The western suburbs of Melbourne were home to massive, sprawling factories and industrial areas related to the research, storage and manufacture of munitions. They played significant roles for Australia and the Commonwealth in particular over their many decades of service. One of the best known and most intact today is the Maribyrnong Explosives Factory.

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MORE INFORMATION

Heritage reports on the sites: https://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/fi...

WW2 at Home website summary: https://wwiiathome.com.au/efm.html

Museums Victoria article:https://collections.museumsvictoria.c...

Light Railways article on the tramways used at various explosives facilities across Melbourne: http://media.lrrsa.org.au/ezar270/Lig...

Photo (bottom left) of cordite wagons at the Factory by Roderick Smith: https://www.flickr.com/photos/1317559... (enlarged: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/gr...)

Cordite wagon housed by Alexandra Timber Tramways: https://alexandratramway.org.au/rolli...

Photo of the former tram and road bridges: https://tdu.to/194903.msg

Full history of the Ordnance Factory: https://www.livingmuseum.org.au/proje...

My website: https://philipmallis.com

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SOURCES

https://philam.github.io/videonotes/m...

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which this video was filmed, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people. I pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and their extensive and continuing connection to land, water and country.