Grimwade Castings, Williamstown Road     photo courtesy Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin worked at Grimwade Castings for about 30 years and we were fortunate that he came to visit us and spoke at our October 2005 meeting. The following is an extract of some of the things Peter spoke about.

Grimwade Castings, at 469 Williamstown Road, next to DISCO [now Cambridge University Press], was built around 1938 with the first metal poured in 1939.

The son of a Geelong doctor, Frederick Sheppard Grimwade was a partner with Wilfred Allen in the Grimwade & Allen Foundry in Footscray before establishing his own foundry in Port Melbourne.

Peter started at Grimwade's as a 17 year old in the early 1940s and worked as a metallurgical chemist. Some of the foundry's customers were Swanson & Barrett, Metropolitan Gas Company, SEC, Paton's Brakes, Pyrox, Malcolm Moore, Daniel Scott, Commonwealth Government Engine Works, International Harvester and the ordnance and ammunition factories during WWII.

Frederick Grimwade died suddenly in February 1950 aged 46. His widow appointed Roy Cox, the company's metallurgist as General Manager. Within a year, Grimwade's had been sold to Industrial Engineering, their Chairman, Lance Reichstein was one of the original Directors of the foundry.

In February 1955, Roy Cox moved to Allen's Foundry having purchased it from Wilfred Allen. Peter was appointed General Manager and Director where he remained until he resigned in February 1970.

The foundry remained in Williamstown Road until December 1972 when it relocated to another Industrial Engineering's location in Sunshine, under the name Industrial Engineering, Metalcasting Division. The foundry finally closed in mid 1984.

Peter Griffin (left) observes the foundry furnace     photo courtesy Peter Griffin

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