[28] European settlement in this region after the first documented white expedition west of the Blue Mountains in 1813 was tentative, largely because of concerns about resistance from Aboriginal people.
There was contact, evidenced by sporadic hostility and by the quantity of surviving artefacts manufactured by the Aboriginal people from European glass.
[28][1] Until the early 19th century, lime was the major ingredient used in mortar, which was central to western construction techniques for holding bricks and other building materials in place.
[31] Portland Cement was a far superior building product and it caught on quickly in Europe and especially Germany but was infrequently used in Australia before the end of the 19th century.
However this company was not actually in existence until 1889, although one of its owners, George Raffan, had bought the site in 1882 and the reference may be to his preliminary activities in developing cement manufacture.
George Raffan reopened the business with his brother John in 1896 as the Ivanhoe Lime and Cement Works & Colliery but this too had failed by 1898.
Two of these early bottle kilns - built of brick with iron ties and turnbuckles- and the milling plant in the north west corner of Portion 52 stand as historical monuments to the beginning of the cement industry in NSW.
Scheidel, who "is considered the father of the modern cement industry in Australia", was born in Heidelberg and had received his PhD from Freiberg University in 1880.
In addition, three new cement companies were established in NSW during the twenties: the Sulphide Corporation near Newcastle in 1925; Standard at Charbon, also near Portland in 1926; and Southern at Berrima in 1929.
Scheidel was a pioneer in public relations and is quoted in the 1909 Annual Report as saying "it is to the advantage of the Company to make life in Portland more and more enjoyable".
Water for the site was piped from company built dams on the site, the Colliery supplied all the fuel requirements of the kilns and power house, electricity was generated, sufficient to supply both the Works and the town, limestone and shale quarries were almost adjacent to the plant and the company built a railway line to connect the Works to the main railway and operated its own locomotives'.
[22][1] Portland is unusual in NSW for its homogeneity as a one-industry, indeed one-company town (even if that company did change hands several times over the century).
Evidence of the nineteenth century phase of the use of the site is separately listed as Raffans Mill and Brick Bottle Kilns.
[1] The key elements of the twentieth century phase are: Four former lime quarries, which are sited nearby within the Fenwick & Holmes study area, now have stepped back walls and filled with water, and surrounded by rehabilitation plantings to minimise their danger.
[1] NBRS identified the workers cottages at Nos 3 and 4 Williwa Street to have severe structural damage requiring their demolition.
A number of the buildings remaining within the Processing and Administrative Precinct date from the 1902 phase of development, when Scheidel built his new plant.
Between 1900 and 1995 the site provided both raw materials from its own quarries and a place for the long-term, large-scale production of world-quality cement, using a succession of both local and imported machinery and labour.
This industrial site led to the establishment and naming of the town of Portland and has contributed to its civic and social development since the late nineteenth century.
[1] Portland Cement Works Precinct was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 August 2012 having satisfied the following criteria.
Between 1900 and 1995 the site provided both raw materials from its own quarries and a place for the long-term large-scale production of world-quality cement, using a succession of both local and imported machinery and labour.
This industrial site led to the establishment and naming of the town of Portland and has contributed to its civic and social development since the late nineteenth century.
This relationship between industry and local population is of State significance because of its rarity within NSW as a long-term, single-industry, one-company town.
As Managing Director he combined the expertise of building, mining and engineering professionals with the then recently developed German tunnel kilns to establish an efficient manufacturing plant for Portland.
[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.
The site contains many industrial remnants from its long and varied history of cement manufacture that add to the technical significance of its heritage.
The site remains of significance to those whose family members and friends were killed and injured in the often dangerous operations of quarrying and cement manufacture.
The relationship between industry and local population in the Portland Cement Works Site is of State significance because of its rarity within NSW as a long-term, single-industry, one-company town.