1946 - 1962 : Post War Development

Summary

The period after 1945 saw a rise in the development of the State’s resource sector into a world scale industry and Western Australia’s increasing access to the rest of the world. Engineering design and construction of plant and equipment was largely sourced from overseas engineering companies however it laid the foundation for a robust local capability to emerge in subsequent years.

Development of Major Industrial Capacity

A surge in the State’s manufacturing industry came with the advent of a substantial resource processing industry. In 1952, political tensions in the Middle East and the trend of locating processing nearer to consumers led to the development of an oil refinery at Kwinana. This sparked the beginning of the State’s first major industrial complex. A steel bar plant in 1954 was followed by an alumina refinery in 1961 (and a nickel refinery in 1970). Manufacturing peaked at around 46% of total State primary, mining and manufacturing production in 1963 64, before the iron ore boom reduced its relative importance.

The Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA), established in the 1950s following a special Act of Parliament, protected an area of about 120 square kilometres to accommodate the development of major resource processing industries in the State. The BP Oil Refinery which commenced production in 1954, was followed soon after by the BHP steel rolling mill (which no longer operates), and later by large metals, power and chemical plants. A townsite at Medina was established, which has since expanded to form the core of the town of Kwinana.

The KIA has played an important role in stimulating the economic development of the State. It is large by Australian standards, and competitive globally. The State provided major road and freight rail connections to the KIA. Another major advantage of the KIA is the deep water in Cockburn Sound.

Transforming Metropolitan Perth

In the 1950s Perth, capital city of Western Australia, stood on the cusp of major development which would transform it from a nineteenth century European city to a modern commercial city dominated by international style skyscrapers and surrounded by sprawling suburbs. Gordon Stephenson and Alistair Hepburn were engaged by the state government in 1953 to prepare a plan for the metropolitan area that would guide and shape this transformation. The completed Stephenson Plan recommended that a regional planning authority be established for the purpose of implementing a regional planning scheme—a recommendation that was passed into law with the MRTPS Act of 1959. The Act centralised sub division control, keeping it in the hands of the state government, but delegated many local planning responsibilities to local governments.

Connecting to Global Markets

Communication and transport advances brought Western Australia much closer to the rest of the world, providing opportunities for local producers to more easily access markets in other countries. On the other hand, overseas producers could access the Western Australian market more readily. The outcome was a highly specialised and trade dependent Western Australian economy with mining and mineral processing the dominant industries, using income derived to import many other goods and services.

Shifting Agricultural Focus

Immediately following the Second World War, agricultural production, (especially wool) underpinned Western Australia’s economic well being. In 1952, Korean War induced demand led to the famous ‘pound a pound’ wool price, the highest recorded in real terms in the 20th century.

While agriculture remained strong and improvements in technology were able to enhance efficiencies, growth in secondary industries remained limited. Western Australia remained predominantly an exporter of primary products. Nevertheless, some manufacturing industries developed during the early post war period, led partly by government policy and subsidies, including for the Chamberlain tractor project (on the wartime Welshpool munitions site), Woolcombers topmaking, and the Wundowie charcoal, iron and wood distillation plant.

Flour was a casualty of declining transport costs within Western Australia and the trend of locating processing closer to consumers. Flour was a major component of the State’s exports in the first half of the 20th century, but it declined in significance during the development of the State’s bulk grain handling system, which reduced transport costs for raw wheat. In particular, the construction of bulk export facilities at Geraldton (1937), Fremantle (1942), Albany (1956), Esperance (1962) and Kwinana (1976) reduced handling costs and made exporting wheat substantially cheaper than exporting flour. Flour exports peaked in 1961 at 160,000 tonnes, compared with 635,000 tonnes of wheat exported, a record share for a non drought year. (By 1990, however, flour exports had reduced to negligible levels, while wheat exports reached almost five million tonnes.)

Mineral Resource Development

The State’s second major resource boom was stimulated when, in 1960, the Commonwealth Government lifted the iron ore export embargo that had been in place since 1938. Demand was fueled by the buoyant Japanese economy and Japanese, American and British investment flowed into the State. While Asia had previously been a market for Western Australian products (notably sandalwood and wool), the export of iron ore to Japan marked a fundamental shift in Western Australia’s trade dynamic and paved the way for the development of Asia as the State’s most important trading region.

Prior to the resurgence of the resource sector, economic conditions had been relatively subdued, with constant price household income per capita roughly the same in 1960 61 as in 1948 49. However, the mining boom caused income per capita to more than double by 1973 74. Importantly, while iron ore was (and remains) a significant component of the mining industry, one important aspect of the resources boom in the 1960s that set it apart from the gold rush, was the diversity of commodities being mined. There were major discoveries of nickel, petroleum, bauxite and alumina, which all developed into significant industries in the 1960s and 1970s and introduced new processing technology.

Other Developments

Guildford Airport, which had been built during the Second World War for defence purposes, became the WA hub for domestic flights and was renamed Perth International Airport in 1952. At that time Qantas inaugurated its route to South Africa via Perth, the Cocos Islands, and Mauritius, flying a four engined Constellation aircraft. Boeing 707 aircraft were introduced to international flights in the late 1950s, with routes to Asia and Europe primarily through Singapore and the Indian sub continent. Domestic jet travel came to Perth in the early 1960s. Travellers could then fly from Perth to Adelaide in under three hours – much faster than the Hercules aircraft which initiated the route some 30 years before and took 25 hours for the three stop service to Adelaide.

Other engineering feats of this era include the Narrows Bridge and Perth's first freeway, and the Naval Communication Station at Exmouth. Goldsworthy, Port Hedland, Newman and Dampier were constructed in the Pilbara to service the emerging iron ore industry.

Tram services finished in Perth in 1958 and the first television black and white broadcast took place in 1959, three years after NSW and Victoria began TV transmissions. Sporting facilities were completed ahead of the 1962 Empire Games, which were held at Perry Lakes, west of the Perth CBD. In 1962 the Bendix G15 became the first operational computer to be installed in WA; it had just 7kb of memory.