One of the last vestiges of Ballarat’s proud industrial past has faded into history with the demolition of the drawing offices of the former Ronaldson Brothers and Tippett (later William Barrett) machinery factory in Creswick Road.
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The cream and brown brick building came down on Tuesday, clearing the way for the sale and redevelopment of the site, which housed one of Australia’s leading agricultural and mechanical enterprises for most of the last century.
Founded in 1903 by David Ronaldson, the company manufactured chaff cutters and corn crushers at the outset, before expanding into oil and combustion engines and later tractors, bore drillers, shearing plants and saw benches.
By 1927 Ronaldson Bros and Tippett were the largest engine manufacturing plant in the Southern Hemisphere, producing the famous Austral engines and tractors.
The company produced diesel engines for the army and navy, lathes for armament production and other military items during the Second World War .
In the 1950s the US-based Wisconsin Motor Corporation purchased a 51 per cent controlling interest in Ronaldson Bros & Tippett. It was subsequently sold to the Melbourne-based Merbank Corporation in 1970.
Two years later, the Ballarat works were closed and its assets sold off.
At one point the factory buildings of Ronaldson Bros and Tippett extended from Howitt Street to well down Creswick Road and covered over two acres, says current site owner Alan Barrett.
Mr Barrett’s father William bought the site in the early 1970s and established his own steel fabrication and engineering business.
He says the site had been modified repeatedly over the years and little remained of the footprint of the original buildings.
Mr Barrett said he had made a significant effort to ensure as much of the old building and plant remaining on the site was recycled, and original drawings and plans that had been left behind were conserved or given to historical groups.
A rare Fowler tractor crane and building fittings from the drawing offices were given to a men’s shed, while other groups were negotiating for the purchase of old blacksmithing machinery.
“We’ve kept a lot, and we’ve given a lot away,” said Mr Barrett.
“A lot of people have told me they used to hold dances on the top floor of the drawing offices, but when we bought the site it had been partitioned off.”
Mr Barrett says he understands local attachment to the building, but in terms of safety it was well past being salvageable.
He says there is local and Melbourne interest in the sale of the site.
