Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr)

Parent Place or Precinct

03842 Stirling Highway Precinct

Statement of Significance

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr), the remnant of an industrial complex in North Fremantle, which was a former Ford Motor Company automotive assembly plant from 1930 to 1987, originally designed by Oldham Boas Ednie-Brown in the Inter-War Functionalist style consistent with national and international Ford assembly plant designs. The assembly plant was converted to use as a brewery for Matilda Bay Brewing Company in 1989 with further modifications and additions to the site.

Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
• the original form of the building, comprising the administration wing, southern warehouse and saw tooth roof factory (1930; extended 1947; factory partially demolished 2011), which while reflecting innovative factory design elements applied by Ford to other plants in Australia and internationally, were rare in Western Australia;
• the prominence of the building in the streetscape. Intentionally designed as a landmark in the locality, the imposing scale and massing of the building is accentuated by open landscaping and its elevated position enables uninterrupted views to the place, including to ocean-going traffic accessing Fremantle Harbour;
• extant internal elements which demonstrate the place’s original use as a vehicle assembly plant, in particular the overhead crane tracks and rail line in the southern warehouse, and interior features of the administration wing including the decorative ceiling and jarrah partitions and window frames;
• the building’s simple geometric shapes, asymmetrical massing and use of large steel framed windows which make it a good example of the Inter-War Functionalist style, with a classical balance between the horizontal banding and vertical brick pilasters of the warehouse frontage and the horizontal elements of the administration wing;
• key extant elements which clearly demonstrate the place’s use as a brewery, notably the brew chambers and company signage, which contribute to its landmark value, and the boardroom bar.

Other elements related to the brewery, such as the Administration Building (1995) are of secondary significance to the place. Internal factory machinery relating to the place’s use as an assembly plant, and auxiliary structures such as the fitters and electricians workshops, are no longer extant.

Values

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) is rare as the only extant purpose-built automotive assembly plant in Western Australia remaining from the two constructed. Constructed for Ford Motor Company of Australia, the place demonstrates the local application of innovative international industrial designs which were standardised across Ford factories in Australia and overseas but rare in Western Australia, such as the scale of steel framed glass windows on the southern façade.

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) has considerable landmark value with an imposing physical presence on a prominent site on Stirling Highway, relating to both former industrial uses as a motor vehicle assembly plant and brewery. The siting and design were intended to establish the building as a landmark.

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) has historic value in its original and longstanding use as a Ford vehicle assembly plant from 1930 to 1987, a key business activity in the State’s local manufacturing industry and significant employer in Western Australia. Local materials were used as far as possible in the building’s construction.

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) has historic value through its association with the development of the microbrewery by Matilda Bay Brewing Company, who pioneered the disruption to the beer industry with the introduction of microbreweries. The adaptive reuse of an industrial building to a microbrewery has since been widely replicated.

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) has historic value in its association with the Federal Government’s post-war migration scheme which saw new migrants employed in a variety of jobs in the post-war boom. The assembly plant was also reportedly requisitioned to supply military equipment during World War Two.
Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) is an uncommon example of a predominantly intact large-scale purpose-built industrial building in the Inter-War Functionalist style with simple geometric shapes, asymmetrical massing and large areas of steel framed glass windows.

The building is an important element in the industrial landscape of North Fremantle, which demonstrates industrial practices in the area both past and present, and is a remaining example of an industrial past which examples of this scale are uncommon.

Physical Description

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) is a remnant of an industrial complex consisting of a
single storey brick and iron administrative wing attached to a steel and timber
framed factory space clad with corrugated iron and glass (1930; factory spaces
extended 1947 and partially demolished 2011). The roof is predominantly a south
facing, saw tooth construction adjoining a gabled roof structure on the southern
side. To the north of the building is a small two-storey steel framed administration
building clad with corrugated zincalume (1995). The buildings are located within a
site that is predominantly paved with some landscaping on the front verge facing
Stirling Highway.

History

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) comprises the remnant of an industrial complex consisting of a single storey brick and iron office wing attached to a steel and timber framed and saw tooth roofed open factory space clad with corrugated iron and glass, and a large double height factory space (1930; factory spaces extended 1947; saw tooth factory partially demolished 2011). Local architects, Oldham Boas Ednie-Brown, designed the original buildings in 1930 in the Inter-War Functionalist style for the Ford Motor Company Australia, with a design consistent with the company’s interstate plants and influenced by American architect Albert Kahn, who had designed factories for Ford Motor Company in the United States. The place underwent major additions and modifications in 1989 to accommodate a brewery. The site also includes an administration building (1995) to the north of the factory.

In 1925 Ford Motor Company originally leased a warehouse on the western side of the railway line at Leighton from Westralian Farmers Ltd. Ford Motor vehicles were assembled at the Leighton location, now North Fremantle, from imported parts railed to the plant from Fremantle port. Vehicles were then taken by rail for distribution around the state.

Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) comprises part of the original Lot 220 in North Fremantle, which was purchased by Ford Motor Company of Australia in February 1929. The five-acre site was an irregular shaped parcel of vacant Crown land with street frontage on Victoria Avenue (now Stirling Highway), Coventry Parade and McCabe Street. The purchase was formalised in May 1929.

Prominent local architects Oldham Boas and Ednie Brown were engaged to design the building. The firm Todd Bros prepared the site for £1325, and the factory was constructed by firm Finlay and Stoneman. Construction of the Ford Factory progressed throughout 1929 and the factory was completed in May 1930 at a cost of £30,300.

The design of the Ford Motor Co Factory (fmr) is intentionally consistent with other Australian Ford Factories, and bears a strong resemblance to overseas plants including the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in Richmond, California, constructed in 1930.

Upon opening in 1930, Ford’s North Fremantle plant was to be used for the assembly of motor car chassis imported in parts, building car bodies, and associated work. During the 1930s, the assembly plant produced cars and the Fordson tractor. The car chassis were shipped from Canada, and the bodies were made almost entirely of Australian materials at the Ford factory in Geelong, Victoria.

The factory’s moving assembly line started in the large volume southern warehouse, where packing cases of parts were brought into the building by the railway line spur, before snaking through the saw tooth roof factory. An overhead travelling crane in the southern warehouse lifted the crates of parts to the required position and was also used to invert the chassis for installation of the Canadian-manufactured engine, clutch and transmission.

n 1988, the property was transferred to H.L.H. Holdings, who initially intended to convert the place into a retail and residential development. This development did not go ahead, and instead H.L.H. Holdings entered into a lease agreement with the Matilda Bay Brewing Company. The Matilda Bay Brewing Company sought to expand their production of locally made beers previously undertaken in premises in Nedlands, and undertook a major construction programme to convert the buildings for its new function as a brewery.

The Matilda Bay Brewing Company was established by Phillip Sexton and Garry Gosatti in 1984 as Brewtech, with the aim to produce traditionally brewed beers using natural ingredients in a range of styles inspired by European models. At that time all pubs in Western Australia were owned by the big breweries and only sold their proprietary beers. Brewtech originally purchased the Freemasons Hotel in Fremantle in 1984 and established a mini brewery on site, with the renamed Sail and Anchor Australia’s first pub-brewery. It was an instant success particularly as it coincided with the America’s Cup celebrations in Fremantle. The firm went on to achieve major success, acquiring new hotels and increasing the volume of products as well as the range of beers but always with an emphasis on quality. The company developed the concept of ‘retail brewing’ which directly controlled the hotels in which its beer is sold. From 1985, the company successfully expanded into other Australian states.

In 1988, Brewtech changed its name to the Matilda Bay Brewery Company and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

In its conversion to a brewery, the building was gutted of any evidence of the former use as the Ford assembly plant. Construction work included the installation of ‘25 storage tanks, three brewing kettles each designed to hold a different brews and a giant refrigerator where the beer will continue to ferment after being bottled’. Three kettles were built into a new mezzanine floor that was constructed under the main gable closest to the front elevation. It is likely that the cool rooms were located in the rooms that were formerly used for training of mechanics on the northern side of the factory space. The new premises were opened by William McKenzie, Chairman of the State Planning Commission on 10 August 1989.

In April 1990, the locally owned Matilda Bay Brewery was bought by the beverage company Carlton United Breweries (CUB) which subsequently became part of the Fosters Group. The brewery retained its name and continued to brew the original beers associated with Matilda Bay Brewery as well as CUB brand beers.

In 2001, the production facilities at the Matilda Bay Brewery were increased with expenditure of $2 million to increase production by 20%, and the brewery produced 25% more beer than the previous year.

In 2007, Fosters announced that production would cease at the Matilda Bay Brewing Company site, with the loss of 70 jobs, with the decision to move all brewing to the eastern states. By 2008 the plant equipment had been removed for use at other Fosters Group breweries in the eastern states, although the distinctive brass brewing kettles were left in situ with the intent of being a feature of future site development. The 100 sales and marketing staff initially continued to occupy the office spaces, and in 2011 approximately two thirds of the saw tooth roof factory bays were demolished and replaced with car parking space, modifying the building’s roughly square footprint to an L-shape.

In 2014, the property was transferred to the current owners, 3 Oceans Property Pty Ltd, who plan to develop the site for residential and mixed use. The site has continued to be occupied by various leaseholders, and at 2023 the office space is occupied by 3 Oceans Property Pty Ltd, with the factory and warehouse space used for short-term leases.

Integrity/Authenticity

Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.