The Orawia cement factory

The Orawia factory of The Southland Cement Manufacturing Company - during construction 1956. This photograph courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Archive (New Zealand)

It can be demonstrated that none of the directors of The Southland Cement Manufacturing Company had any cement manufacturing engineering expertise and thus that the Fletcher Construction Company almost certainly supplied this design input, probably by engaging consultants themselves as required. A Dr Gotleib from Australia was involved in this process. This would explain an obvious consistency in the visible design of both this Orawia cement plant and one erected in Te Kuiti (North Island) for a lime and cement predecessor on that site, that ultimately became part of the Golden Bay Group.--------------------------------------------

Images of the Te Kuiti plant are not posted on this web page but are held by The Fletcher Trust Archive. An image can be seen at http://www.fclarchives.co.nz/item.php?id=36699