Untitled

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 5

AUSTRALIA AT WAR

ASTONISHING ADVANCE

PLANES AND SHIPS

Australia's economic and industrial structure has, after a year of war, emerged from a process of reorganisation which has made the Commonwealth an invaluable source of supplies for the Empire.

Changes wrought in the life of a great part of the nation, the building and.tooling of vast new factories, the far-reaching alterations in existing industrial plants to meet the inexorable demands of war have been made possible by unprecedented effort.

The achievement of similar expansion under normal conditions might have been expected to be spread over many years, and to have followed a smooth course of progression. Australia has faced the necessity of sudden expansion. No easy road to the solution of problems lay before the planners and workers. Difficulties far beyond those normally encountered in the foundation of new industries thread ened to cripple the effort to make many of the needs of war which Australia is producing, or will shortly produce. Demands on the industries of Great Britain and the United States prevented the export to Australia of machines and machine tools. Plans became difficult to obtain. Australian craftsmen have met* such difficulties by making in their own country the very delicate machines and tools which could not be brought from abroad.

It is the reward of a long series of such triumphs over abnormal difficulties that Australia is now producing certain types of planes for R.A.A.F. squadrons and for the Empire Air Training Scheme. Wirraway planes are being built at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation's factory, which is working 24 hours a day. Skilled craftsmen are working in 12-hour shifts to make the planes and engines. Many of these machines, for which present orders total 811, are in commission. CA.C. Trainers—low-wing monoplanes, designed at the same works — have been tested and found admirably suited to their work. Orders for 200 have been placed. Tiger Moths, for which air frames are made by the De Havilland works, are being delivered in large numbers.. Australian craftsmen are assembling Fairey Battle machines manufactured in Great Britain, and parts of other types are being made here.

Preparations for the manufacture of Bristol Beaufort bombers have reached an advanced stage, and it is expected that the first Australian-built machines of this type will leave the factory next April. The work already done in this field is one of the outstanding achievements of Australia's war effort. The extent of the work can be judged from the fact that the organisation already set up is twice the size of that of General Motors-Holdens in South Australia; ultimately 10,000 people will be employed. A big contingent of engineers had to be sent to England to study the methods of the Bristol works. They have returned, and are at work. Of 24,000 jigs, fixtures, tools, and gauges, 20,000 will be made here.

In addition to production of existing types, work is progressing on the development of a light reconnaissance bomber, for which more than £2,000,000 has been set aside.

Shipbuilding is another branch of Australian industry which has made valuable contributions to the Empire war effort. Defensive armament has been fitted to more than 130 ships. Tribal class destroyers and large numbers of coastal defence, boom defence, and small craft are being built. The latest order is for 50 patrol vessels, 20 of which are for the Royal Navy.