The Dark Story of Vickers Ruwolt: How Australia's Greatest Engineering Empire Was Destroyed

The Dark Story of Vickers Ruwolt: How Australia's Greatest Engineering Empire Was Destroyed In 1941, Charles Ruwolt Pty Ltd fabricated a crusher frame for BHP's Newcastle steelworks. Ruwolt wasn't just heavy engineering. It was where 25-pounder gun-howitzers were forged for the Pacific War and Yallourn's power station columns rolled off the shop floor. Four thousand workers at peak. But in 1983, BHP Chairman Sir James McNeill signed the merger folding Vickers Ruwolt into Comsteel Vickers. The customer that bought Ruwolt's crushers for 42 years now owned it. Two years later, Richmond was cleared. Today, Victoria Gardens shopping centre stands on the Yarra site. IKEA is the anchor. Sievers's 1967 photograph hangs in the National Gallery. This is the story of how the customer became the executioner and what that says about Australian industry. This is not just the story of a Richmond foundry. It's the story of a customer that swallowed its supplier. #VickersRuwolt #RichmondFoundry #AbandonedFactories #LostFactories #IndustrialDecline #AustralianManufacturing