Pastoral Finance Association, officially Pastoral Finance Association Limited, also known as 'P.F.A.', was a company operating in Australia from 1890 to 1922. It is now mainly remembered for the large fire that all but totally destroyed its wool storage building at Kirribilli, Sydney, in December 1921, and for an important principle of case law.
Origins, names, and ownership The origin of the company stems from J.H. Geddes and Company, originally fellmongers and wool scourers, which in 1885 expanded its business to include wool auctions and other produce sales, from its warehouse in Phillip Street, Sydney.
John Henry Geddes (1855—1909)—always better known as J.H. Geddes—was the son of Irish-born John Geddes (1823—1894), originally a fellmonger at Camperdown, but later a wool broker who also ran a wool scouring business, at what is now Bunnerong Road, Botany.
John Geddes handed over day-to-day management of the wool scour and tannery business to two of his sons, Alexander and John Henry. In 1880, they expanded it, by acquiring the Floodvale wool scouring works. Under the trading name, A. & J.H. Geddes, by 1881, they were employing 100 men and processing 80 to 100 bales of wool per day. By 1885, Geddes was in charge of the business by himself, leading to his becoming key to the establishment of the company, in 1890, that would become Pastoral Finance Association, Limited.
In May 1890, a decision was taken to incorporate the venture as, J. H. Geddes and Co., The Pastoralists' Association, Limited. Land with a water frontage had been secured at Kirribilli, and a board of directors nominated, with J.H. Geddes as managing director. Its other shareholders were mainly leading pastoralists, and from the outset had the nature of a cooperative. The chairman of the board was George Cox (1824–1901) and the vice-chairman was Russell Barton (1830–1916).
Later, the company amalgamated with two other ventures—Pastoral Finance Trust and Agency Company of Australasia, Limited—and the name of the combined entity changed to J.H. Geddes and Co., the Pastoral Finance Association, Limited.
In 1894, J.H. Geddes severed his connection with the company, selling his shares, and the company's name changed to its final form, Pastoral Finance Association, Limited (P.F.A.). Russell Barton became chairman, after Cox's death in 1901, and was briefly managing director in 1902.
History of operations
Kirribilli wool store and wharf Work began on excavations for a new warehouse facility, in Kirribilli, around May 1890. The keystone of the building was officially laid in a ceremony in December 1890, and the new facility was officially opened in October 1891. It was adjacent to Admiralty House, extending to Beulah Street, and at its rear to what was then called Campbell Street, modern-day Kirribilli Avenue. Along the waterfront, the building stood seven storeys high. Due to the natural slope of the land, at its rear, only three to four of the seven storeys projected above ground level. The site had area of six acres. around 60 men were employed there by 1921.
The facility included a wool warehouse, meat cold store, and wharf. It included generators for electricity, as well as large compressors for refrigeration. Its capacity was 26,000 bales of wool and 60,000 sheep carcasses. There was a wharf of 20,000 sq. feet in area, with 40 feet of water depth, and a barge canal that ran 50 feet inside the building. Produce arriving at Darling Harbour goods yard by rail—the company had a rail siding there—would be ferried across the harbour in barges, avoiding the need to use road transport. Punts could carry two rail wagons across the harbour, allowing the wagons to be unloaded at Kirribilli. Similarly, wool, meat or skins destined for export could be dispatched by barge to where waiting ships were loading cargo, or loaded directly to ships at the company's own wharf.
Freezing operations and frozen meat store J.H. Geddes was an advocate for chilled meat in 1892. He made a tour to Europe to inspect and research the industry there. The new freezing works was officially opened in 1893. Livestock was slaughtered and reduced to meat carcasses, at the existing abattoirs at Glebe Island, then sent by barge to Kirribilli. Around early 1893, meat freezing operations began, and the large cold store began to fill. A cargo of frozen mutton and beef was loaded onto the refrigerated steamship, Star of Victoria, destined for London in June 1894. The facility and wharf at Kirribilli became part of a large supply chain to buyers in London, who had facilities which received large shipments of frozen carcasses and had developed techniques to defrost the meat. After the Glebe Island Abattoirs closed in 1915, carcasses would have been sourced from the new State Abattoirs at Homebush Bay or from other abattoirs, by rail. Refrigerated rail wagons were brought across the harbour, two at a time, by barge.
Financing The company provided finance to pastoralists, using funds that the company would borrow from English sources.
Electricity supply The generators of the huge meat cold store also supplied electricity—almost certainly direct current—to some customers on the north side of the harbour, from January 1909 until around 1922. In December 1921, P.F.A. were supplying residential and commercial customers in Kirribilli, North Sydney, and Milsons Point. The electricity supply business was operated by a subsidiary company, Northern Sydney Electric Light and Power Supply Corporation.
It also provided street lighting for some of the major streets of North Sydney from 1913 to around 1922. However, P.F.A. failed in its objective to set up a larger power station (and garbage incinerator) to supply all the municipalities on the Lower North Shore, with alternating current electricity, in a similar manner to the Electric Light and Power Supply Corporation, which began operating, at Balmain, in 1909.
P.F.A. Quarterly P.F.A. Quarterly was a magazine, first published in June 1914, by Pastoral Finance Association. It was immediately well received. It carried advertising, but was paid by subscription.
The magazine was founded by H.S. Chilton-Young, who became general manager of P.F.A. in 1908, upon the sudden death of the previous general manager. By late 1917, Chilton-Young, although still general manager, was also officially the magazine's editor, but his influence had been perceived from the time of the very first issue.
The magazine self-described its role as, "Devoted to the interests of the Country and dealing with matters of everyday usefulness to Woolgrowers, Farmers, Stockowners and Breeders".
Topics included some of specific interest to those groups, such as articles on developments in agriculture, but the magazine also included articles of more general interest, on other countries and recent events, both in Australia and overseas, a children's page, and a recipes page, known as 'The Good Housewife'. Topics in the December 1917 issue included, among others, 'Wool Handling in Wartime', Newfoundland, the then new Taronga Park Zoo, the newly opened Trans-Australia Railway, and the emerging situation in Russia.
Thwarted plans for relocation Around the turn of the 20th Century, Sydney was a major wool port, and terminus of a network of railway lines connecting it to wool growing areas. As well as P.F.A.'s store, there were other wool stores, at Ultimo, Pyrmont, Millers Point, Circular Quay, and East Circular Quay.
As the only one of Sydney's wool stores that was on the northern foreshore of Sydney Harbour, impressive as the Kirribilli facility was, it suffered from a lack of direct access to the railway network of New South Wales. While the waterfront site reduced the need for road transport, it still necessitated a degree of double-handling due to transshipment by barge, from the site of the rail yards at Darling Harbour. While not alone in this regard, the operations at Kirribilli were at a disadvantage to those of some other wool stores. Without any road crossing of the harbour, east of Gladesville Bridge—other than by using vehicular ferries—P.F.A. alone was totally dependent upon water transport.
There was some opposition to the presence of the woolstore at Kirribilli, which was a largely residential area. It was seen by some as an eyesore, inappropriate to be alongside Admiralty House, and ruining the view of Kirribilli Point. It is also very likely that the land value of the six-acre site, in an increasingly dense residential area, was also a factor favouring a relocation of the Kirribilli operation.
The company decided to relocate its operations to the southern foreshore, and in 1908 bought a piece of waterfront land on Jones Bay, at Pyrmont. In 1910, the NSW Government resumed the land for the construction of wharves, by the Sydney Harbour Trust. The company disputed the value of compensation that it received, leading to the protracted legal dispute, Pastoral Finance Association v. The Minister. By the time of the final decision from the Privy Council, in the company's favour, the First World War had just begun. The plans for relocation were deferred indefinitely.
Fire
On Tuesday, 13 December 1921, the building at Kirribilli was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. The engine room, compressors and power generation equipment survived, and the wharf remained usable. Some wool was recovered from the ruined buildings, but most of the contents of the building had been destroyed or damaged beyond recovery. The cause of the fire would never be known.
Neighbours noticed the smell of burning wool, at around 6 a.m. on 13 December 1921. At around 7 a.m., Mrs Robertson, wife of the company's engineer, noticed an odour of fire, but initially put it down to garbage being burned. Shortly afterwards, her son ran in and told her that the building was on fire. The fire was initially reported in wool on the second floor from the top at the rear of the building. Two men going to a small storeroom found the wool well alight in the north-eastern corner of the building, at 7:10 a.m. Flames first emerged from windows in the north-eastern corner of the building. Within minutes, certainly by 7:30 a.m., all floors were alight.
The internal structure of the building included wooden floors, which over the years had become coated by inflammable lanolin. As the wooden structure of each floor was consumed by fire and collapsed, wool bales above fell into the raging fire, which gave off a choking dense black smoke.
Around 150 naval personnel came from Garden Island and prevented the fire from spreading to the neighbouring Admiralty House. They also assisted on the northern and eastern side of the building including removing cylinders of ammonia gas from the building, to prevent their exploding. They also took turns to relieve firemen holding fire hose nozzles.
Sydney Harbour Trust fire floats, Pluvius and Hydra, fought the fire from the harbour. The fire brigade from Crows Nest worked to save the engineer's residence. Fire engines, from the city fire brigades, needed to be brought by vehicle ferry, across the harbour, and so only arrived after the fire was well established and the roof of the building had already begun to cave in. Pluvius and Hydra also pumped water up to Campbell Street for firemen working on the rear of the building.
At around 8 a.m. the walls began to collapse, first the southern wall, which showered the water with falling bricks and ironwork, narrowly missing the fire floats. When the southern wall collapsed, falling masonry landed on the freezing works. Then the northern wall along Campbell Street collapsed, and last the side walls. Initially, the day had been windless, but around 9 a.m. a light breeze arose, increasing the danger to nearby houses and flats.