Industrious past life at Rutherford no fabrication

06 Oct 2024, 02:00 by Mike Scanlon · Newcastle Herald

The old Bradmill site at Rutherford taken in 1959. Picture provided by Alan Todd

IT began with an email and a news tip. A Maitland reader recently alerted Weekender that part of the historic former Bradmill cotton mills site at Rutherford, west of the city, was being torn down.

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"In World War II, this was once the original Rutherford munitions factory. The site subsequently became Rutherford Textiles," he said.

The reader said the large building, now in the middle of the sprawling Rutherford Industrial Estate, beside the New England Highway, was being progressively demolished.

"It's part of Australia's war time history and the site's story needs to be told. Some of the site's original WWII bomb shelters are still visible at Rutherford," he wrote.

Later, the Rutherford mills expanded on the old munitions site (1941-44) to become the largest single employer in the Maitland district for decades. But more about that shortly.

Just as interesting perhaps is that ghosts of a sporting life also linger nearby. For here, the famous Rutherford Racecourse (1886-1940) once existed. The nod to the past is evident in the long, sweeping Racecourse Road that almost encircles the light industry precinct today.

A century ago, thousands of punters descended on the racecourse in crowded, special race trains from July 1914 via a special spur line from the Great Northern Railway (GNR). The beautifully curved, now vanished, racetrack's heyday was probably in the 1920s. It ended suddenly in 1934 before being revived briefly six years later. In 2007, the track's old jockey and stewards' room was still visible.

A rare picture showing the outline of the lost Rutherford racetrack (at top) with the nearby old munitions factory, later Bradmill Industries. Picture: Supplied

I was introduced to the site a few years later by Lindsay Watson, a former textile employee for 33 years. He tried to interest people for years without success in this overlooked piece of Hunter history.

Famous Aussie aviation pioneer Bert Hinkler is even reputed to have once landed on the old racetrack. There's now a Hinkler Avenue in the industrial subdivision. Just as forgotten today as the racetrack is the neglected Rutherford Railway Station. In 1982 there was an unsuccessful bid for a future tramway museum here by re-using the disused GNR old raceway branch line.

Let's return to Bradmill Industries. The subject is topical because next year marks the 25th anniversary of the textile giant's Maitland closure. But in the 1960s it was the largest textile manufacturing company in Australia with 15 centres in three states, employing more than 7000 people overall.

The company's original plant opened in Newtown in 1927 then moved into Rutherford about 1945. In 1956, it acquired Burlington Mills, which was also operating at Rutherford, to build on its reputation of producing high quality products, before cheaper Asian garments flooded the Aussie market.

It expanded further by buying King Gee Clothing. In the 1960s, Bradmill also erected a mill for spinning fine-combed cotton yarn at Kotara.

But it was Maitland where Bradmill really wove itself into the fabric of the district economy. Producing wool, cotton and man-made fibres and yarns it occupied a 205-acre physical footprint at Rutherford, including the racetrack, although not all of it was built on.

"At its peak (in 1972) I believe there were 1600 employees at Rutherford," Maitland historian Chas Keys says.

"After the site was no longer a munitions factory, it was known by various names, like Bradmill, Burlington, Rutherford Textiles and finally National Textiles, operated by the 'big brother' of [former prime minister] John Howard. Then it all closed in the year 2000."

Keys says state government subsidies for years helped Bradmill thrive.

"Subsidies meant governments were able to mop up local unemployment, especially migrant women, who needed work. It didn't last, the mills collapsed. They were a significant industry locally, then they went belly up," Keys says.

Morpeth Museum chairman Alan Todd knows Rutherford's old Bradmill site well, being an employee there for 20 years from 1980 to 2000.

Today there's a large framed aerial picture from 1959 on a museum wall. Once it graced the textile site's main office wall. As well, the museum is hosting an exhibition called Born Again Bradmill recalling the glory days of the versatile Rutherford fabric mill. At one stage it even made military tunics.

"Bradmiill got its name by merging Bradford Cotton Mills and Burlington Mills, then later becoming National Textiles," Todd says.

"I was recruited as a works chemist in England in 1980 to come out to Rutherford to work, then got different jobs in middle management until the plant's sudden closure in 2000. They once had six cottages by the highway (from the munitions era) initially for workers to live in. They're all gone now.

"I know the old racecourse was part of, but at the edge, of Bradmill. The funny thing was that the old GNR rail spur had a rail spur within it running through the mills.

"That line [carrying coal] used to go to the site's boiler house. You had to heat the wet textiles. You needed heaps of steam for dying and weaving fabrics and air-conditioning.

"What I really remember about Bradmill was the Christmas and Easter parties for the workforce. No expense was spared, especially at Christmas."

Todd says one memory particularly stayed with him from his Bradmill days, the aftermath to him being recruited in England.

"At the job interview over there I asked that if I came out to Australia with my wife could I also bring along my dog, then a Labrador puppy," he says.

"I suppose the man interviewing me must have thought I was a smart alec, so he said he didn't know, but the firm's managing director should know and said, 'Well, we'll just ring him up', and he did.

"But it must have been the middle of the night here in Australia and he would have had to get out of bed. The boss didn't know what to say, but reluctantly agreed after I said, 'My wife won't go to Australia without me, or the dog'.

"Much, much later, now in Australia and working at Rutherford mill I was walking along one day and the factory accountant caught up to me to say, surprised: 'Hey Alan. Did you know that it cost us more to bring your dog out to Australia than you did?."

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