Box Factory

In 1925 the National Box Company established a business to the immediate east of the Elkington Park Baths on what is now called Fitzroy Avenue Reserve. It doesn't take long if you visit the Reserve to see the remains of buildings near the waterfront, cuts into the rock face and where the earlier jetty once was. The company made boxes and pallets for the transportation of goods that involved the milling of timber on the premises. Industrial pollution and the poor state of the Baths lead to complaints from the community to the Council in 1950.

The land of the National Box Company

Here is the site of where the factory would have occupied. Use the buttons to see the site devegated and reconstructions of the box factory buildings.

The box factory formed a large part of the surrounding area over the Dawn Fraser pool. Balmain was an important industrial and maritime suburb in the second half of 19th and for most of the 20th century. The many jetties found on maps and in photographs transported raw and manufactured goods, and people. The 1897 and 1906 maps, and a 1951 aerial photo highlight the proximity of Elkington Park and White Horse Point to industries such as Mort’s Dry Dock, the Balmain Colliery, Soap Works, Australian Gas Light Company, and the White Bay Power Station.

Site overview

This 1940s black and white glass plate negative photo was taken from a military plane as part of Milton Kent's (1888-1965) extensive collection of aerial photographs capturing all of Sydney. This shows the change in landscape for the pool, box factory and vegetation.


National Box Factory next to pool

From the pool looking towards the box factory buildings before the cliff is built out with machinery.


National Box Factory waterfront

From the water showing the box factory buildings on the cliff.


Balmain Aerial view

Photo taken for the military in 1940s, these photos show the change in landscape and design for the pool and surrounding area.


Dawn Fraser Pool with the abandoned Box Factory in the background

An overgrown box factory now sits next to the pool.

Source 34

“The company used the site as a place for timber milling and timber box construction. This industry, as with the coal and ship building industries once prevalent in the Balmain area, relied heavily on the waterfront location of Balmain for the transport of materials and products by ship. Anecdotal evidence suggests that The National Box Co. used a wharf facility in the day to day activities of the company which was located where the current Fitzroy Avenue Jetty stands. During the early 1970’s The State Government purchased the site from the National Box Company. The site was in turn acquired by Leichhardt Council in 1982. In the 1980’s redevelopment of the picnic area on the upper level of Fitzroy Avenue took place. A sandstone seawall and foreshore path were also installed as a result.”


Leichhardt Municipal Council. (2004)

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Various Factories in Balmain causing Contamination

Over the centuries the pool has struggled with the pollution coming from the many factories in Balmain, affecting the swimming patrons.

Source 37

“While the price of a swim in Elkington Park Baths, Balmain, has risen 100 per cent, the maintenance has sadly deteriorated. Last weekend, after two swimless days due to filthy oil covering the surface of the baths, angry citizens demanded that the manager ring the Lord Mayor immediately and ask him to come down (which he did). Far from being shocked at the filthy condition of the baths, or ordering a remedy, the Mayor blandly ordered a notice to be placed at the entrance, reading: "Persons bathing in these baths do so at own risk.”


Tribune. (1950a)

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Source 38

“Although Balmain is surrounded on three sides by water, there isn't a decent swimming pool in the municipality. Successive Councils have bowed the knee to private enterprise and today the foreshores of Balmain are occupied mainly by timber yards and oil companies. … the sole swimming baths in the area—Elkington Park—has to accommodate 29,000 people …”


Tribune. (1950b)

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Balmain Colliery

The Balmain Colliery was just a kilometre or so from Elkington Park, right next to Birchgrove Public School. It operated from 1897 – 1931 and after coal mining of stopped methane gas was extracted until 1950. The coal mine shafts were only sealed in 1957.

Source 27

“... Balmain, for many years, had its own coal mine. The surface works were on the site to the north of Birchgrove Primary School. The mine, at first known as the Sydney Harbour Colliery, started operations in 1897 and the last coal was mined in 1931. The mine was the deepest ever worked in Australia and later produced methane gas, but was not a commercial success. It had poor working conditions and suffered several disastrous accidents. The property was sold in 1955 and the shafts filled in and sealed two years later.”


NSW DPI. (2007)

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Fitzroy Avenue Reserve

Fitzroy Avenue Reserve

Here is the site of where the factory would have occupied right up the wall of the baths now parkland and covered in trees. Parts of the factory can still be seen when visiting the Reserve such as terracotta pipes hidden in the cut rock wall.

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References