Perry Engineering

{{Infobox company

|name = Perry Engineering

|logo =

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|image = South Australian Railways F240 1952.jpeg

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|image_caption = South Australian Railways F242 in 1952

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|industry = Foundry and steel engineering works

|fate =

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|foundation = 1899

|founder = Samuel Perry

|defunct = 1969

|location_city = Mile End, South Australia

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|subsid = James Martin & Co}}

Perry Engineering was a major foundry and steel engineering works in the state of South Australia.

History

Perry Engineering had its origins in 1899 when Samuel Perry purchased from the estate of James Wedlock the Cornwall Foundry on Hindley Street, renaming it the Victoria Foundry. He leased or purchased a nearby property on North Terrace and there established a bridge and girder factory. He purchased a large block of land at Mile End with potential for a private railway siding and around 1911 established the factory there, by 1916 it was known as Perry Engineering.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6468409 |title=Advertising. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=26 October 1916 |accessdate=9 December 2014 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74094782 |title=Engineering Works. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=24 January 1934 |accessdate=8 December 2014 |page=30 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

In 1915, Perry purchased the James Martin & Co Phoenix Foundry works in Gawler from the estate of the owner Henry Dutton of Anlaby. The company had recently lost a major contract for locomotives, which may have affected the price,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97734310 |title=Martin & Co's Works |newspaper=Bunyip |location=Gawler, SA |date=16 April 1915 |accessdate=9 December 2014 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} as may have World War I which was then consuming capital and manpower.[http://www.gawler.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/James_Martin__Co_Phoenix_Foundry.pdf James Martin & Co Phoenix Foundry] Town of Gawler

James Martin's locomotive manufacturing business was also being challenged by the state-owned Islington Railway Workshops. Samuel Perry transferred most of the heavy work to the Mile End factory, leaving the Gawler works with the rump of the business. He took on his nephew Frank as works manager at Mile End around 1918;{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129823578 |title=Tariff Revision |newspaper=The News |location=Adelaide |date=14 January 1925 |accessdate=5 December 2014 |page=6 Edition: Home |publisher=National Library of Australia}} In 1930, on the death of his uncle, Frank took over the company, which in 1937 was registered as Perry Engineering Co. Ltd.

Perry Engineering built locomotives for the Commonwealth Railways, South Australian Railways and Tasmanian Government Railways. It also built 19 locomotives for Queensland sugar cane line operators.[http://www.lrrsa.org.au/LRR_SGRb.htm Sugar cane transport] Light Railway Research Society of Australia The Victorian State Rivers & Water Supply Commission purchased eight for construction of the Hume Weir and nine for the rebuilding of Silvan Reservoir.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

During World War II much of the factory was converted to manufacture munitions and defence equipment including two types of vehicles which were sold to the Americans. One of the two vehicles was the Ferret scout car.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

A heavy steel manufacturing plant was established in Whyalla in 1958, and the factory at Mile End expanded.Cumming, D. A. and Moxham, G. They Built South Australia Published by the authors February 1986. {{ISBN|0 9589111 0 X}} In 1947 the company became a public company. In the 1950s, it manufactured mechanical presses for Chrysler, Ford and Holden.[http://www.boral.com.au/history/Ch5_10.html Johns Perry Limited] Boral

In 1966 Perry Engineering merged with Victorian company Johns & Waygood to form Johns Perry Engineering. The Mile End workshop closed three years later. Ten years later the company had no manufacturing capabilities in South Australia.Susan Marsden, [http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/perry-sir-frank-tennyson-11375/text20323 'Perry, Sir Frank Tennyson (1887–1965)'], Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 9 December 2014 In 1986 the company was taken over by Boral.{{cite web|title=Johns Perry Limited (JPL)|url=http://www.delisted.com.au/company/johns-perry-limited|website=deListed AUSTRALIA|accessdate=26 December 2017}} As part of a company-wide rationalization, Boral decided to divest its engineering division and subsequently, Perry Engineering was sold to the Pope Electric Motors Group however, due to financial issues and lack of projects & contracts, Pope Electric Motors & Perry Engineering went into administration in 2000 and were subsequently liquidated.

In 2001, most buildings on site were demolished to allow construction of the Mile End Homemaker Centre, then in 2004/2005 the last remaining buildings were demolished to make way for stage 2 of the Homemaker Centre.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Output

=Products and projects=

Anzac Class Frigates - Stabilizers & Rudders
Bushmaster PMV - (Prototype built in 1995/6, project then sold to ADI Limited sometime around 1996 when Boral divested its engineering division)
Collins Class Submarines - Hull Segments 300 & 600, Interior Platforms, Drinking Water Piping & Storage Tanks & Thrust Bearings
Construction Equipment - Trenchers, Tractor Cranes & Crane Borers
Cranes - (Travelling, Portal, Container & Tractor cranes)
Controllable-pitch propellers - Joint-venture with Lips N.V of Holland
Elevators & escalators
Northern Power Station - Electrostatic Precipitators & Structural Steel
Olympic Dam Mine Project
Paper Machines (Contract manufacturing of paper machines for Beloit)
Perry-Hitachi Reclaimers
Structural Steelwork - Adelaide Festival Centre, Goldsbrough House, Yallourn W Power Station
Metal Castings & Forgings
TACLOP aircraft freight loading system