The Ilfracombe Iron Company (I.I.C.) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated in Northern Tasmania in 1873 and 1874. The company's operations included a blast furnace, ore mine, water wheel, village, and jetty. The I.I.C. rebuilt a disused timber-haulage tramway, terminating at Ilfracombe—now the southern part of modern-day Beauty Point—which it extended to reach its iron ore mine and terminated at its jetty at Beauty Point Ilfracombe previously built by the Ilfracombe saw mill and railway company of 1856. The ruin of its blast furnace is significant, as one of the only three such ruins of 19th-Century iron-smelting blast furnaces in Australia and the only one in Tasmania. It is the only remaining ruin—in Australia—of a 19th-Century blast furnace that had an iron shell.
Iron ore from the company's mine was smelted at a foundry in Melbourne in 1873. Two bells were cast from this iron; the smaller one was exhibited at the Victorian Exhibition (1872–73) in Melbourne and the larger bell at the Vienna Exposition of 1873.
The company constructed a blast furnace alongside a tributary of Middle Arm Creek. It originally intended to power the blast machinery from a large water wheel, which was erected but not used. Despite several design iterations, the steam-powered blast machinery was severely under-sized. Before this situation could be rectified, by raising more capital, the Oriental Bank foreclosed. The assets were sold cheaply; possibly, the new owner intended to restart operations. However, a large fall in the price of iron seems to have ended that possibility.
It remains questionable that the blast furnace actually produced any pig iron, although the company announced in an ambiguous telegram that it had.
Historical context Soon after the first settlement in Northern Tasmania, at York Town in 1804, colonial settlers found that there were extensive deposits of iron ore in the hills to the west of the Tamar estuary. Interest in the area was aroused again by the report in 1866 of the Government Geologist, Charles Gould.
There was an increase in pig-iron prices in the early 1870s, which led to the formation of a number of colonial era iron-making ventures in Australia. The price of imported pig-iron increased, from £4 10s per ton in 1870 to £9 per ton in 1873 greatly advantaging locally manufactured iron. However, this high price did not last long, as iron-making capacity increased and pig-iron was once again imported cheaply as ballast in sailing ships returning from England to Australia.
The Ilfracombe Iron Company was one of four ventures that smelted iron from local iron ore, in Tasmania during the 1870s; the others were, the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company, the Tamar Hematite Iron Company—both nearby on the Tamar estuary—and the Derwent Iron Company. A fifth venture, the Swedish Charcoal Iron Company never went beyond issuing a prospectus. There were also three commercial iron-smelting operations in mainland Australia during the 1870s, the Fitzroy Iron Works, the Lal Lal Iron Company, and the Lithgow Valley Iron Works.
Smelting materials The ore deposit was the first of the deposits in the West Tamar area that were mentioned by Charles Gould in his report of 1866. It was located on private property at on a tributary of Middle Arm Creek, on the western flank of Peaked Hill, about 5 km south of the modern-day town of Beaconsfield. The company later located its smelting site adjacent to this deposit.
A sample, consisting of "hematite and brown ore", had the following analysis:
"Iron ......... 60.6 [%]
Silica ........ 2.4 [%]
Sulphur and phosphorus, though carefully sought for were not detected."
Limestone was obtained from deposits nearby. The fuel used was charcoal, burnt from local timber.
History of operations
Foundation of the company
The force behind the new company was Captain Duncan Longden. The other major shareholders were Ayde Douglas (a Tasmanian lawyer and politician, who was also an owner of a previous, then dormant timber venture in the same area), James Major (of the Melbourne engineering firm Doyne, Major and Willet), James Bickerton, John Robb, David Spence, and two others.
The company was at work for some time before it was officially registered. During this period, it was mainly Longden and Major who were active. The two secured a 3,000 acre leasehold in 1872.
The Ilfracombe Iron Company was registered on 28 January 1873. It had an authorised capital of £50,000 in 10,000 £5 shares. 2000 of the shares were issued as fully paid, probably in exchange for properties, assets and services that the new company needed. The remaining shares were partly paid, to £4.
Trial smelting and exhibition castings Before the Ilfracombe Iron Company was even registered, it had sent iron ore to Melbourne for a trial smelting, at the Railway Foundry, owned by Drysdale and Fraser. In November 1872, the iron ore was smelted with coke and limestone in a furnace—probably a cupola furnace—and various castings were made, including two bells, seven 'pigs' weighing 2-stone (12.7 kg) and one pig weighing 3-hundredweight (152 kg), and "half-a-dozen 18lb. [8.2 kg] cannon balls". It seems that a total of around 400 kg of iron was made, the first time that Tasmanian iron ore had been smelted in a significant quantity in Australia.
The smaller bell—weighing about 9 kg—was exhibited at the Victorian Exposition of 1872-1873. The larger bell—about 2 feet high, 18 inches wide at mouth, and weighing 210 lbs (95 kg)—was exhibited at the Vienna Exposition of 1873, where it was inspected in September 1873 by Emperor Franz Joseph. It had the coat of arms of Melbourne on one side and, along the rim on the other side, the words "Ilfracombe Iron Company". The ability to cast bells directly from the pig-iron demonstrated its quality.
Construction The on-site manager was a civil engineer, Benjamin Hawkins Dodds, who had experience in the Scottish iron industry. The construction of the furnace was the responsibility of a Swedish furnaceman, Karl Haine, with the advice of James Baird Thorneycroft from Scotland.
The foundation stone of the furnace was laid on 12 May 1873, by David Spence, a Melbourne merchant, who was a shareholder. Progress was rapid, with a visitor to the site, in September 1873, reporting extensive progress, with about 100 men working at the site and the work nearly completed.
Delays A fire was lit in the furnace in August 1873 and maintained thereafter, to dry out the furnace to be ready for production. The company prepared a pattern to cast plaques to commemorate what it planned as its first casting of pig-iron in "October 1873". The pattern still survives—held by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston—but the casting in October never occurred.
In early November 1873, it emerged that the iron could not be run because the steam engine used to drive the blast machinery was too small. Another larger engine was on its way from Melbourne, which would be used, "till the water wheel is ready to perform the work, and will then standby to be used in time of emergency, should such arise".
Announcements of success and subsequent closure On 24 November 1873, a small article appeared in the Melbourne newspaper The Argus. It read, " WITH reference to iron mining in Tasmania, the Launceston Examiner reports :—' A quantity of iron has been run off most successfully at the works of the Ilfracombe Iron Company. The furnace answered admirably. The company begins work with unexceptional [sic] prospects.''' " There seems to have been nothing corresponding to it, in the local press in Northern Tasmania.This would be the beginnings of the mystery surrounding the first iron production of Ilfracombe Iron Company.
A few days later, a telegram received from the manager of the I.I.C. read, "George Town, Nov. 28 Twelve pigs Ilfracombe iron shipped per Tamar. Everything progressing well." A local newspaper, the Launceston Examiner, expanded on this announcement by adding, "We believe the weight of the above is about two tons, and that the furnace was tapped on Thursday afternoon, a telegram having been sent to Mr Major that evening, asking him to arrange for shipping it by the Tamar, on her outward trip yesterday." This seemed to be incompatible with the earlier announcement in Melbourne on 24 November 1873, and appears to be the first time that success was announced in Tasmania.
Arrangements had been made to load the pigs onto the steamer Tamar, as she passed down the Tamar River from Launceston, en-route to Melbourne, on 28 November 1873. Presumably, that was done by loading the pigs at the Ilfracombe Company's jetty. It seems that James Major accompanied the pigs to Melbourne, arriving on 29 November 1873, perhaps intending show off the iron to Victorian shareholders and others.
It was soon apparent that the furnace had not stayed in service, as would be usual once production of iron had commenced.
An optimistic report appeared, on 20 December 1873, stating that production had recommenced. It was reported—presumably based on a communication with the company—that, "The new vertical iron cylinders at the Ilfracombe Iron Company's works have been completed, and found to answer admirably. The necessary repairs to the furnace have been carried out, and fire-bricks of the proper description substituted for the inferior ones which were at first unwittingly put in, and active operations were commenced last Tuesday" [16 December 1874].
However, on the same day as that report of production commencing, 20 December 1873, a prominent shareholder, Ayde Douglas, was on his way to the site to meet Major and Longden and find out for himself what was happening.
Another attempt at smelting took place on 23 December 1873, using still larger blast cylinders made of wood at the site, after which the furnace was never relit.
Demise and sale of assets The company had exhausted its capital, wasting some of it on assets that it never put to use, such as its waterwheel. After the failure of attempts to smelt on 16 and 23 December 1873, it became apparent that a larger blast engine and larger blowing cylinders were necessary and would require more capital. The company also had a debt to the Oriental Bank.
It was decided to create a new company of larger capital, and issue new shares to existing shareholders in exchange for the old company's assets. This suited Longden and Major, who were unable to participate in any other kind of restructure, as both had run out of money by this time. However, the Oriental Bank took legal action to prevent the new company being formed and to secure repayment of its loan. An order went to the sheriff to sell off the assets.
There was no auction but the assets were sold to Ayde Douglas for £805, roughly the amount owed to the bank. Douglas had secured the assets cheaply, but the other shareholders' interests were wiped out. The waterwheel was sold off and ended up powering a stamper battery at the Leura Mine.
The low-key sale and the shunning of Major and Longden hints at conflict among the shareholders; it is likely that, as the people managing the site work and operations, Major and Longden were seen as responsible for the failure to enter production.
As the price of iron was still high at the time of the sale, Douglas probably intended to restart the works, but the iron price later collapsed. The furnace site was abandoned.
Controversy