The subsequent processing of the smelted iron that was used to make the initial samples, in 1848, probably was largely manual—probably using what was essentially a blacksmith's forge[citation needed]— as there was no tilt hammer at the works until 1852.

[18] Quarrying of ore, brickmaking and erecting a larger Catalan forge to smelt the iron were in progress, when Governor FitzRoy again made visit to the works in March 1850.

[23] This was to allow rolling equipment to be ordered from England but it also involved a change in control of the company, with the Sydney merchant Frederick John Rothery becoming the largest shareholder and chairman of the board.

[30] “The method hitherto adopted for the reduction of the ores of the Fitz Roy mines, has been, first, to crush into small pieces, and with 25 per cent, of charcoal it is placed in a reverberatory furnace similar to that employed in England for puddling, and the iron before you this evening is the produce of this mode of manufacture.

The discovery of coal nearby, in 1853, and potentially lower transport costs to Sydney—as the railhead of the Main Southern Railway moved progressively closer to Mittagong—led to renewed optimism that a blast furnace could be operated profitably at the works.

[40] Johnson received promises of financial support—from William Terrey, Thomas Chalder and Joseph Cartwright[41]—and efforts continued to float a new company; any further progress depended upon obtaining more capital.

[17] It seems likely, however, that it was Hughes that had been working to interest Lattin in providing the financial backing for the venture—since late 1862 at least—with the prospect of the rail contract as the key incentive.

[48] The arrangement between the company and Lattin was described as follows to a parliamentary inquiry in February 1864; "we have leased the mines to a person of the name of Lattin, from Melbourne, to carry on the mines, giving him the right of working them for twelve months, in consideration of his putting the works in proper order so as to be capable of producing a certain amount of iron per week from the ore; and if at the conclusion he succeeds, we are to give him 2,000 of our paid-up shares, but if he does not succeed he is to get nothing.

[61] Lattin's misfortunes had not ended; he was being sued for unpaid bills at the beginning of October 1869,[62] and it was reported that he was gruesomely killed in November 1869, aboard a French-protectorate flagged barque, in Fiji when about to depart for Queensland.

The base of the furnace was a 28 ft square[17] with the upper part being cylindrical and banded with iron bars holding the courses of blocks in place.

[68] Hampshire claimed that the ore—after it had been roasted in open heaps to remove moisture and extraneous matter—was producing 60% metal, an indication of its relatively high iron content.

[78] In November 1865, it was reported that the works was supplying iron to P. N. Russell & Co. and to customers in Melbourne for use in manufacturing, that larger puddling furnaces were being erected[79] and the rolling mill was being reinstalled on more solid foundations.

An attempt to raise new capital to expand the plant—including adding two more blast furnaces and increasing the power of the rolling mills— in early 1866,[83] failed and, consequentially, the merger did not proceed.

Relations with the New South Wales Government had been nurtured; the Governor, Sir John Young, visited the works twice, once with the Premier, James Martin, in June 1864[84] and again to witness the casting of a bridge column cylinder in March 1865.

In 1865, a large rolling operation, the City Iron Works, was set up—for its owners, by Enoch Hughes[93]—on land at Pyrmont, Sydney, immediately adjacent to the Glebe Island Bridge.

One of them, John Frazer—a wealthy Sydney merchant, company director and philanthropist[115]—was in England, in July 1870, trying to interest English capitalists in investing in the Mittagong works.

The photographs are from the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.At the end of July 1873, a new English manager, David Smith,[120] who was also one of the main shareholders,[121] arrived with 15 skilled workers and their families.

There was also some surprise that the line was needed at all, after the various managements of the works had for so long praised the quality of the coal on its Mittagong land, only to finally declare it useless for ironmaking.

[121] The economics of the works relied upon producing higher-priced finished iron products (bar, plate or rails), rather than ordinary pig-iron, which —compared to its high price in 1873[110]—had become relatively cheap as an import (carried as ballast in sailing ships to Australia).

[190] In 1896, a company known as 'Lambert Brothers' (claiming an association with a firm of 'Lambert and Sons, of Middlesbrough, England') were attracted to New South Wales by the prospect of a large government contract for 150,000 tons of steel rails to be made locally.

[194] It was reported, in May 1896, that 'Lambert Brothers' was owned by a 150 year-old firm with a world wide reputation, that "the rumor of the works are about to be reopened and conducted upon a scale never before attempted is perfectly true", and that new machinery was being manufactured in England.

[156] Some newspaper articles of the time criticised Mittagong as a site for a steelworks—on logistical and economic grounds[197]—and questioned the viability of the 'Lambert Brothers' venture without protection against imports.

Lambert claimed that his ironworks venture was backed by Baron Hirsch—one of the five wealthiest individuals in Europe at the time of his death in April 1896—and that he had brought £2,000 of Hirsch's money to Australia in a belt.

In his evidence, he recalled his interview about the ironworks, with George Reid, the Premier, during which he stated his intention to have a capacity to make about 500 tons of steel rails per week.

Lambert had used a background story that almost certainly was based upon newspaper reports—published between 1890 and 1895—of the efforts of Joseph Mitchell to form a syndicate of English capitalists, set up an iron and steel works, and win the steel-rail contract.

During August 1910, Flood stated that this arrangement had been tested, and that smelting would start in a few days,[234] and, in September, he successfully tendered to mine iron ore near the mineral spring.

[235] However, in October, Flood, while still stating that his "patent" had been a success, was awaiting more new equipment to arrive in December 1910 to start production, including a larger, 30-horsepower, blowing engine.

[245] The Mittagong Land Company went into voluntary liquidation in 1924[246]—a process still ongoing in 1934[247]— bringing the long story of the Fitzroy Iron Works and its various owners to an end.

There the works stand to-day in dreary solitude, frigidly, heartlessly, sullenly, as it were, betokening the wealth, ingenuity, knowledge, labour, and skill which they have overcome and shattered [sic] to the winds.

The cast-iron cylindrical casings for the supporting columns of the Denison Bridge across the Macquarie River at Bathurst—built 1869–1870—were cast at P. N. Russell & Co.'s foundry in Sydney, mainly using pig-iron from the Fitzroy Iron Works.