Kandos Works

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1917

24 May 1917
RYLSTONE POLICE COURT.
At the Rylstone Police Court, on Thursday, May 10, before Mr. McMahon, P.M., Edward Foubester Thompson appeared on bail, charged with threatening language at Kandos, on the 16th ultimo, as follows: "We of the I.W.W. will see that within six months' time that there will be no N.S.W. Lime and Cement Company, and when the plant is rotting to the ground you and Jones will be humping blueys through the bush. Your life is worth nothing."
The remark's were addressed to the manager of the works, Mr F S Richards. The matter arose on the day in question, after defendant had been discharged. Without pleading to the information, Thompson asked for a stay of proceedings, as he was being accorded legal assistance in his defence. He had been arrested on the day in question, and only obtained bail at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
John Purnell was charged with having at the same time and place made use of threatening language towards the same complainant, the manager of the Kandos Works, to wit, "We got one Yank, and we will get another. How are you on a go (meaning fight)? Your life is worth nothing." This defendant also signified his desire for a stay of proceedings.
The P.M.: It is not a matter of the A.W.U's concern; it is a question of what you require.
Mr. Chubb, who appeared, instructed by Mr. Richards, said in reply to the Bench, he could offer no objection, that defendant was entitled to be defended.
The P.M. said he only visited Rylstone once a month, so that it was now a question of the term of adjournment. Defendants assented to the adjournment to June 14, and were admitted to bail, £5 each, two sureties of £2/10/, which was forthcoming1 .

14 June 1917
Marvellous Kandos
A CENTRE OF INDUSTRIES. PRESENT ACTIVITIES. AND FUTURE PROSPECTS.
On Sunday representatives of the associated papers, the "Mudgee Guardian, the "Gulgong Advertiser," and the Dunedoo Chronicle" motored to Kandos, the new and growing industrial town on the western line, below Mudgee, to have a look at the place and the cement works which have called it into being. The representative of the "Guardian" was at Kandos 18 months ago when the place was still comparatively in its infancy. The works even then were well advanced, but beyond those connected with them there were practically no buildings at all. The pressman was on Sunday astonished - no other word would properly describe his sensation - at the really marvellous progress that has been made in the course of the year and a half that had elapsed since his previous visit, not only by the works but by the town that has grown up around them, and by the large number of buildings that have been erected and are in course of erection. The pressmen were met on their arrival by Mr. F. S. Richards, the works manager (and next in command to the general manager. Mr. Oakden), and one of the assistant engineers, Mr. L. H. Kennedy, and these two gentlemen for two and a half hours piloted the party over the works, every part of which was shown and thoroughly explained.
The day being Sunday operations were not in full swing, though even on Sundays the work has to be done, as the furnaces must never be allowed to go cold. An aerial tramway connects the cement works themselves with the limestone quarries from which the material is obtained, and which are situated near to Clandulla, about four miles below Kandos. This was not running on Sunday.
The tour of inspection, observation and enquiry was started near the point at which the limestone that has been brought by the tramway from the quarries is dumped out of tramway trucks, and is crushed and mixed with the shale - in their proper proportions - that with the lime go to the making of the finished cement product. The mixture is fed into the drying cylinders, big revolving concerns, and in them is so thoroughly heated as to take all the moisture out of it and make it workable.
After the drying in the cylinders has been completed the stuff is pumped to large rotary cylinders, in which it is crushed into a very fine powder. This powdered product goes into another rotary cylinder where it is treated with heat of great intensity, generated by a furnace fed by coal also crushed to a very fine powder. The powdered coal is blown into the furnace by a powerful wind blast, and the heat thus generated is so great that all the foreign substances, the retained presence of which would interfere with the making of good cement, is thrown out. The stuff then, having assumed a form technically known as clinker, now falls into concerns by which it is taken up to a big platform and dropped into heaps, where it remains until it is in readiness to be put through the final rotary process. Then gypsum is added to the whole, in its ascertained right proportions, and from this final stage it emerges the finished product of the pure cement.
There are automatic machines for the bagging of the cement, and an immense storehouse for the safekeeping of the finished article.
The company has just erected three immense cement silos. Three more silos are to be erected immediately, and others are to follow as required. These are for the storage of cement until it is required for market.
The party were taken to the testing room (where the quality of the cement is tried), and every detail of the business of treatment and manufacture were explained to them, and with everything they saw they were greatly impressed.
At present there is only one unit of the plant working, a considerable part of the machinery that will constitute the second unit has been erected, and the balance of this section of the machinery is lying in Sydney. It was being conveyed to Sydney, from Germany, in a German boat that early in the war was interned in a port in Portugese South Africa. When Portugal entered the war as a belligerent on the side of the Allies the ship was released and handed over to the British authorities, and came on to Sydney, where she brought the machinery, which by the way came from the great works of Krupps at Essen. It was intended that this machinery should have constituted the first unit of the plant, but when it was held up by the interning of the steamer on which it was, it was necessary to get machinery from America to start the works, and this became the first unit.
It is expected that the Government will shortly release the still held up machinery, and hand it over to the company. It will then be at once erected, and from the time of its installation the company will be working with two units of plant, which will, of course, make possible a great increase of output. As time goes one, and the works and the industry develop, other units will be added, and ultimately the plant will be one of the largest of its kind, if not the largest, in the Commonwealth.
The company is now working with three shifts, and so the works are kept going continually day and night. With only the one unit of plant working four tons of cement are turned out every hour, so that even the one unit is capable of producing an immense output. The output of the works when the one unit has grown to three or four or more can be imagined.
Mr. Richards affirms that there is enough limestone, of high quality, in sight, and without any further exploration, to last for a great number of years, even supposing the company to be treating a very great deal more than it treats now. There are also large bodies of shale available - sufficient to last for many years to come.
Combined with the cement industries at Kandos are the collieries. These are on the hills just above the works, and at no great distance from them. The collieries not only supply all the fuel needs of the works, but provide a good deal of first-class coal for sale on the market, and for which there is a great demand. The coal is of very high character.
The huge furnaces at the works power house are thoroughly up-to-date. They are so arranged that they get every ounce of advantage out of the coal. There is no coke left in the furnaces from the coal, but only a little ash. And in connection with this ash another industry has grown up, in which this coal residue is put to a profitable industrial use.
Mainly out of the coal ash there is made (on the spot) what is known as the cinder brick. This, which is the size of four ordinary bricks, is composed of one-eighth cement with seven-eighths of coal ash, and is manufactured by a system of force compression. Thousands of these coal or cement bricks have been used in the buildings that have been erected in the township, and they have proved to be eminently suitable for building purposes. They are in large use in various parts of the State. Everywhere they have been used they have given entire satisfaction, and there is now a very keen demand for them. The cinder brick making industry bids fair to be a big, profitable and permanent one.
Large lime burning kilns are also being erected in close proximity to the works.
Thus there are already four industries (coal mining, cement making, cinder brick manufacture and lime burning) in operation at Kandos (to say nothing of the big building operations at the works and in the town), with probably other industries to follow.
There is no anxiety as to water supply, a most important factor in such an undertaking as this. There are two big supply dams, and the most economical use possible is made of the water. The boilers at the powerhouse are all equipped with efficient condensers, which enables the water to be used over and over again with only a minimum of loss. It is safe to say there will never be any water troubles at Kandos, never mind how big or long the drought, or [what run of dry seasons may be encountered as time goes on.
A very important industry, that of refining copper ore, is likely to have its theatre at Kandos in the near future. A big concern, the C.S. and A. Company, that is operating one of the biggest copper mines at Cobar, and that only treats its ore roughly at the mine, proposes to erect refining and final treatment works at Kandos. The C.S. and A. Company has either secured the lease of the land for its refining works at Kandos, or is in course of securing it, and this new and important industry should very shortly be in operation. The refining works will draw their coal from the Kandos collieries, and should from the outset employ 50 men. There is an unlimited supply of ironstone that will be available as flux, and it is the presence of this, in conjunction with the coal, that is, of course, the attraction to the treatment works.
The fact of the ironstone deposits in close proximity to ample supplies of good coal naturally suggests yet another Kandos industry of the future, and perhaps not of the very distant future either. With the iron and coal together, and with the advantages of railway connection north and west that Kandos has, there is no reason why before many years have passed Kandos should not be a great iron working and steel making centre, and every reason why it should be.
Altogether the destiny of Kandos appears to be (as the "Guardian" has before insisted), one of the great fist industrial centres not only of the State but of Australia.
The town that is growing up about the works and the quarries and the mines, which is itself within half a mile of the railway station, has made stupendous progress within the past 12 months, and is going ahead by leaps and bounds. It has one of the finest hotels outside of Sydney, with 40 rooms (to which others are now being added), and perfectly appointed with every detail. The hotel is to be lighted with electricity from the company's works.
A fine butchers' and bakers' shop has been erected close to the hotel; there are several stores, and dozens of substantial and sightly cottages - these latter are being added to almost daily.
There are some 300 men at work at the company's various undertakings, and the present population of the town is from 450 to 500. A conservative estimate puts the population five years hence down at 2000.
A present great and urgent need is that of a good public thoroughfare from the main road - which runs parallel with the railway, on the further side of the township - to the town. There is a crossing at Rylstone, five miles distant, and another across the line a mile past Kandos. But obviously neither of these is convenient or serves the purpose. It is proposed to approach the Railway Commissioners with a proposal that they shall make an overhead bridge near the railway station. This would mean a direct and short road into the township, the proprietors of the hotel agreeing to pay half the cost.
The Commissioners are also to be asked to appoint a railway staff. It is stated that even now tho freight age out from Kandos is in excess of that out from Mudgee. And yet there is no staff at the station. This seems anomalous, and absurd in view of the fact that elsewhere little stations with not a hundred, perhaps not a thousandth part of the Kardos business, are fully equipped.
Police Inspector Sheridan, of Mudgee, was recently in Kandos, arranging for the erection of a police station there. Another indication of the growing importance of the place.
The visiting pressmen greatly appreciated the courtesy of Mr. Richards and Mr. Kennedy. Both officials are Americans, and if all the citizens of the United States are as courteous and obliging as these two gentlemen, it will be a delightful thing to meet them.
Mr. Richards, who has learnt his business in his native America, impresses one with being thoroughly au fait with the important work he has in hand, and is bound by reason of his ability and knowledge and enthusiasm to make a success of it2 .

16 August 1917
Kandos.
Activity at the Works.
The Works. - The Works continue to be very busy, and everything is running smoothly, despite the strike. The mills are still going, and the output is kept up to its usual capacity. The coal miners are still working in full swing, but, of course, owing to the strike no cement is being sent away just at present3 .

18 June 1917
Kandos.
(From Our Correspondent).
At the Works - Work at the cement factory and coal mine is progressing smoothly under the able supervision of manager Richards4 .

20 December 1917
The Kandos Works. - A "Guardian representative paid a visit to Kandos recently and was very much impressed by the progress of the works. Mr. Richards, the general manager of the works, extended a hearty welcome to our representative, and was kind enough to take him all over the works, and explain to him fully all the different processes employed. [https://fionasuniverse.com/tree/Cudgegong%20Valley%20History/individual/X746/Floyd-S-Richards|Mr. Richards] is an efficient manager. He is very popular amongst all the employees, and is courteous to any one who takes the opportunity of paying a visit to the work's. During the past twelve months the industry has progressed considerably, and great things are expected from Kandos in the near future. It is deemed certain that very shortly a large smelting works will be established. This will be a great acquisition to the works, and will be the means of employing some 60 or 70 more men. [https://fionasuniverse.com/tree/Cudgegong%20Valley%20History/individual/X746/Floyd-S-Richards|Mr. Richards,] and all the other gentlemen, at the works are a very entertaining and sociable circle of people, and every courtesy is shown to visitors at the works5 .

22 June 1917
Recently [https://fionasuniverse.com/tree/Cudgegong%20Valley%20History/individual/X746/Floyd-S-Richards|Mr. Richards], the courteous work's manager, escorted a small party through the cement works, which have been considerably extended during the past eight months. Commencing at the terminal of the aerial tramway from the quarries - three miles long - the party was taken through every section of the works, which, it is claimed, contains the most modern plant in Australia. The electric power station proved particularly interesting. The coal mine was also visited. This carries a seam 8ft. 9in. high, and as the coal is of good quality the demand keeps brisk. [https://fionasuniverse.com/tree/Cudgegong%20Valley%20History/individual/X746/Floyd-S-Richards|Mr. Richards], who controls the whole concern, from quarry to laboratory, says the cement is of superior quality, and is naturally pleased at the prospect of having to supply, by contract, the Government with some 160,000 casks of Kandos cement6 .

1919

29 May 1919
Messrs. Goodlet and Smith, of Sydney, who recently sold their limestone quarries at Excelsior to Messrs. G. and C. Hoskins, of the Lithgow Ironworks, have bought a big interest in the New South Wales Lime and Cement Company, whose quarries and works are at Kandos. Messrs. Goodlet and Smith used to take the limestone from their quarries to Maryvale, Sydney, for manufacture, but as they will themselves do no more manufacturing all their stuff will now go to Kandos. The greater part of Goodlet and Smith's up-to-date manufacturing plant, motors, etc., has been brought to Kandos for installation in connection with the works there. The very fine and singularly complete plant at the Kandos works is being continuously added to, and the output of the works, to which orders flow in day by day and week by week, is continuously and substantially increasing7 .

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