Call number
Description
The Oxley Ham and Bacon Factory was one of Brisbane's pioneering and most successful and enduring businesses (1894-1992). It exported Queensland's processed 'clean and green' farm produce throughout Australia and around the world.Starting at the Oxley site from 1904, Charles E Foggitt and Thomas L Jones, two young men of enterprise, established a company that became known throughout Australia in food production, especially cured pork and smallgoods; also canned meat and vegetables; and later, fresh beef and mutton. The introduction of a canning plant on site enabled products to be sent abroad to support Australian troops in two World Wars. By 1927 two rival companies (Foggitt Jones Ltd and J C Hutton Pty Ltd) remained independent but joined forces under the name United Provisions Ltd, eventually adopting the business name Hutton Ltd and the brand name Hutton's, a household name across Australia. Set up in Oxley, then a rural suburb of Brisbane on the banks of Oxley Creek and Blunder Creek, the factory was one of the largest employers in the south-west suburbs. At its peak in the 1960s almost 1000 men and women worked on the factory floor and in office administration. The company provided good working conditions, welfare services and social activities for its staff. Following World War Two, many European migrants living in the new adjacent suburb of Inala found work there.The factory closed in 1992, forced out by drought, competition, failed take-overs, a recession, and the floating of the Australian dollar against the United States dollar.The site of the former factory is now occupied by the Oxley Ridge Housing Estate and the Blunder Road Shopping Centre.The book of 144 pages, including 8 colour pages, contains numerous photographs and maps. The author has undertaken extensive research of official records and used personal stories of former employees and family members. The work provides a comprehensive overview of the meat industry, changes in technology and transport, employment practices, environmental impacts and the effects of business practices across a century.… (more)