MUNITIONS FACTORIES IN THE WESTERN SUBURBS

During both World War I and II explosives were a large part of the Army's defenses. Explosive Power was crucial to the effectiveness of weapons and artillery used during battles. Cordite (a propellant for ammunitions) was produced along with many other explosive products.

'The Maribyrnong Defense Explosives Factory, established in 1909, was charged with the crucial job of manufacturing cordite. This was seen as nationally important because of Australia’s relative isolation. The factory helped supply the enormous demand for munitions during WWI.'

Nicknamed “Down Below” the Explosives factory in Maribyrnong sat quietly near the bank on the Maribyrnong River. Located at the end of Boulevard Road, the Explosives Factory was hidden away out of sight.

The three main factories where cordite was produced in the western suburbs were:

The initiation of the first Munitions factory was by Mr. W. M. Hughes the Australian Prime Minister during WWI. His ideas were influenced by a visit to the United Kingdom:

“The Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, created in 1920 by W. M. Hughes, the Australian wartime Prime Minister, after his observations in the United Kingdom of the workings of its Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, was instrumental with the assistance of the newly formed Institution of Engineers (Australia) in causing the Government to form the Australian Engineering Standards Association in 1982.”

Down Below was the first factory to supply Australia with its own munitions for defense during World War II. Built in 1907, it was the first military explosives factory in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. The Cordite and Ordinance factories were both built after the construction of Down Below. When the factory first began it employed British men because they already had experience in the process of manufacturing munitions for warfare. The "Down Below" site was officially opened in 1920 and closed in 1985.

Over the years women have gained access to employment in areas that were once only available for men, or not thought of as suitable for women. Women were not usually employed in working environments that required heavy labor, or were believed to be too dangerous or difficult for women. However, during wartime when the men couldn’t work as they were away in the armed forces, women took on these dangerous jobs. During the war women from all walks of life were employed in the Armed Services and in industries of support.

Throughout World War II women worked producing munitions, explosives and weaponry. While the majority of workers at the munitions factory were men, the number of female workers increased during the war years. During the years 1939 - 45 the number of women employed in the factory varied from 46 to as high as 3,197.

Even in 1985, forty years after the second World War had ended, the Ammunitions Factory was employing over 1,300 people, 450 of those were women. Within the western region of Victoria the Munitions was the single largest employer of women.

This reference table shows the difference between the number of men and women employed during 1939-1945, including the export value of each year.

Employment Production
Year	Males	Females	Total	Value margin
1939\40	1,926	46	1,972	729,046
1940\41	3,764	1,112	4,877	1,897,082
1941\42	4,935	3,197	8,132	4,626,106
1942\43	3,003	2,390	5,393	5,383,887
1943\44	1,772	1,324	3,096	2,760,784
1944\45	1,363	943	2,306	1,825,438
30\09\45	860	76	936	......

During World War II and for many years my Great Aunt Mary worked at the Explosives factory known as “Down Below”. I’ve found out, through her friend and a family member, that it was believed that Mary herself had in fact invented a protective glove. This glove was worn by the women which enabled the women to safely handle the equipment and explosives with greater safety. She was given an award for her achievement. Also during her time at "Down Below", she worked in the Packing Room. She performed tasks such as soldering tins after they had been packed with gun ammo, then packing them to be sent away as bombs for the war.

Yet they all shared common memories of the factory, particularly the unpleasantness of situations that they had witnessed all those years ago. Alan Gross who lived within the walls of the Army's barracks next to the Ordinance and Explosives factories shared what was like for him living at the time of the war: As both the Explosives and Ordnance factories where near to one another.

“A strange life, 5 miles from a city and yet sequestered and isolated. A semi-military life behind barbed wire, and yet one subject to regular office routine. A bewildering number of buildings, divided into sections, fenced off and entered through guard houses; a city without dwellings or shops. The energy of vast manufacturing works, and yet such quietness as Joseph Raleigh might have known. The sound of heavy processes at Ordnance was confined within the walls of its factories. Production at Explosives was, because of its nature, careful and noiseless; in fact, a more peaceful scene cannot be imagined.”

Despite this apparent tranquility there were dangers within the Explosives factory. Many of the workers had accidents during the development of bullets and weaponry.

“A certain amount of powder used to go up, come down. We always had to mop the floor and if you were careless and didn’t, you could run your boot along the floor and it would light. Everybody had to be clean because the powder could sometimes just catch on your finger and it might explode. I saw three men blown up and the powder all went in under their skin- all black and bleeding. But the machines themselves were that solid that they never disintegrated. It was only the powder that exploded” Mrs. Minnie Moloney, Yarraville.

Along with ‘Down Below’ the Cordite factory specialised in the cordite explosive to make their bullet. The .303 Bullets were made at ‘Down Below’ being one of many significant types of ammunitions. As they were making explosives to be incased in bullets the explosives had to be strong.

During the war and with the importance of keeping vital information secure, it was a basic duty to secure the site.

“We had pretty tight security. We had to have a pass. When I first started, we had a yellow badge, it was oval. It just had our number on it. We always had to wear it.” Doris Wright, Essendon.

“DOWN BELOW- The Government Ammunition Factory’s first building was alongside the Maribyrnong River. It was called the Number One factory and the Gordon St site was Number Two factory. The Maribyrnong location was commonly referred to as “Down Below”.

“The most dangerous section “Down Below” was the Cordite Section where the production of bullets started out. The high danger level meant it was out-of-bounds to all that did not work there." Munitions Diary.

During their work the women also experienced a lot of incidents which were sometimes fatal. When they used highly dangerous explosives they would have had in the back of their minds what if something went wrong. Working on the Percussion Caps for 3.7 inch Anti Aircraft, the workers were at risk of accidents.

“This girl was working with very high explosive, taking pellets out of the machine. Well, that stripped the protective clothing from her. When I saw her, all she had was one little stubble of hair on – toward the front of her head.... her undies were still on, but her shoes, everything, was stripped, gone. I was working on another job similar to hers and we were the closest together. It was right on knocking off time, we knocked off usually around half an hour before because you had that cleaning to do, all the machine, clean the press and all the pellets and everything. You had to weigh them all up and so forth. I had been speaking to her about five minutes earlier and we were discussing how far ahead we were, how much more we had to do. And I said:

She said: “ Mine is nearly out and I’m nearly finished’. I walked back to my room were the press was pressing the pellets. You used to walk down a passage and it was just a room where the press was and you put the powder in. You’d go outside and you could control it from there, watching in the mirror at the end of the passage. You could see your work from outside and I had just gone back to my machine and just as I switched off I heard... It didn’t really sound all that large because if you can understand, these walls were about 18 or more inches thick and they were solid brick, or stone. It made a very dull sound but you could always tell when it was a big explosion, because loud or not, if it was bad it would rumble. An explosion like a ‘pop’ sort of thing never did any damage. When there was a rumble I new she was in trouble, and I could see smoke coming out. I ran in to her and she was standing up against the wall. She was conscious and she was saying: ‘Let me out!’. By this time the foreman came running in and he said: “Who is it?” He couldn’t recognise her, that’s how bad she was”. Mrs. B Anderson.

Eighty-two years had passed since the birth of the Munitions factory , to when the factory closed in 1989.

“The closure of two munitions factories in the western suburbs will open up 130 hectares of land along the Maribyrnong River – some of it fenced off for 100 years – for housing, light industry and parkland.”

In 1993 Thomas Taylor wrote an article called “Munitions make way for homes” about urban affairs:

“Australian Defense Industries will today reveal its plans for the Footscray and Maribyrnong sites, the redevelopment plans include about 1500 new houses and also contain protection for significant conservation areas and heritage buildings.”

The site where Down Below is has not been totally demolished yet, the buildings have been hollowed out and are still standing. But alongside the site the old Naval and supporting artillery barracks have been demolished and re-developed into a new estate which many people call home. The new residential estate has 200 or more new homes. Including the area of all three munitions factories, there have been approximately 1500 homes built. Since 1989 "Down Below" has been out of bounds to the on lookers of the neighborhood and surrounding suburbs.

Near to the Maribyrnong River is an empty skeleton of deserted red brick buildings and underground shelter, this is where “Down Below” was in operation during the war. Where sheep now wander through was once an area that was well guarded and secure to the outside world. A sign on the fence says trespassers will be prosecuted.