BHP Newcastle timeline
1885 Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited mine silver at Broken Hill
1896 BHP buys Hunter River land from Waratah Gas Co
1899 Dutch-born London based engineer and metallurgist Guillaume Daniel (GD) Delprat starts as BHP assistant general manager, based in Broken Hill, Adelaide then Melbourne from 1913
1902 BHP leases extra land at Port Waratah
1908 Federated Ironworkers Association (FIA) formed
1911 Delprat tours overseas steel plants, foresees expiry of Broken Hill ores, recommends BHP enter steel and iron industry
1912 American David Baker appointed first Newcastle works manager. Land earmarked for botanical gardens leased from state under Newcastle Iron and Steel Works Act
1913 Site works start. Old copper smelting works demolished. Government dredges river by 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5m), site raised 13 feet (4m) above high tide mark
1914 Plant construction continues. 'Delprat's Cottage', off Industrial Drive near Ingall Street, built for Delprat's visits to Newcastle; WWI declared
1915 January first iron ore shipped in; first blast furnace readied or 'blown in'; first steel tapped, first ingots poured, first rails rolled in mill. Official opening by Governor General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson. Urgent output to European war effort
1916 Strikes hit plant, new equipment added, wharf extended
1917 Industrial unrest over Sunday work; strike in August, plant at standstill for three months; new rolling mills added, heavy mill converted to improvised plate mill to ease wartime plate steel shortage. Commonwealth Steel Co founded
1918 More plant added, No2 blast furnace 'blown in'. Newbolds refractory (furnace brick) plant moves from Lithgow to Mayfield
1919 Austral Nail Co establishes wire mill
1921 Delprat stands down as BHP general manager, replaced by protege Essington Lewis. UK company John Lysaght starts galvanised steel sheeting plant to BHP. Administration building, Selwyn Street, occupied
1922 BHP unable to compete with imports in post-war steel glut; Newcastle plant shuts in June with 5000 men dismissed. Rylands opens next to wire mill, merges with Austral Nail
1923 Plant reopens in March; BHP Collieries and BHP By-products established; three steamers, Iron Knob, Iron Master and Iron Prince start work
1924 Leslie Bradford replaces David Baker as manager
1925 Australian Wire Rope Works opens near plant; John Darling Colliery at Belmont opens
1926 Essington Lewis becomes managing director, promoted to the BHP board
1927 BHP takes over Titan Nail Wire. Fabrication (work)shop opens, further plant added
1929 US stockmarket crashes October 29. BHP buys 6% of Vickers-Comsteel; takes control of Lysaghts. UK firm Stewarts and Lloyds sets up near steelworks
1930 Great Depression hits Australian economy
1932 Jobless rate 32%. Plant output halved from 1930 to 195,000t; 80% of Sydney harbour bridge steel from England, the rest, 10,500t, from Newcastle; Burwood and Lambton collieries bought to supply works
1934 No1 blast furnace capacity lifted by 40% cent; BHP in 49/51 joint venture with Stewarts and Lloyds to produce pipe and tube products
1935 BHP takes over Australian Iron and Steel, lifts shareholdings in Australian Rope Works (91%) and Comsteel (59%). Newcastle produces record 520,000t; Leslie Griffiths replaces Bradford as manager; future Steel River site used as a steelworks dump
1936 Newcastle world's lowest cost producer; shell-making starts as war concerns grow; Leonard Grant replaces Griffiths as manager
1937 No11 open hearth furnace starts
1938 Whyalla steelworks design starts at Newcastle; plant producing 500 10-pounder shells a week
1939 Heavy industry expands with WWII effort; Newcastle largest integrated steelworks in British Empire; output includes 3500 shells a week on 24/7 production
1940 Essington Lewis appointed Commonwealth director general of munitions; Newcastle metallurgists find new way to make bullet-proof steel after imported additives cut off
1942 Workforce reaches nearly 9000
1943 Manpower shortages, delays in raw materials as BHP ships are sunk; workforce down to 8200; Keith Butler replaces Grant as manager
1944 Shortland research building finished
1945 Coal scarce, low quality iron ore and limestone, production down to 822,000t
1947 Wagon repair building completed
1950 Reclamation work begins on Platts Channel
1952 John Norgard replaces Butler as manager
1954 No 4 coke ovens battery starts production
1956 George Bishop replaces Norgard as manager
1957 Shortland laboratories open
1958 New coal cleaning plant opens
1959 BOS (Basic Oxygen Steelmaking) furnaces replace open hearth furnaces
1960 Newbolds Mayfield producing 18 million refractory bricks a year
1961 New works canteen opened; apprentice training centre opened
1962 New rod mill built on reclaimed Platts Channel
1963 Robert Coulton replaces Bishop as GM; employees credit union formed (today's Hunter United). IBM 1401 computer installed to keep track of stock
1965 Apprentice of the year awards begun; June 30, 50th anniversary of plant; BHP employees retirement plan announced; last open hearth production
1966 First industries established on Kooragang Island
1967 Koppers formed to use blast furnace coal-tar by-product
1968 William Burgess replaces Coulton as GM; Tourle Street bridge finished
1969 BHP1 and BHP2 wharves dredged to 40 feet; Murray Dwyer orphanage at Mayfield West bought
1970 Brian Loton replaces Burgess as GM, becomes BHP managing director 1982-91, chairman 1992-97. Computer centre opens with two computers costing $US220,000 each.
1972 Zero defects program introduced plant-wide
1973 Cecil Hall replaces Loton as GM; women's amenities installed in two mills
1974 BHP buys Australian Industrial Refractories (Newbolds)
1975 BHP Shipping moves into Lysaghts building
1976 Works sewage plant finished
1977 Rodney Harden replaces Hall as GM
1980 John Risby replaces Harden as GM; natural gas connected to works
1981 Plan for Kooragang blast furnace deferred indefinitely; Essington Lewis: I Am Work, by Newcastle playwright John O'Donohue, debuts without BHP sponsorship
1982 BHP threatens to exit steelmaking entirely by 1987 if Canberra can't help; big job cuts at all three steelworks; first Christmas shutdown since 1930s
1983 Justice W (Bill) Fisher's inquiry into BHP's retrenchments handed down; Hawke government launches five-year Steel Industry Plan (SIP, or Button Plan, after industry minister John Button); Comsteel shareholding cut from 86% to 38%
1985 Newcastle becomes head of Rod and Bar Products Division; BHP centenary; record monthly BHP steelmaking productivity 349 tonnes per employee per annum (tepa) in October
1986 Bill Farrands replaces Risby as GM; BHP declares $1b profit
1987 Older steel plants keep closing around the world, including 22 of 45 US integrated steel plants since height of steel boom in 1974; continuous bloom caster commissioned
1988 BHP and FIA work on three-year National Steel Industry Development Program Agreement (SIDA) to succeed Button Plan
1989 PM Bob Hawke visits plant; Rob Chenery replaces Farrands as GM; productivity target of 44% improvement by 1992; 'greening' program starts; December 28 earthquake rocks plant
1990 Steelworks 75th birthday; skelp mill shuts
1991 Paul Jeans (now University of Newcastle chancellor) replaces Chenery as GM; Business Improvement Process introduced; Steel Industry Business Improvement Agreement developed for the three plants
1992 Newcastle Steelworks Improvement Agreement negotiated with unions, linking wage increases to efficiency gains: BHP used consultants McKinseys, 5000 cost-cutting ideas proposed; Sydney Mini-Mill commissioned
(still providing feed to Liberty Steel's Mayfield mills)
1993 Bob Kirkby replaces Jeans as GM
1994 Single logo unites BHP
1995 Coke Ovens biological treatment plant; electric arc furnace promised to replace Newcastle blast furnaces; Former steelworks dump site earmarked for Steel River industrial park.
1996 Rod and Bar (Newcastle) merges with Long Products (Whyalla). McMaster Review into BHP steelmaking commissioned, never publicly released
1997 Transition Steering Team (TST) meets in January; Closure of steelmaking plant ('front end') announced on April 29, mills to stay open; 24,000 take part in BHP steel strike on May 15; PM John Howard visits Newcastle, ocmmissions report on future jobs strategies for Newcastle
Clive Palmer proposes $2.8 billion Austeel steel making plant for Tomago using iron ore from his WA magnetite leases (the source of his subsequent fortune); Lance Hockridge replaces Kirkby as GM in October; coal washery, steel foundry, desulphur plant demolished; first public word of multi-purpose shipping terminal as BHP replacement; BHP sells half-stake in Koppers
1998 CSIRO to move energy research division from Sydney to Steel River. Planning for Ribbons of Steel closing festival. debate continues over closure as internal BHP documents indicate Newcastle instrumental in Rod, Bar and Wire profit of $42m in seven months; production records set final two years; Hunter Valley Research Foundation (HVRF) report for Newcastle City Council says steelworks put $2.8b a year into Hunter economy, generating 8390 'direct and indirect' jobs. Hunter Steel wants to buy and revive steelworks but BHP shows no interest
1999 Four-week slowdown after power plant explosion halts production; Report to PM Howard in April warns of social unrest, saying 10,000 jobs needed to replace plant. New BHP CEO Paul Anderson questions '$700 million' cost of Newcastle shutdown; Shipping firm P&O goes cold on shipping terminal, an early sign of difficulties to come. John O'Donohue's play, No More the Fur Elise, No More the Bullied Bloom, commissioned by BHP through Ribbons of Steel. Muster Point installation by Newcastle sculptor Julie Squires unveiled. Newcastle steelmaking plant officially closes, September 30. Protech proposes $1.5 billion steel plant on Kooragang Island. Other plans include $460 Boulder Steel plant at Steel River and Austeel, none will eventuate. Remediation of Steel River site 'almost complete'. November: auctioneers start selling 10,000 steelworks items, estimated value $14 million
2000 BHP announces plans to 'spin off' Whyalla, Sydney mini-mill and Newcastle mills. Demolition of steelworks starts. July: BHP signs Newcastle 'exit' deal with NSW government. State to get 2400ha of BHP land and $100million for steelworks remediation. 150ha at steelworks, 230 ha on Kooragang, 500 ha at Belmont, and 1500ha straddling F3 at West Wallsend. Lodges DA in August for multi-purpose terminal. September: HVRF says feared economic downturn did not eventuate. October: Film Australia closure documentary, Steel City, screens on ABC TV.
2001 Spinoff company OneSteel launched on stock exchange; BHP merges with Billiton to become BHP Billiton; Steel River sold to Newcastle consortium. NSW government signs Austeel agreement with Clive Palmer, pledges to spend $240 million on transport
2002 Pathways boss Paul Cartledge says more than 800 of 900 BHP workers who signed up to the program found work within 12 months, half in full-time jobs. Newcastle company Innova successfully removes carcinogenic hydrocarbons from 3000 tonnes of highly contaminated sinter plant soil.
2003 January: NSW government says Innova-style full clean-up 'too expensive', with 'cap and fill' the likely option. October: Premier Carr pushes MPT expectations out to 2016-23. BHP completes its exit from the steel industry by putting Port Kembla into BlueScope Steel, which lists on stock exchange. December: BHP and NSW government at odds over costs of Hunter River clean-up
2004 March: Clive Palmer abandons Austeel plan. May: Moltoni Adams finishes steelworks demolition, site levelled. Instead of remediating steelworks 'hot spots', BHP opts for deep underground 'wall of China' on three sides of site to stop north-flowing groundwater taking contamination offsite
2005 November: Blow-out in BHP decontamination costs confirmed, with state to pay the extra despite BHP making $8.6b profit
2006 OneSteel buys Melbourne-based competitor, Smorgon Steel (which also owns Comsteel)
2008 BHP Billiton gets approval to mix contaminated river sludge with ash and cement, forming solid blocks to be stored in 'lined facility' on Kooragang. OneSteel shuts former BHP bar mill in September. BHP Billiton reveals Shortland lab has been analysing 'low level' radioactive waste from its Olympic Dam uranium mine since 2006. Nathan Tinkler-backed Buildev announced in December as preferred tenderer for 62ha 'Intertrade' site on former steelworks (the land not dedicated to MPT)
2009 BHP Billiton says steelworks channel clean-up will cost it $780m. Company already involved in river dredging for Newcastle's third coal terminal, NCIG on Kooragang, in which it had a 35% stake.
2010 June: Thiess to start $405m contract for 'most contaminated' section of river. August: River clean-up at 'half-way mark'. December : Nathan Tinkler plan for Maules Creek-related coal loader on steelworks site: it eventually features in ICAC's 2016 Operation Spicer report
2011 March: 'Jodi's trucks' leaflets dropped around Mayfield criticising the proposed MPT: pamphlets later examined by ICAC.
May: Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association proposes memorial to 'fallen colleagues' to be ready for plant centenary in June 2015.
August: Bluescope $1b loss, 1000 layoffs at Port Kembla announced, while BHP Billiton posts record $22b profit.
November: OneSteel confirms steel downturn threatens future of Whyalla and Mayfield mills, but not Comsteel at Waratah
2012 April: OneSteel announces company name change to Arrium, with OneSteel brand to remain. July: Approval of master plan to redevelop waterfront 90ha of steelworks site as a 'multigoods' terminal.
August: 'Betrayal' claims as Labor NSW government backs another expansion of Botany terminal. October: Korea's POSCO (eventually unsuccessful) bid for OneSteel values it at $1b, down from $5b in 2007.
November: 90ha of steelworks site remediation finished, including 500,000t of capping on 55ha: Back end (Buildev site) still to be cleaned
2013 February: State moves to rescind Intertrade site agreement with Buildev. March: BHP Shortland labs become university-aligned Newcastle Institute for Energy Research (NIER)
2014 February: State-owned Newcastle Port Corporation to demolish final three steelworks heritage buildings.
May: Port corporation privatised as Port of Newcastle, with conditions later revealed to deter container terminal
2015 April: Anzac Walk unveiled, with $3m of $5m budget from BHP. June: Steelworks centenary commemorations centre on memorial to fallen steelworkers, standing on sandstone from pattern shop, with 2065 time capsule. July: BHP Billiton makes available records of Newcastle steelworks fatalities.
2016 April Arrium (formerly OneSteel) goes into voluntary administration owing more than $3.5b. May: BHP exhibition at Newcastle Museum reopens after a year-long overhaul. July: NSW government finally confirms secret deal to protect Botany from a Newcastle container terminal.
August: ICAC Operation Spicer report released, with section on the container terminal site. November: Arrium administrators sell Moly-Cop at Waratah
2017 May: Having sold most of its Billiton assets, company drops the name and reverts to BHP. September: Arrium sold to British entrepreneur Sanjev Gupta's Liberty Group for reported $700m, rebranded as Liberty Steel
2018 March: Comsteel celebrates centenary at Waratah plant. August: Historic plaque returned to BHP admin building. December: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announces court action against operator of Port Botany over its end of Newcastle container terminal restrictions. Case set down for hearing in late 2020
2019 July: National Party backs steelworks site container terminal. August: Arrium renamed InfraBuild, but OneSteel brand remains. September: 20th anniversary of steelworks closure
Sources:A Future More Prosperous, The History of Newcastle Steelworks 1912 - 1999, by Christopher Jay
Not Charted on Ordinary Maps, The Newcastle Steelworks Closure, by John Lewer
Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association
Newcastle Herald, Sydney Morning Herald,
A Measure of Greatness, The Origins of the Australian Iron and Steel Industry, by EM Johnston-Liik, George Liik, and RG Ward
The Ironworkers, A History of The Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia, by Robert Murray and Kate White
Various online sources including ABC, Trove, Wikipedia
