Black and white photograph of three earth moving machines making trenches for pipeline to Bruce's track Kalimna Victoriawater resources, public works

Bradford Kendall was established in 1922 by Lesley Bradford and Jim Kendall, investing their winnings on a race horse. They both previously worked at the BHP Steel Works. They gained contracts with the railways and mining industry. During World War II they also manufactured armaments. During the boom of the 1950s they established several foundries in South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Bradford Kendall Ltd Wodonga foundry was established in 1954. It melted down old railway wheels, rails and redundant machinery to produce a range of low-alloy steel products, especially for earth-moving vehicles, railways, oil rigs and sugar factories. Wodonga was ideally placed as a change point between the different rail gauges of Victoria and New South Wales, close to the Hume Highway and the Snowy Mountain Scheme. The first sod for the site was turned on 2nd June 1954 and the first melt and pour of molten metal at Wodonga took place on 7th July 1954. Bradford Kendall Plant No.5 in Wodonga became one of the most profitable foundries in the Bradford Kendall group. Bill Black became the first plant Manager, a position he held for 30 years. Another long term employee was Pat Gooding who began work at a 15 year old and retired for the position of Bradken foundry Manufacturing Manager 51 years later. In the early 1980s, Australian National Industries Ltd bought Bradford Kendall and other heavy engineering companies. The Wodonga foundry with its (then) 170 or so staff became part of Bradken Consolidated along with nine other foundries in Australia and New Zealand. In 1989, Kerry Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd took control of ANI. In January 1999, Smorgon Steel Group acquired ANI, which included the Bradken business. The company changed hands again in 2001 when Smorgon Steel Group sold Bradken to Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP). In 2016 negotiations began for Bradken to be taken over by Hitachi Construction for A$689 million. In April 2017 Bradken became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Limited.A collection of black and white images and advertising for Bradford Kendall (Bradken) Wodonga.bradford kendall, wodonga industries, wodonga businesses

Robert Ulmann was born in Zurich, Switzerland, where he studied sculpture and painting, exhibiting annually with the National Art Society of Switzerland and in Paris, Munich and Stockholm. He migrated to Canada in 1956 and became a Canadian citizen. After working on the restoration of sculpture on the west wing of the Parliament Buildings Ottawa, he took up a Government appointment as one of six artist advisers to the Eskimos, initiating handicraft and sculpture programs in isolated settlements across the Central Arctic. He arrived in Australia with his Australian wife, Helen, in 1969, after two adventurous years backpacking and sketching through the United States, Central and South America and the South Pacific. From 1970 to 1972 he was employed by the Northern Territory Administration as a manual arts instructor to the aboriginal people of Docker River, a remote settlement west of Ayers Rock. A series of drawings from this period was exhibited by the Department of the Interior in Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide. Robert Ulmann’s paintings and prints of wildlife from Australia and overseas fill a beautiful studio overlooking the famous Logans Beach whale nursery at Warrnambool in the Western District of Victoria. His previous studio and home, together with 13 years of field sketches and his best work collected together for two books were destroyed by the Ash Wednesday fires at Naringal in 1983. Rob exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth as well as in the Regional Galleries of Warrnambool, Ballarat, Portland and Horsham, and, among numerous prizes, he won the award for watercolour at six of the annual exhibitions of the Wildlife Art Society of Australasia, between 1978 and 1983. Although his principal interest was in drawing and painting, he retained a fascination with sculpture. His works range from two stone fountains with figures commissioned by the City of Zurich, while he was still a student, to a 4 ½ ton sculpture in bluestone commissioned in 1977 as a memorial to Sir Fletcher Jones., a five metre representation of whale tails in steel, and a life-size bronze of St. John of God commissioned for a private hospital.Image of a goat beginning to rise from a seated position, possible struggling out of mud. Painted in yellow and brown tones, with blue shadows. Earth colours form a rough ground area surrounding the goat. A brown wash provides a cursory background behind the goat's head. Dark cream matt surrounds image. Gold painted wooden frame, with glass.Front: Robert Ulmann (lower centre, paint) Back: (no inscriptions)