Category Archives: Hall Street

Hector Mitchell

Many thanks to Denis Mitchell for the following information regarding his father, long-time Goetz employee, Hector.

Denis writes ‘This is a photo of my father, Hector Andrew Mitchell who worked at Goetz his whole working life. I also worked there, starting as an apprentice in the tool room, Mick O’Brien was the foreman of the tool room at the time, my bench was in front of Alf Goetz’. Photos c1960

Below: Hector Mitchell’s apprenticeship certificate, dated 18th February, 1941, for the apprenticeship trades of Pattern Making, Brassfitting, Fitting and/or Turning, Blacksmithing (Engineerng), Machinist, Copper and/or Brass-smithing.

Computers at Goetz

In 1986, W. G. Goetz & Sons had a newly introduced Digital Equipment Corporation PDP11 computer system with three or four terminals connected to it, mainly used for basic orders and customer management – the sort of things that can nowadays be done in an Excel Spreadsheet!

Fresh from a Mathematics and Computing degree from what was then the Footscray Institute Of Technology, Ian Jones came to work in IT at Geotz in 1986. The work environment in the office section was one where everyone was known as ‘Mr.’, all the men wore ties and there was a nine day fortnight. The office telephone switchboard was of the style that featured patch leads, plugs and sockets – anyone wanting to call would have to contact the receptionist to get an outside line.

Part of Ian’s IT job at Goetz was to program a wirecutting machine and look after the company’s DEC PDP11.

Ian has kindly provided this typed sheet of duties for the operation and maintenance of the Goetz system.

Click image for larger view

The DEC PDP11/34A was a version of the PDP11/34, featuring an upgraded CPU, required to support the optional floating point unit and/or optional high speed memory cache.

Cover from the 1981 edition of the PDP11 processor handbook (not from Goetz, but they probably had one). The handbook wasn’t exactly ‘light reading’, and weighed in at 502 pages!

An example of a typical DEC PDP11/34

Photo used under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. Filename: P5182215.jpg Creator: unknown Source: wikimuseo.freaknet.org

Queen of the Federated Ironworkers Association

Goetz Annexe employee crowned Queen of the Federated Ironworkers Association

Williamstown Chronicle, Fri 11 May 1945, p. 11

Engineers Wanted

The Argus, 30 August 1952, p.32

Shorthand, Typist Wanted

Not all Goetz jobs were for factory workers. Someone had to do the office work!

Williamstown Chronicle, 8 December 1950, p.3

Job Timecard

One of these job timecards was used to hastily scribble the names of the Die Shop football team members for a photo taken at a game at Werribee on 9th September 1962.

Does anyone have any information about the use of these?

Canteen, parties and Christmas

Some photos supplied by Ray Pond, whose father Ernie was a Goetz employee. Dates unknown except where noted. If anyone has any info to share, please leave a comment!

Click images below for larger versions.

Ernie Pond as Santa. Text on the rear of the photo indicates that the photo was professionally taken:
‘A Candid Photograph by Raymond Mudford, .. Forrest Street Sunshine’.

Altona, 29 November 1981 – possibly a Goetz Christmas party

5 September 1975 – during a Goetz dinner perhaps?

Promotional Brochure 1996

Frustratingly, most Goetz catalogues and promotional material did not include a publication date, but a clue in this comb-bound publicity brouchure saying that W. G. Goetz & Sons Ltd had “Over 121 years service to industry”, places the brochure at or shortly after 1996. The brochure lists various services provided by both W. G. Goetz & Sons Ltd and Goetz Manufacturing Pty. Ltd.

Click the thumbnail image below or here to download the brochure as a PDF 1.2 Mb

Demolition 2008

The main workshops were demolished in 2008 to make way for new buildings that are now a small industrial estate. The original brick office building along Hall Street remains, now home to a number of businesses including a craft brewery. Perhaps as part of the Heritage Overlay on the building, the Goetz sign has been retained.

The photos in the gallery below were taken around June 2008 by Melbourne writer Vin Maskell, originally posted in his blog entry The Goetz engineering sign. Reproduced here by permission. Thanks Vin!