OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Company Histories WALTER BARR Pty Ltd – c1941

Hello ODK history lovers
Walter Barr Pty Ltd was an early Australian plastics manufacturer.

This is an interesting story in that Walter Barr supplied wheels to many Australian
lawnmower makers and these were branded as ‘Walter Barr’. I am convinced
that they also supplied many more mower makers with custom branded wheels
and other components. I doubt whether that story will be told …

The thing is that Walter Barr did so much more than mower wheels and were
a key player in early post WWII consumer plastic products. There are many
surprises in the Walter Barr story!


Museums Victoria Collections: https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1515571
Accessed 18 May 2019

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO – Origins of the Walter Barr Company
The origins of companies are always interesting … to me anyway.
This is a great story about how a typical company starts small, grows, and then
is subject to takeover by big business.

This is what I have pieced together …

The story starts in the early 1920s with a ‘sparkie’, Bruce C. Berg, of Upper Avenue Road,
Mosman, Sydney. He advertised as doing “electrical installation and maintenance,” and
you could phone him ‘anytime’! Folks were more sensible back then...



By the late 1920s, Bruce C Berg was an electrical contractor and advertised
“Everything Electrical”. That’s ambitious, and the Blue Mountains location would
have been spectacular! Clearly, Bruce C Berg was ambitious…



Everything changed in the 1930s. The evidence shows that Bruce built up his
little company to the extent that a partnership was formed in September, 1936.

The company – Bruce Berg and Company Ltd., would operate from Larkin Street,
Camperdown and then 73 George Street, Redfern.



Yes, you will notice that the first directors included one Walter Barr.
That, at least, explains the future 1941 name change to this company.

In the meantime, evidence suggests that Bruce Berg & Co was expanding,
and secured Commonwealth government contracts for plastics used in
electrical equipment during the war years.

But it was during these turbulent war years that a significant change occurred.
The company was renamed as Walter Barr Pty. Ltd. In late 1941.



The partnership that formed Bruce Berg Co was dissolved in early 1942.
Three of the founding directors jumped ship. Who was left? Why, the
other director, Walter Barr!



Walter Barr took advantage of the new uses for plastics in the war years.
A new factory was established at Gillespie Avenue, Alexandria, and classified
advertising records shown the company regularly seeking employees for
defence work.

The thing is that Walter Barr, post WWII, would be confronted with exponential
demand from the domestic plastics market – the uses of plastics in the household.
This was the golden age of the development of plastics for consumer uses.

You will not guess who saw this in 1946 …
Walter Barr would be subject of a buy-out by BIG business…

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART THREE – International Products Limited
Post WWII, the world changed forever. The year is 1946 …

New technologies - some developed for terrible purposes - were now
used for the growth of a new market … mass consumerism.

The great industrialist James N Kirby [of Kirby engine fame] must have
seen the potential here. A great admirer of North American enterprise,
he was a first director of a new company, International Products Limited,
that would strategically take-over AUS companies in the manufacture
and selling of plastics products: -



This abridged Prospectus appeared in AUS newspapers in late 1946 …

TO BE CONTINUED …

PART FOUR – Walter Barr Wheels on Rotary Mowers
I speculate that Walter Barr sold both stencil wheels (branded as ‘Walter Barr’) and
customised wheels, made for the larger accounts. This may include ‘Walter Barr’
branded tyres, but customised wheel caps, and fully customised wheels and caps …

AUS-made Pace rotaries: -
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/72312/this-weekends-scores.html

AUS-made Atco rotaries: -
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/51614/vinco-mower.html#Post51614

AUS-made Villager & HG Palmer rotaries: -
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/87119/Wanted:_H._G._Palmer_wheel_cap.html

AUS-made Braggs Jetfast rotaries: -
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/70723/1.html

AUS-made Hurricane rotaries: -
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/98277/lightning-rotary-lawnmower.html

Given that International Products Limited was established to cater to North American
developments in plastics, I think it is pretty certain that Walter Barr supplied to many
other lawnmower makers – but without ‘Walter Barr’ stampings. For example,
I know James N Kirby was also a director of Tecnico...

To remind folks: I was the first to identify Tecnico as our first maker
of AUS rotaries. James Kirby was such a powerful player at this time!

I feel there is more to this story.

TO BE CONTINUED …

PART FIVE –Walter Barr in Perspective
At no stage do I believe that Walter Barr, under International Products Limited
ownership, envisaged the manufacture of lawnmower wheels as a key product …
primarily in their sight. It was only one of many uses, and there was greater
mass volume potential in many other household products!

Consider electrical products, fuel line, toilet seats, kitchen canisters,
ice buckets, beakers, egg cups and ice-cube trays. How about washing
machine agitators? You get the idea …



---------------------
Jack

TO BE CONTINUED ...