Farewell to a factory: more than 70 years of manufacturing in Orange

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The city of Orange in central west New South Wales is saying goodbye to a factory that has left its mark on the city's people, culture, architecture and economy.

The factory has a long and colourful history dating back more than 70 years, one that tells the story of Australia's World War II effort, post-war migration and the decline of the manufacturing industry.

But now Australia's last refrigeration factory is closing, leaving the remaining 300 staff to find new jobs.

The factory's beginning

In June 1941, construction began on a small arms factory at Orange to boost Australia's war effort, producing barrels for .303 rifles and bayonets.

At peak production, the munitions factory employed more than 2,300 people, many of them women, but they worked an eight-hour shift compared to 12 hours for the men.

The opening of the hastily-constructed factory led to a large influx of people into Orange, which was previously mainly a rural centre based around the horticulture industry.

The factory is a key part of Australia and Orange's migration history, because many of those who came to work in the munitions factory and later in whitegoods were migrants, particularly from Europe.

Many of them put their own stamp, such as German ornamentation, on homes around Orange and these remain today.

From weapons to whitegoods

At the end of the war when small arms were no longer manufactured, Orange mayor Jack Jaeger led a protest march through the city to demand employment opportunities.

"Luckily Email Limited did a deal with the prime minister, Ben Chifley, to have a decentralised industry because the Orange factory was the ideal place," historian Elisabeth Edwards said.

From 1946 the factory started producing household goods including air-conditioners and washing machines, but over the years through rationalisation this was reduced to fridges and freezers and then finally fridges only.

In recent years the factory produced about 1,300 fridges every day under the Kelvinator and Westinghouse brands, and contributed more than $70 million annually to the local economy.

The people behind the products

The factory changed names from Emmco to Email and then to Electrolux, and at its peak in the 1970s employed more than 2,000 people.

Many spent their entire working lives there and generations of families also joined the factory 'family'.

There were also many outside work activities linked to the plant such as sporting teams, regular barbecues in the grounds to raise money for charity causes, and a social club that organised theatre parties to Sydney.

Many have also paid tribute to the great multicultural feel of the factory.

Some departments were described as the 'United Nations' because of the range of cultural backgrounds represented.

Changes and challenges

The making of fridges changed a lot in 70 years and while initially everything was made in-house, the decades brought changes such as pre-fabricated components, computerisation and plastics.

The workforce decreased from the 1970s until there were 544 people employed in October 2013, when the Swedish company announced it would close the Orange plant.

Electrolux management said its fridges could be made more cost effectively overseas, particularly in South-East Asia and eastern Europe.

The Orange factory's general manager Mark O'Kane, who is taking a job heading up Electrolux's factories in Thailand, said he was fearful for Australian manufacturing.

"I've spent some time in Thailand and it's interesting in that you go through these industrial parks; they're unbelievable the size of them," he said.

"They have government support, they have trade free-zones within these industrial parks, and of course at the end of the day a labour rate of $2.50 an hour that is really hard to compete against."

A place in Australia's manufacturing history

It is estimated the Orange refrigeration factory has made about 12 million fridges, mainly for the Australian and New Zealand markets.

When the last fridge rolls off the production line on Monday, it will mark the end of an era in Australian manufacturing.

The next day will be the last day of work for about 210 employees, while another 90 will stay on until the end of the year in decommissioning.

All the factory equipment will be pulled out, but it is not yet known what will happen to the buildings and other property which include the main factory, a training centre, a canteen and rose gardens.

Information sourced from ABC content; Made in Orange, a history of Electrolux, published by the company in 2015; and Weapons to Whitegoods by Elisabeth Edwards.

Topics: work, history, orange-2800