page_title: Fitzroy Iron Works
section_title: Ebenezer Vickery
hierarchical_section_title: Fitzroy Iron Works / History / Fitzroy Iron Works Company (1859–1869) / Ebenezer Vickery
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Ebenezer Vickery, Sydney, Australia
context_page_description: The Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong, New South Wales, was the first commercial iron smelting works in Australia. It first operated in 1848.
  From 1848 to around 1910, various owners and lessees attempted to achieve profitable operation but ultimately none succeeded. More than once, new managers repeated more or less the same mistakes made by earlier ones. Over the second half of the 19th century, the name 'Fitzroy Iron Works' became almost synonymous with lost opportunities, repeated failure, lost capital, misplaced trust, and general misfortune.
  The Fitzroy Iron Works was—several times—a commercial failure, but it played a part in laying the foundations of the later success of the Australian iron and steel industry, and it was important in the growth of the township of Mittagong.
  Relics of the old iron-works were discovered during excavations for redevelopment of its site, during 2004, have been preserved and are on display. There are also some remnants and a commemorative cairn at the adjacent site of its former blast furnace.
context_section_description: Ebenezer Vickery, a Sydney businessman, was elected chairman of the Fitzroy Iron Works Company. He was the main influence on the company, during the period immediately after Benjamin Lattin's contract expired. Vickery was a Methodist—or Wesleyan as they were called then—as was his ironmaster Joseph Hampshire. He saw part of his role as ensuring the proper morality of his workforce and the township. During his time, public buildings were constructed in Mittagong, and between 600 and 700 people (employees and their families) lived off wages paid by the works.
  Vickery promoted the use of Fitzroy iron himself, using it for the roof trusses of Mittagong's Methodist church and in his own building at 78 Pitt Street, Sydney.
  He set about trying to approve the financial position of the company. In August 1864, a £6,000 mortgage was taken out on the works and in 1865 town allotments were sold in the town of 'New Sheffield', which helped raise additional cash. In February 1865, the capital of the company was reduced by half, effectively writing off much of the earlier investments in the company.
  In November 1865, it was reported that the works was supplying iron to P. N. Russell & Co. and to customers in Melbourne for use in manufacturing, that larger puddling furnaces were being erected and the rolling mill was being reinstalled on more solid foundations.
  However, in December 1865, with there being ongoing problems with the blast furnace (see below), shareholders voted in favour of a merger with P. N. Russell & Co, a large Sydney foundry and ironworks, which was a large customer buying Fitzroy iron. The merger would result in George Russell taking over the management of the works. An attempt to raise new capital to expand the plant—including adding two more blast furnaces and increasing the power of the rolling mills— in early 1866, failed and, consequentially, the merger did not proceed. Although the works were to linger in partial operation for several more years (see below), the works were completely idle in 1869.
  Relations with the New South Wales Government had been nurtured; the Governor, Sir John Young, visited the works twice, once with the Premier, James Martin, in June 1864 and again to witness the casting of a bridge column cylinder in March 1865. However, an attempt by Vickery and his co-directors to obtain a government guarantee for the interest on £50,000 worth of new debentures, in May 1867, failed. The Premier, James Martin—although he had some sympathy for the company and saw a future for it making 'railway bars'—accused the company of previous mismanagement, which Vickery and his co-directors had to acknowledge. Around this time, Benjamin Lattin made public the extent of his losses, which would not have assisted the company's case. There were reports in the press suggesting that the major shareholders had not risked much of their own money but expected government support, which were denied in response. The guarantee also faced active opposition from the N.S.W. Industrial League—supporters of free-trade—who feared that the Fitzroy Iron Works would become a monopoly supplier of iron, if it received government backing. 
  The company made a 'fourth emergency call' of 10 shillings per share in August 1868. The end finally came when the Bank of New South Wales foreclosed on the mortgage; the works, 1000 acres of land at Mittagong, 26 acres at Marulan and 3000 tons of marketable iron were put up for sale toward the end of 1869.
  The Fitzroy Iron Works would be one of very few setbacks in Vickery's otherwise stellar business career. He owned interests in several coal mines, including the Coalcliff Colliery. He retained an interest in Mittagong, was a shareholder in the later Fitzroy Bessemer Steel, Hematite, Iron and Coal Company, and was a founding director of the Mittagong Land Company. He died in 1906.
caption: Ebenezer Vickery
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