"The large and commodious premises occupied and owned by the Australian Paper Company - now in the second year of its existence - are situated on the western bank of George's River, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the Liverpool Railway station, immediately above the salt-water dam. The greater portion of the land was purchased from the representatives of Mr. J. H. Atkinson for not more than £2,350; but, in addition to this the main area of their estate, the company have bought an adjacent flour mill, and its premises (with valuable water privileges), from Mr. E. Moore, as a Rag Depot, for the comparatively small figure of £1,000. Included in the Atkinson purchase is the important right of a private tramway to the neighbouring Liverpool station - a means for the direct and easy transmission of goods across an undulating hill-side, which alone cost the enterprising gentlemen who laid it down not less than £7,000. Included also in the Atkinson purchase is the right to a "tail race" (or cutting for the carrying off of refuse water), so that all that the company have to do is to direct their refuse water into the millpond, whence it is drained off by a separate outlet falling into the river below the dam, thus leaving the fresh water of the fine stream flowing past the works wholly uncontaminated. The entire area of the land secured to the company is nineteen acres of an irregular surface, situated far above any flood level; bounded on the west side by the Great Southern Railway, and on the east by the abruptly shelving bank of George's River. It may here, perhaps, be as well to state that in the old mill above mentioned, the manager of the company, Mr. Rowan Ronald, has already (in anticipation of the proximate completion of the works) stored up £1,000 worth of rags, accumulated and purchased at an almost nominal cost from an organised body of rag-pickers in Sydney, who in former years were, many of them, not quite so usefully employed. The manager's residence - which passed with the land to the company in the purchase from the Atkinson Estate - is a large and convenient brick building, two storied and slated, with stabling and outhouses, erected by its original proprietor at a cost of nearly £2,000. The Clerk of the Works (Mr. Sadleir) occupies a good substantial cottage, adjacent and belonging to the old mill before mentioned, now in use as a rag depot; and the whole of the property has, since its purchase by the company, been enclosed with a substantial six-foot paling fence. Railway gates have also been put up over the tram-way now running into the heart of the buildings, and entrance gates have been erected leading to the works. Mr. Bryce is the engineer - a gentleman of long experience in his profession - who saw the machinery made in the Mother Country, and who, having carefully overhauled it on its arrival at the works, is now superintending the important process of building it in, and seeing that every part of its complex arrangements are settled into the right place. The contractor for the erection of the works is Mr. W. Surtees, who has taken the contracts for the new building, at the low rate of £14 17s. 6d. per rod for brickwork, - the finishing trades being proportionately low. The amount actually paid on contracts and other works is nearly £6,000.

The machinery, ordered by Messrs. Russell & Co. (which has arrived here in splendid condition, and has the appearance of having just come out of the workshop), was manufactured by the celebrated house of James Bertram and Son, of Edinburgh, who took a prize for their machinery in 1862. It is now all on the grounds, much of it in its destined place, and the rest of it (as we have intimated) in the course of being set up under the superintendence of the engineer. The cost of the plant of machinery delivered at the works - including labour, freight, and other necessary charges - is nearly £9,500. The engine power for driving this machinery consists of two fifty-horse horizontal steam engines, capable of being worked up to one hundred and twenty. Another engine of sixteen-horse power is in the machine-room, for driving the paper machine. There are three Cornish boilers (twenty-seven feet long by seven feet in diameter) for supplying the necessary steam for the engines and the rag boilers. Besides this there is a pumping apparatus, of the most approved modern principles, manufactured by Messrs. Ormerod, Grierson and Co., of Manchester. This apparatus, driven by an engine of sixteen-horse power, is capable of supplying the works with fifty thousands gallons of water per hour. The Directors have secured 30,000 English fire bricks for imbedding the furnaces, &c., at the low rate of £2 10s. per thousand - a sum below what is usually given for common bricks. These are on the ground ready for use; many of them have, in fact, already been used by the builder. All the other bricks required for the erection of the works have been made on the spot. 700,000 of these, of a strong durable quality, have already been made on the grounds and used in the building. The contractor burns 90,000 of these bricks at a time, and is at present filling a kiln of that number close to the works. There is a pug-mill at the distance of a few yards from this kiln, for equalising the clay, and rendering it fit for the brickmakers. There is also a blacksmith's shop, not far from the works, with carpenter's bench, furnaces, vices, and anvil, complete. Attached to this shop is the engineer's office - this erection being a wooden frame-work covered with zinc, on an elevation near the river.

The building for the works lies nearly north and south, and is so designed that labour and time may be economised therein, in such a manner that when one process is begunit may be carried on in one continuous order. In treating of this building we will begin with (No.1) the Rag Store and Sorting-room, which is on the ground floor on the south-east side - 125 feet long by 26 feet wide. Over this there is (No.2) the Rag Cutting and Dusting Machine-room (with rope cutter, &c.) of the same dimensions as No.1. Access from this room (No.2) is to be had to the (No.3) Rag Boiler House, which is on the same floor. This "house," or rather room, is 62 feet long by 22 feet wide, and is to contain (for the present) four large rag-boilers, capable of holding five tons of rags each - and provided with suitable apparatus, like every other part of the works. From the rag boiler house there will be a communication (through the rag- cutting room) to the (No.4) rag engine-house, which is also a two-storied building, eighty-three feet long by thirty-three feet wide. This will contain ten rag-engines, and is so arranged as to afford space for four more. The ten rag-engines consist of four breakers and six beaters. The rag-engine house runs across the building from east to west. On the north side of it is another two-storied building of the same length (eighty- three feet), but not more than twenty feet in width. On the upper floor is (No.5) the half-stuff room - at the one end - the other division of the compartment containing two engines called "poachers," for mixing the chloride of lime with the pulp (formed of the comminuted rags) for bleaching purposes. This last-named room also contains the two mixing cisterns with agitators - receptacles of a peculiar kind of stone to prevent corrosion from the use of the chemicals used in the bleaching. Below these mixing cisterns are two other cisterns (by some called "settlers"), in which the chemicals used are to subside. The lower floor of No.5 is of the same dimensions (83 feet by 20 feet), and contains (compartment No.6) twelve bleaching cisterns, capable of holding one hundred tons of stuff in the process of bleaching. These cisterns are also made of the material of which the "mixing cisterns" are composed - stone brought from Craig-Leith Quarry, near Edinburgh. Each of these bleaching cisterns is fitted with brass valves and zinc strainers. The same compartment of the building also contains a hydraulic press for expelling the water (and chemicals used) from the half-stuff - the moisture, drained off, by surface gutters, being collected into the lee or waste cistern, which is prepared for it, in a lower level of the same part of the building. In the same room (No.6) there is also a "lift" - an apparatus for raising, by hydraulic pressure, the "half-stuff" (when cleared from superflous moisture, &c.) and reconveying it to the rag-engine house - there to be reduced by the "beaters" into the proper consistency previous to its being run-ff into the stuff vats in the paper machine house. The Paper Machine House (No.7), in the building now described, runs parallel to the rag cutting and sorting house before mentioned, and is a one-storied building - 125 feet long by 27 feet 6 inches wide. In this compartment is the "paper machine" - properly so called. In the north end of the room stand the two stuff vats, elevated sufficiently to allow the duly prepared stuff to flow into the wet end of the paper-making machine, which is placed in the apartment longitudinally. These vats are eleven feet in diameter by five feet six inches in depth, and are also fitted with "agitators" to keep the stuff in its necessary semi- liquid state.

The paper machine proper is driven by a sixteen forse steam engine, standing between it and the two vats. First, the fluid pulp passes through a knot strainer to the end of the machine, and over two vacuum chests to take the liquid out of it before it goes on to the couch rolls. From the couch rolls to the first press roll, the material (in a half- manufactured state) is made, by the action of this elaborate and beautiful machine, to progress (supported by felts) to the second press roll. Thence it goes on to the drying cylinders, through seven of which it passes before it is taken up by the smoothing rolls. After this the half-finished paper, in a continuous sheet, passes over five more drying cylinders previous to its reaching the calender, where it is finished. Attached to the same paper machine (in which are realised all the most recent improvements) is an admirably devised cutting apparatus, by the automatic action of which the endless sheet, as it is produced, is cut into appointed lengths - the sizes being cut as required. This machine is capable of turning out paper six feet wide, and - working "double shifts," that is, day and night - it will produce eighteen tons of paper a week. In regard to the quality of the paper thus made it is sufficient to say that the machine can make from all kinds wrapping paper up to paper of the best quality, such as is in use for this journal or any other newspaper.

From the Paper Machine Room there is a doorway into the Finishing House (No.8), which is 110 feet long by 26 feet wide, and also a one-storied building. This room contains a very powerful hydraulic press, by means of which the manufactured paper is made up in assortments for the market. The outer door of the finishing-house opens directly on to the end of the tramway before spoken of, so that the goods, from the moment that they leave the finishing-house, require no cartage whatever until they reach the Redfern Station at Sydney. At the south end of the finishing-house are small compartments for the counting-house and manager's office. The whole length of the front of the building is 185 feet, and its extreme width 144 feet.

The Chimney Stalk (No.9) is to be 120 feet high, and will stand on the east side of the rag boiler house, being connected with the great boilers by flues.

The Boiler House (No.10) contains the three Cornish, or tubular boilers, - 27 feet long by 7 feet in diameter. In each of them are two flues 2 feet 6 inches in diameter. The size of the "house" in which they are set is 31 feet by 50. The boilers were made by Messrs. J. C. Wilson and Company, of London, and have been put together in the colony in a good workmanlike manner.

Lastly, the Engine House (No.11) - containing the two fifty-horse power steam engines - is situated between the boiler house (No.10) and the rag engine house (No.4). The fly wheel of the engines for the regulation of the speed is eighteen feet in diameter, and weighs nine tons and a half. The shafting and whole motive power of the works are carried through the dividing wall of No.11 and No.4, in what are called "wal boxes." The dimensions of the steam engine house are 34 feet long by 22 feet wide.

The house for the Pumping Engine (No.12) is not yet commenced, but will be situated on the bank of the river, at a distance of about 100 feet from the principal building to the eastward. It will contain the 16-horse engine and pumping apparatus before described.

With reference to the building operations in progress it is gratifying to find that the walls of the finishing and paper machine houses are now completed, and roofed in. The walls also of the rag store, sorting room, and the cutting and dusting room are nearly ready for use. The rag-engine and bleaching house are one story high, and the whole of the naked flooring is completed. The massive walls of the boiler house, the engine- room, and the rag boiler house, are also nearly ready for the roofs, and most of the heavy beams are in place. The foundation of the mill chimney has been completed, and the brickwork carried up about five feet. The whole of the roof of the building is to be of corrugated iron, and a considerable portion of it (as above stated) is already on. With reference to the setting of the machinery, the rag engines, poachers, settlers, and bleaching apparatus are all in their respective places. The beds for the two fifty-horse engines are also complete, and provision has been made for fitting the main shafting. The foundation of the paper making machine is in active progress, and the three Cornish boilers have been lifted into their beds. The rest of the machinery, having been examined and fitted by Mr. Bryce, is quite ready for setting up, and is being put together as fast as the building is proceeded with.

The manager trusts that the company will be in a position to manufacture paper in the course of six months from the present date."

Collingwood Paper Mill  |  Back to Home Page