Tom Playford's hard work as premier wins British Tube Mills in 1939 for South Australia over interstate bids

South Australian premier Tom Playford (inset_ beat strong competition from Victoria and New South Wales to win British Tube Mills factory for Adelaide's Kilburn in 1939. The only Australian factory making precision steel tubing for products such as hypodermic needles, locomotives and golf clubs, it was ready to supply World War II arms and equipment.

Tom Playford, as state premier from 1938, had a rapid conversion to being in favour of industrialising the South Australia’s economy. This effort was boosted in a short time because of World War II

But Playford had to work hard in the late 1930s to get investments from interstate and overseas industrialists, such as British Tube Mills (Australia), to set up their plant in Adelaide, and for Hume Steel to build a pipe-making plant at Port Pirie. Playford successfully completed negotiations for these enterprises, started under previous premier Richard Butler, despite intense competition from the New South Wales and Victorian governments.

British Tube Mills was a major industrial coup. Formed by Tube Investments (UK) and Stewarts & Lloyds (Australia), British Tube Mills' plant, set up in Kilburn in 1939, was the only Australian factory making precision steel tubing for products such as hypodermic needles, milking machines, locomotives, golf clubs and bicycles.

Ready to supply the World War II arms and equipment effort, the plant produced huge quantities of tubing for aircrafts, naval ships and guns, as well as anti-tank gun handles, and parts and gas cylinders for aircraft. Its workforce grew from 300 to 840.

This workforce grew to 1500 after the war when British Tube Mills (Australia) was making steel tubing components for a stream of industrial and household needs: refrigerators, frame tubing, pram handles, golf shafts, spanners, tubular steel furniture, boiler and condenser tubes, baker’s oven tubes and steam pipes.

By 1946, the expanded Kilburn side covered more than 400,000 square feet and included an area devoted to selling products from goods made onsite.

In 1969, British Tube Mills became a division of Tubemakers Australia, an amalgamation of nine companies. The Kilburn factory closed in 1993, with operations transferred to New South Wales. Tubemakers Australia was bought by BHP Steel in 1996.