| Thomas
Sutcliffe Mort was born in Lancashire in 1816 and arrived
in Sydney in 1838. Sutcliffe was renown for speculation
in the local pastoral industry as well as industrial
activities such as his Ice-Works in Sydney's Darling
Harbour and dry dock and engineering works at Balmain.
Mort's
links to Lithgow, relate to his attempts to develop
a refrigeration worksfor the export of meat. As a part
of his refrigeration works, Mort developed a large abattoir
where sheep and cattle were driven in from the west,
slaughtered and refrigerated for later transport. |
In
1875, to mark his achievements in the refrigeration
techniques, Mort arranged a picnic for 300 guests. He
organised a special train from Sydney and fed his guests
food that had be refrigerated at his plant for over
18 months (Lithgow Public School 1947). Mort, however,
was to suffer numerous technical difficulties in the
export of meat to overseas markets, achieving his first
successful shipment in 1880.
Surplus
tallow from Mort's abattoirs was used to make soap in
a soap factory in Soapy Gully, later to be known as
'State Mine Gully'.
The
City of Greater Lithgow acknowledges and appreciates
the History excerpts taken from the Draft
Economic Development Strategy for Lithgow which
was researched and compiled by Economic and Community
Development Class, University of Sydney October 1996 |
