Battery Locomotive - made of iron
Historical information
Greenbat Battery Loco
Built by Greenwood & Batley Ltd
Builders No. 420363/2
This Greenbat Battery Loco has been loaned to the Museum by the Walhalla Goldfields Railway, who had acquired it in 2013 along with a large quantity of narrow gauge trollies and light rail from Orica’s now closed munitions factory in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The trolley on display was one of two in use from the 1970s.
Orica - Deer Park Munitions factory
Orica Deer Park in Melbourne’s west has been used since circa 1875 for various forms of manufacturing and storage of chemicals.
Although the site is bounded by Ballarat Road, Station Street, Tilburn Road and the Western Ring Road, the current entry point for industrial operations is situated at Gate 6 off Tilburn Road. Operations include:
• a specialty chemicals facility producing products for mining services operations
• quarry services
• other chemical manufacture activities.
The Deer Park factory complex is of historical significance as the location of the first plant for the manufacture of high explosives in Australia and has been, for its entire history, the most important, if not only, commercial manufacturer of high explosives in Australia. It commenced operation under the importer Jones Scott and Co, and then the Australian Lithofracteur Company (Krebs Patent), a rival to Nobel's dynamite patent. The factory was producing nitro-glycerine based explosives in Australia only a couple of years after Nobel's Ardeer factory began operating in Scotland.
The explosives factories complex is of historical significance for the association with the Australian Lithofracteur Company, Australian Explosives and Chemicals, the Nobel company and later ICIANZ, which grew to become one of the largest explosives, chemical and plastics manufacturers in Australia. It was the pioneer of the industry and retained its dominance through monopolistic practices, taking over most of its competitors in the Australasian region. Substantial parts of the pre-Second World War layout of the site remain which, with a number of significant buildings dating back to the 1920s and '30s, indicate past and present processes of manufacturing, the necessary safety measures required and the integrated nature of the explosives and chemical industry.
The narrow gauge tramway, which ran through the explosives section, was a rare survivor of nineteenth century materials-handling methods into the 21st Century.
Greenwood & Batley were a large engineering manufacturer with a wide range of products, including armaments, electrical engineering, and printing and milling machinery. They also produced a range of battery-electric railway locomotives under the brand name Greenbat. The works was in Armley, Leeds, UK.
Greenbat was the trade name for the railway locomotives built by Greenwood & Batley. The company specialised in electric locomotives, particularly battery-powered types for use in mines and other hazardous environments.
Significance
Historic - Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway - Battery Locomotive - Orica - Deer Park Munitions factory - Deep park, Victoria, Australia
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