Kwinana Oil Refinery was sited on the shore of
Cockburn Sound
Cockburn Sound (Nyungar Aboriginal Australian name: Derbal Nara) is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia. It extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River at Fremantle for about 25 km to Point Peron ne ...
at
Kwinana, near
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
,
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
. Built by the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number ...
and completed in 1955, it was the largest
oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liq ...
in Australia, with a capacity of . It was closed by
BP in March 2021 to be converted to an import-only terminal.
History
In March 1952, the
Government of Western Australia
The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...
and the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number ...
signed a £40 million agreement to build the Kwinana Oil Refinery. The agreement was then sent to parliament for reading as two bills on 6 March; one, the ''Oil Refinery (Kwinana) Industry Bill'', to ratify the agreement and the second, the ''Industrial Development (Kwinana Area) Bill'', to acquire the land in Kwinana.
Infrastructure
Details in this final agreement included a requirement that the company pay at least 6% of the costs of
dredging
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...
Cockburn Sound
Cockburn Sound (Nyungar Aboriginal Australian name: Derbal Nara) is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia. It extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River at Fremantle for about 25 km to Point Peron ne ...
, estimated at between £4 and £6 million, with the state meeting the company's requirements for the dredge; supply of 12,000 kilowatts of electricity; cement to be imported by the company; sale of of land to the south of the refinery for recreation and amenities; provision of water and sewerage to the construction and final building; supply of potable water a day, rising to a day; sale of land at ; federal government assistance in obtaining migrant labour for the project. The state government undertook to build 1,000 rental homes within three years, with water, septic tanks, fences and roads to the refinery.
Included were details of three pipelines to be built, one to Fremantle, a second from Fremantle to
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
and a third from Kwinana to Perth. The state also provided a guarantee against future socialisation and waived charges for pilotage of ships which were being used on company business.
[
]
Associated land provision
In the second bill, land for future industry was proposed and would stretch from Robbs Jetty south towards Rockingham Townsite and east to Jandakot, with it acquired at a reasonable price. Resumption of land would take place up until 31 December 1953 and possibly beyond.
Both bills passed the Legislative Council on 14 March 1952 and were sent to Governor Charles Gairdner
Lieutenant General Sir Charles Henry Gairdner, (20 March 1898 – 22 February 1983) was a senior British Army officer who later occupied two viceregal positions in Australia. Born in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, he was brough ...
for the Royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
.
Commonwealth land and jurisdiction
At a meeting held in Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
with Interior Minister Kent Hughes, the Federal Government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
agreed on 18 March 1952 to sell back 949 acres it had owned since its purchase in 1916 to the WA State Government at £10 acre. Hughes also agreed to return Commonwealth land, from Woodman Point down to Kwinana, to the state for use as industrial land.[ Concerned about the impact of the project on the disruption to sources of labour in WA, Minister for Works ]David Brand
Sir David Brand KCMG (1 August 1912 – 15 April 1979) was an Australian politician. A member of the Liberal Party, he was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1945 to 1975, and also the 19th and longest-serving Prem ...
discussed immigration policy to make up the shortfall especially when it came to skilled workers.[ Discussion also took place as to Australian import restrictions when it came to material required for the refinery's construction, with the company willing to use local supplies but not to the detriment of the state's requirements for construction materials in other local projects.][
]
Water supply
In May 1952, the State government authorised the commencement of a 19 km, 26 cm steel water pipeline from Melville reservoir to a 36.5m diameter, 1 million gallon storage tank on Mount Brown in Henderson Henderson may refer to:
People
* Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname
*Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan
Places Argentina
*Henderson, Buenos Aires
Australia
*Henderson, Western Australia
Canada
* ...
, with completion in August and July respectively and on to the refinery site for use during construction. Also in late May, A. E. Mason arrived to become the head of the project in Western Australia for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Work also proceeded on soil surveys, hydrographic surveys and pile tests at the project site.[
]
Dredging and rail services
Tenders were called for the dredging of Cockburn Sound over three or four years, dredging through two banks, a 4.4-km channel through the Success Bank and a 2.8-km channel through the Parmelia Bank.
Investigations took place in May 1952 to extend the existing railway line 9.8 km from Woodman Point and Coogee through to the refinery site. But by July 1952, the railway plan was modified with an extension line from a future Welshpool
Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...
railway line through Bibra Lake to the proposed Coogee line to Kwinana. The main water supply for the project would come through a 76-cm trunk line from Armadale to a hill sited west of Lake Thompson where a 20 million gallon reservoir would be built from late 1952 with a pipeline to the refinery by mid-1955.
Plant and housing construction
On the 24 September 1952, Anglo-Iranian Oil announced that Kelloggs International and Costain
Costain is a surname of English, Scottish and Manx origin. When originating in Scotland and northern Ireland the surname is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic ''Mac Austain'', meaning "son of ''Austin''". The English surname is a reduced form of '' ...
-John Brown & Company
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and the ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''.
At its ...
would build the refinery and its facilities. In late September 1952, the last obstacle preventing the refinery project proceeding, the Commonwealth Oil Refineries, equally owned by the Commonwealth and Anglo-Iranian and responsible for marketing refined products in Australia, would be sold so that it was fully owned by the latter. With this news, the dredging tender was announced on 1 October 1952 by Minister for Works David Brand with the initial contract awarded for £2 million to a Dutch company, Hollandse Aanneming Maatskappy, and would see a 152m-wide, 11.5m-deep channel created through the two banks with 7 million cubic yards of spoil removed, allowing 40,000-ton ships to enter Cockburn Sound. The spoil would be deposited at three sites, Cockburn Sound, Owen Anchorage and Gage Roads
Gage Roads is an area in the outer harbour area of Fremantle Harbour in the Indian Ocean offshore from Fremantle, Western Australia.
It incorporates a deep water sea channel as part of its function.
Gage Roads serves as a shipping lane and ...
.
Commencement of the project was officially announced by Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Ross McLarty
Sir Duncan Ross McLarty, (17 March 1891 – 22 December 1962) was an Australian politician and the 17th Premier of Western Australia.
Early life
McLarty was born in Pinjarra, Western Australia, the youngest of seven children of Edward McLarty, ...
on 9 October 1952. Tenders for the 1,000 new rental houses were sent out in November 1952 for delivery in three years with five tenders chosen in mid-December to begin work mid-January 1953.
Commissioning
The refinery's twelve administrative buildings were constructed between May and December 1954. On 8 January 1955, the first oil tanker ''British Crusader'' arrived at Gage Roads
Gage Roads is an area in the outer harbour area of Fremantle Harbour in the Indian Ocean offshore from Fremantle, Western Australia.
It incorporates a deep water sea channel as part of its function.
Gage Roads serves as a shipping lane and ...
and passed through the new channels into Cockburn Sound on 11 January. The first oil was pumped from the storage tanks into the distillation furnace on 2 February 1955 and the refinery was online. Petrol was pumped for the first time on 23 March 1955 from the refinery to the Commonwealth Oil Refineries depot in North Fremantle
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
. The refinery was officially opened on 25 October 1955 by the Governor-General Sir William Slim.
Conversion to import terminal
After 65 years' operation, citing growing lack of commercial viability, BP ceased refining in 2021, aiming at conversion of the enterprise to an oil import terminal to operate in 2022. The closure removed over one fifth of Australia's refining capacity, leaving three operating refineries. Kwinana supplied about 70% of Western Australia's fuel needs. The refinery staffing of 650 would be reduced to 60. The cost of making the change was estimated at up to $1 billion including staff redundancies, inventory write-downs and decommissioning provisions.
Bailout controversy
Citing the loss of 600 refinery jobs in Western Australia and a further 300 from the pending closure of ExxonMobil Australia
ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait, south east of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a gas processing fac ...
's Altona Refinery
The Altona Refinery is an oil refinery in Altona North, Victoria, Australia, operated by ExxonMobil. The refinery is located next to Kororoit Creek which is not navigable. Ships unload at a pier on Point Gellibrand in nearby Williamstown.
I ...
in Victoria, Kwinana's federal parliamentarian Madeleine King
Madeleine Mary Harvie King (née Morris; born 31 March 1973) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia in the Albanese government s ...
criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for t ...
for not including these operations in a $2 billion bailout package for Australia's two remaining fuel refineries; Viva Energy
Viva Energy () is an Australian company that owns the Geelong Oil Refinery and retails Shell-branded fuels across Australia under a license agreement. It also owns and retails Liberty Oil and Woodside Petroleum-branded service stations. In total ...
's Geelong Oil Refinery
The Geelong Oil Refinery is an oil refinery owned and operated by Viva Energy in Corio near Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria. In 2017, it was Australia's second-largest oil refinery, able to process 7.5 billion litres of crude oil pe ...
and Ampol
Ampol Limited is an Australian petroleum company headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales. Ampol is the largest transport energy distributor and retailer in Australia, with more than 1,900 Ampol-branded stations across the country . It also ope ...
's Lytton Oil Refinery
Lytton Oil Refinery is an oil refinery in the Brisbane suburb of Lytton in Queensland, Australia. It is owned and operated by Ampol. It has a capacity of 6.5 billion litres of crude oil per year. The facility employs 550 people.
History
Lytto ...
in Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
."The Prime Minister declared...that maintaining Australia's refining capacity was a matter of economic and national security. But in choosing to back refining capacity only in Brisbane and Geelong, Mr Morrison is choosing to maintain the economic and national security of just the east coast."[ ]
Engineering heritage
The refinery received a Historic Engineering Marker from Engineers Australia
Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized org ...
as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.
Notes
References
Kwinana Souvenir
Argus, 26 April 1955, pp. 20–41 at Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...
Kwinana Refinery
at BP official website
External links
{{commons category-inline
Anglo-Persian Oil Company
BP buildings and structures
Cockburn Sound
Economy of Perth, Western Australia
Industrial buildings completed in 1955
Kwinana Beach, Western Australia
Oil refineries in Australia
Recipients of Engineers Australia engineering heritage markers
1955 establishments in Australia
2021 disestablishments in Australia