The pioneers (continued)

At the time of writing the paint industry is fully integrated, mature, with little tariff protection and able to service the whole spectrum and volume of Australian demand. It has a turnover of about $700 M and employs some 5500 people, mainly in Victoria and New South Wales. Because of its spread over many producers and many products, it is almost impossible to describe its evolution and, particularly, the Australian components in it, without recourse to technicalities. After all the principal characteristics distinguishing the tacky, unstable yellowing and fading paints of the beginning of the century from the solvent-free or water-based paints of today, which are easy to apply, dry rapidly and last years, is the underlying polymer and colloid chemistry. A quick traverse through the technicalities will fall short of depth in the eyes of the expert, and may be too complicated to hold the layman's attention. Yet the attempt is made here to use chemistry as the guide through the maze because it conveys an impression of the rapid changes, which had to be mastered in science and technology by a small group of technologists, and of the interweaving of Australian and overseas advances.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering