In October 1875 iron smelting began in Lithgow under the direction of Enoch Hughes. The foundry was erected on Thomas Brown's Esk Bank property where ore was found just beneath the surface of the ground.

Hughes successfully encouraged James Rutherford of Bathurst, a principal shareholder and manager of Cobb and Co., Dan Williams a Canadian railway engineer who had worked on the Zig Zag and the Honourable John Sutherland the Minister for Public Works to join him in this steel making venture. By the end of 1876 the blast furnace was producing over 100 tons of pig-iron per week.

Following coal mining and iron smelting, the third industry to develop in the Lithgow region was Copper Smelting. The first smelting in the area was undertaken by a Welshman by the name of Lloyd with ores won at Wiseman's Creek and smelted from the coal slack from Thomas Brown's colliery. Two further copper plants were also to develop in the area; the first in 1876 by the tobacco magnate Thomas Saywell and the second formed in 1895 by the Cobar Syndicate.

Format: albumen photo print, Caney studio no. 54, 195 mm x 150 mm

Date Range: c.1880

Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.

Repository: Blue Mountains City Library bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/default/

Part of: Local Studies Collection

Provenance: High McBroom

Links: www.lithgow-tourism.com/blasthist.htm