Meat Preserving: Heat Processing Introduced (continued)

A factory was built for him on the Orara River in N.S.W. near its junction with the Clarence, and production began in the latter half of 1866. The raw material came from the herds of the region, at first from Tindal's own cattle at Ramornie. The major products were canned meats and Liebig's meat extract, but by-products such as tallow, hides, and bones also were exported. By 1871, Ramornie was employing 150 men from slaughterers through plant operatives and tinsmiths to packers. The work-force and raw material were stable, but Tindal's biggest problem was the duty levied by the colonial government on the tin plate and solder constituents, an impost for which he got no relief when the same materials were re-exported as cans round his products. Tindal was not himself the technologist. In 1866 he sent out Alban Gee and Thomas Cordingley to staff the works and the technology employed was Goldner's.

At first, John McCall and Company of 137 Houndsditch were the London agents but later the Australian Meat Company established its own offices in London. Its canned meats first reached the London market early in 1867 and, aided by the shortage of meat resulting from the cattle plague, sold well. Ramornie produced quite large amounts of canned meat and Liebig's meat extract and continued in production until 1915, when it was sold to the Kensington Meat Preserving Company. It worked for only a season or two after the First World War and was then demolished. Through Ramornie and the men he brought to Australia, Tindal made a significant contribution to the Australian canned meat industry. He died in England in 1914, aged 90.

Tindal's success in establishing his works at Ramornie stimulated a group of entrepreneurs in Melbourne to examine the possibilities of canning mutton and in December 1867, the Melbourne Meat Preserving Company was launched.[24] The manager of this company was Samuel Sextus Ritchie, who had been in partnership with John McCall at the Houndsditch address and agent for Stefan Goldner at the time of the Navy Enquiry. Ritchie and McCall won medals at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and their plant was commented on favourably at the time of the Navy scandal. Ritchie also visited Goldner's meat works at Galatz in what is now Rumania. Why he left England is not clear, but he arrived in Melbourne in 1857 and from 1858 to 1868 was a wine and spirit merchant in partnership for part of the time with Charles Moulden Farrington. Ritchie was a vigorous and able manager. By September 1868 he had begun production of canned meats in a modern meat works on the banks of the Maribyrnong River, below what is today the High Point Shopping Centre. Ritchie remained manager of the factory until he died of a heart attack in 1879 at the age of 53. The company was the most successful of the Victorian meat preserving companies but had a life of only 20 years.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering