iconic Melbourne locomotive makers plaque.
measures 27 x 16cm in gold over red
The greatest contributor to public expenditure was the Victorian Railways, which in the peak year of 1889 let £300 000 worth of contracts to Melbourne firms for everything from dog spikes and platelayers' trolleys to goods wagons and bridge girders. Among them Robison Bros and Campbell & Sloss won a contract to build 25 locomotives for Melbourne suburban lines, breaking the virtual stranglehold that the Phoenix Foundry at Ballarat had held on Victorian locomotive contracts since 1871. In 1888, the Victorian Railways opened its own workshops at Newport, where 548 steam locomotives were built between 1893 and 1951.
The 1890s depression hit Melbourne's engineering industries particularly hard. Government spending vanished almost overnight, building and construction ceased and mining investment hit an all-time low, forcing many firms into insolvency. Export orders for machinery for the Kalgoorlie mines stimulated a gradual recovery from 1896, but it came too late for Melbourne's oldest foundry, which closed its doors in 1897. By 1900, engineering and related metal trades represented a quarter of Melbourne's manufacturing employment and metropolitan firms were making a leading contribution to Victoria's position as a net exporter of steam engines and general machinery.