The Defence Explosive Factory Maribyrnong (abbreviated as EFM) is a heritage-listed military installation and former munitions factory located at Cordite Avenue, Maribyrnong, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Built in 1910 and actively producing munitions for World War I and II, the factory was closed in 1994.
The site comprises the Explosives Factory Maribyrnong (EFM) and the adjacent Materials Research Laboratory (Explosives Ordnance Division) (MRL)(EOD) and the Engineering Development Establishment (EDE) and Army and Airforce Canteen Services areas. The site is bounded on the west, north and north-east by the Horseshoe Bend of the Maribyrnong River, in the east by the western and southern boundaries of the former CSIRO research station (but including the sites of Fisher Stables and Raleigh House), the Maribyrnong Community Centre and the former Migrant Hostel and Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre, and Cordite Avenue in the south.
The former factory is located on a site, called Defence Site Maribyrnong (abbreviated as DSM) that was used by the Defence Department until 2005 and, in 2010, was determined by the Australian Government as surplus to its future requirements. As part of the divestment and open sale process, a request for proposal for the remediation and redevelopment of DSM closed in July 2024, with Defence considering options for the site's future, and has undertaken consultation with the community. , some assets on the DSM site were contaminated with asbestos.
The former factory (EFM) site was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004; and the former barracks, being part of the DSM site, was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 5 October 1995 in recognition of its historically, architecturally and socially significance to Victoria. The site was previously added to the non-statutory and now defunct Register of the National Estate on 21 November 2000.
History
Horse stud and racecourse The land on which the Explosives Factory Maribyrnong (EFM) stands was put up for sale at an auction of Crown land in 1843. The allotments on the eastern part of the site were bought by Joseph Raleigh, while those on the western side were purchased by James Johnston. Raleigh used his property for agricultural and pastoral purposes and erected a house and stables on the top of what is now known as Remount Hill. In 1862 the South Australian pastoralist Hurtle Fisher acquired Raleigh's property and set about turning it into one of Australia's most famous stud farms for racehorses.
Fisher sold most of the farm to his brother, Charles, in April 1866 and was purchased by George W. Petty two years later. Petty, who had amassed a fortune as a butcher, ran the property very successfully as a stud for thoroughbred horses such that Maribyrnong Stud became a celebrated name in Melbourne racing circles. In 1875, two years before his death, Petty sold the property, which was re-purchased by Charles Fisher who continued to operate it as a stud for thoroughbred horses. Fisher also purchased the original Johnston holdings on the western side of the EFM site. In 1888-89 Fisher erected a large new set of brick stables (Building No. 248) which remain extant.
Fisher sold the western portion of property in about 1892 to the three Cox brothers of horse-racing fame, Archibald Robert, William Samuel and Albert Cox. The Cox brothers established a private racecourse, the Maribyrnong Racecourse, and held race meetings there until . The track continued to be used for training purposes until , while in 1904 it served as the venue for Victoria's first motor sports meeting. In the mid-1890s Fisher sold his stud farm on the eastern side of the current EFM site to Sir William John Clarke, the largest landowner in Victoria and a breeder of thoroughbred horses. It is highly likely that Clarke continued to use the property as a stud farm for racehorses and he may also have used it to breed and train horses for his horse artillery battery. The breeding and training of horses on the property were probably continued after Clarke's death in 1897 by his son and heir, Sir Rupert Clarke, who was a leading racehorse owner and breeder in his own right and a member of his father's horse artillery battery.
Development of defence industries In 1878, the Victorian Colonial government had built a large gunpowder magazine known as the Saltwater River Powder Magazine or simply Jack's Magazine on a site to the south in Footscray near the river. Though by no means intended at the time, the building of this magazine laid the foundation for the Footscray/Maribyrnong area to develop as the centre of Australia's armaments industry. A significant impetus towards this development occurred in 1889 when, following a proposal put forward by Victoria at the first meeting of the Federal Council of Australasia in Hobart three years earlier for the establishment of a Federal ammunition factory for the Australian colonies, the Colonial Ammunition Company erected a plant next to Jack's Magazine. Apart from its proximity to the magazine, the factory's location was eminently suitable for a variety of other reasons: the widest range of raw materials in Australia was readily available; a good supply of labour existed nearby; the main customer was close at hand in the shape of the Victorian Defence Force, the largest such force in Colonial Australia; and, while port facilities for shipping the factory's products to the other colonies were within easy reach, the factory was at the same time sufficiently far inland to render it safe from naval bombardment. The particular development of the current EFM property as a centre of munitions production derives from its selection in the first decade of the twentieth century as the site of the Commonwealth's factory for the manufacture of cordite. Introduced in 1895 as a replacement for gunpowder, cordite was a smokeless, more powerful and more reliable propellant for firing missiles from guns. As early as 1895, the Victorian Government investigated the possibility of building a cordite factory and, the next year, an intercolonial conference of the military commandants of the Australian colonies agreed on the importance of such a factory to the capacity of Australia as a whole to defend itself. From 1901 the new Federal Government struggled with the issues of a munitions supply. For the first few years Australia's sole supplier was the first and only manufacturer, the Colonial Ammunition Company, at Footscray. In 1902 Major General Sir Edward Thomas Hutton recommended that such a factory should be part of a Central Arsenal.
Suggestions had been made in Victoria in 1896 that a change should be made to a rifle using a cordite based propellant. One consequence of this decision was the need to import both cordite and new rifles. In Victoria new .303 rifles were issued to infantry with ammunition made at the Colonial Ammunition Co. Factory. The new Short Magazine Lee-Enfield .303 was adopted in 1903 by the British Government. While the new Federal Government aimed at achieving a greater degree of self-sufficiency for the nation in the area of defence including munitions production, no progress towards the establishment of a cordite factory occurred until 1906 when investigations into cordite explosions in arsenals around the world revealed that the substance deteriorated with age and variable temperature. This finding stirred the Federal Government into action. Melbourne was selected as the site for a factory to produce cordite for small arms ammunition because it was the headquarters of Australia's defence forces and, being the centre of the nation's emerging chemical industry, could supply the necessary raw materials. For the particular location for the factory the Commonwealth settled on the disused Maribyrnong Racecourse and part of the neighbouring stud farm because of their proximity to both the existing ammunition factory at Footscray and to a plentiful supply of labour. In 1908 the Commonwealth resumed the land and commenced construction of the factory complex in 1909. The factory was designed by its newly appointed manager, Arthur Edgar Leighton, who was to become one of the leaders of the Australian munitions industry. Construction of the factory complex, which extended over the period 1909–12, was carried out by a single contractor, Richard Hamilton of Malvern and took place on the site of the former Maribyrnong Racecourse, on the western part of the current EFM site. The completion of the Maribyrnong Cordite Factory in 1912 mirrored the completion of the Lithgow Small Arms Factory in 1912, designed to produce Lee-Enfield .303 rifles, and ensured, in conjunction with the Colonial Ammunition Company's factory at Footscray, an independent national supply of arms and ammunition.
The military development of the eastern part of the current EFM site commenced in 1912. At that time the Army's Director of Artillery put forward a proposal that the Federal Government purchase an additional segment of the former Clarke estate and convert in into a remount depot to be used for breaking in and training horses mainly for the Royal Australian Field Artillery. The Federal Government duly purchased a parcel of land of approximately 30 acres in extent adjoining the cordite factory site and erected timber stables, exercising yards and associated structures for a Remount Depot, on the crown of the hill that became known as The Remount. The original Fisher stables (No. 248) were also incorporated into the remount depot and, in 1916, they were given a completely new roof clad in corrugated iron in place of the original slate. Barracks accommodation was also erected. The use of this section of the EFM site for remount purposes continued until 1945 when a remount unit and an army veterinary hospital were still located there.
World War I The outbreak of World War I led to an enormous increase in the demand for cordite and other munitions, while at the same time the supply of chemicals such as glycerine, cellulose and methanol, that Australia imported in order to produce its munitions, dried up. The consequences for Maribyrnong were twofold. Unable by itself to manufacture the basic chemicals that it had formerly imported, Leighton and his Assistant Manager at Maribyrnong, (the chemical engineer Noel Brodribb, who was also to become a leading figure in the Australian munitions industry), persuaded local Australian companies to manufacture these substances and taught them how to go about it. Apart from its importance in maintaining and enhancing Australian munitions production, this stimulatory and educative role also proved a significant factor in helping to develop an industrial chemistry industry in Australia. The second major consequence of the war for Maribyrnong was a vast expansion in the range and quantity of munitions it produced. In 1915 the factory complex began to manufacture initiating explosives such as were used in small quantities in percussion caps to initiate the firing of cartridge ammunition. The first such explosive produced at Maribyrnong was fulminate of mercury. Two years later, in 1917, the complex expanded its production of cordite, moving from manufacturing the substance purely for small arms ammunition into making it for artillery shells as well. A further important development occurred in 1918 when Maribyrnong began to manufacture its own acetone from acetate of lime obtained from molasses produced at a purpose-built Commonwealth factory in Queensland. Acetone was a vital ingredient in the manufacture of cordite and one for which Australia had previously been totally reliant on imports for its supplies.
Inter-war years