Deposit N305 - CSR Limited Archives deposit 1

Identity area

Reference code

AU NBAC N305

Title

CSR Limited Archives deposit 1

Date(s)

  • 1791 - 1986 (Creation)

Level of description

Deposit

Extent and medium

12 m (64 boxes)

Context area

Name of creator

(1855 -)

Administrative history

The Colonial Sugar Refining Company was founded on 1 January 1855 by Sir Edward Knox. It was formed in Sydney as a partnership of unlimited liability which took over some of the assets of the Australasian Sugar Company and Robey and Company including sugar stocks and the Brisbane House refinery and distillery. On 1 June 1857 the Colonial Sugar Refining Company shareholders and Victorian business interests formed an associate company – the Victorian Sugar Company – to establish a refinery and distillery in Melbourne. From 1869-70, three large sugar mills were built and operated on the Macleay and Clarence rivers, New South Wales. A new sugar refinery opened in Pyrmont, Sydney, and from 16 February 1878 Pyrmont became the New South Wales refinery. In 1880 Knox handed over the general management of the company to his second son Edward William.

In 1882 the company began sugar production in Fiji with crushing at the Nausori mill. The company also introduced a system of chemical control of processes in its mills. In 1886, Rarawai mill in Fiji , built by CSR for the New Zealand Sugar Company, began crushing. From 1885-88, Dr G Knottman, CSR chemist, developed the POCS formula determining the “pure obtainable cane sugar” in cane. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company and the Victoria Sugar Company were amalgamated in 1887. The company was incorporated as a limited liability company in New South Wales on 1 July 1887 changing its name to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited. The New Farm refinery opened in Brisbane in 1893 and in 1894, CSR’s Lambasa mill in Fiji began crushing. Crushing began at CSR’s Childers mill, near Bundaberg, Queensland, in 1895 and at the Lautoka mill in Fiji in 1903. In 1906 the remaining Kanaka workforce were deported.

In 1915 the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Fiji and New Zealand) Limited was formed to take over the assets of the company outside Australia. This subsidiary was liquidated in 1923 and the assets returned to CSR Co Limited. I the same year, the Queensland state government signed an agreement with CSR to refine all of that state's sugar production. In 1920 the indentured labour of Indians in Fiji was cancelled on Government decree. CSR introduced a tenant-farming system in Fiji in 1924 as a possible solution to its labour problems. The company bought the Penang mill, Fiji, in 1926.

From around 1939, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd expanded into manufacturing industrial chemicals through its Industrial Chemicals Division, and building materials as early as 1942 with the construction of a plaster mill in Sydney and manufacturing plasterboard. In 1948 CSR Chemicals Limited was formed, later changing its name to CSR Chemicals Pty Ltd in January 1952. In 1959, CSR acquired an interest in Bradford Insulation. In 1973 the company name changed to CSR Limited. CSR Limited took over Australian Estates Co Ltd in 1975.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The deposit consists of CSR Sydney Archives Section files containing correspondence, memoranda, extracts of minutes, legal documents, newspaper cuttings, reports, histories of the sugar industry, immigration and labour, bibliographies and papers re Knox family, publications, photographs, illustrations, and miscellaneous documents relating to CSR Limited, its officers, the Australian and international sugar industry. Also includes records relating to the Fiji sugar industry, pineapple activities in Fiji and Fiji tramways.

Accruals

System of arrangement

Arranged in subject groupings by letters A to X (omitting I, L, O):
A. Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited - General
B. Australian Sugar Industry
C. New South Wales Sugar Industry
D. Queensland Sugar Industry
E. Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian Sugar Industry
F. Fiji Sugar Industry
G. New Zealand Sugar Industry
H. West Indies Sugar Industry
J. The Knox Family
K. Old correspondence various
M. Selected early correspondence
N. Brief histories of sugar industries in the South Pacific
P. Sugar Industry Histories
Q. Queensland and Fijian Sugar Industry - extracts from newspapers, publications, government files and Megass Board papers
R. Fiji - Drasa Training Farm
S. Ceylon, India and West Indies Sugar Industry
T. CSR Mining Activities and Pineapples in Fiji
U. Fiji - tramways, hospitals, bridges, land, immigration, pineapples and Eve Commission of Inquiry into Sugar Industry
V. Reports - British West Indies, Mauritius, Fiji, Pymont and staff
W. Miscellaneous
X. Miscellaneous

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Archives staff will need to request permission from the owner of the records before access can be given.

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Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

NBAC M85 (Section A)

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Dates of creation revision deletion

Entered from deposit description on 22 May 2012

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