent TypeOrganisationActivities & OccupationsEngineers, miningManufacturers, machinery and equipmentHistoryEstablished in 1875 by David Thompson as a milling, foundry and engineering business, Thompsons, remains a rare survivor of Victoria's provincial engineering firms established to serve the gold mining industry. Thompsons became famous for the manufacture of mining equipment and rolling stock, although in later years the company increasingly concentrated on the production of high quality pumps.
The business has served public and private clients in Victoria, interstate and overseas, contributed to war production in World War I and World War II, and later produced plant for the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme.
Although much of the company's early growth and success was associated with its provision of mining plant, it diversified, invested, and innovated to ensure the business was able to adapt to changes in economic conditions and new technological developments, such as engineering steam locomotives and railway points and crossings, marine engines, and turbines and other plant for electricity generation.
The business was formed into a proprietary company under the name of Thompson & Co (Castlemaine) Pty Ltd in 1913. The company was declared bankrupt on 25 August 1925 after a Malayan client reneged on a contract for the supply of dredges, which failed to take into account local tropical conditions. The company was reconstructed on the same date under the name Thompsons Engineering and Pipe Co Ltd, a transition that marked the end of the influence and presence of the Thompson family. The company name changed again, along with its governance structure, in 1946 to Thompsons (Castlemaine) Ltd, and again in 1974 to Thompsons, Byron Jackson, a division of Borg-Warner (Australia) Ltd, and in 1987 to Thompson Kelly & Lewis Ltd, which by 1995 was owned by BTR Nylex, and by 1998 was a joint venture between Invensys and Flowserve Corporation.
Expansion of the company in the post-war period required the company to attract additional labour, and a subsidiary company was formed (Castlemaine Housing Estates Pty Ltd) to build new houses for workers.

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Dates

Date1875-2003

University of Melbourne Archives

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Thompsons Castlemaine Pty Ltd