Boiling down

It was a common activity on farms and pastoral properties to produce tallow to be made into soap and candles for domestic use.

Pastoralist George Russell built a boiling works at Golf Hill Station, in the Western District (Victoria), and expressed his belief that, "melting down the Stock has been the salvation of the colonies.

"[2] Henry O'Brien of Yass experimented with boiling down sheep in large cauldrons to extract the tallow (fat for soap and candle making).

It was reprinted in various other colonial newspapers and is credited with kick-starting the production of tallow as a new export industry in rural Australia.

[4] In Victoria, Joseph Raleigh is credited with one of the first large scale boiling-down works, when in 1840 he erected a plant near the Stoney Creek Backwash in Yarraville.

[9] Ross River Meatworks (opened June 1892) in August 1892 was described by industry experts as works as "superior to any in the colony - actively engaged in the meat export trade".

In the freezing room, the two compound engines could produce 400 horsepower each and each machine could circulate 170,000 cubic feet of air per hour.