CHAPTER 2


MELOCCO BROS & CONCRETE
by JOHN P.MELOCCO January 1994

As it is now known, Melocco Limited is recognised by most people for its activities in the marble and granite industries. In past years the company's contribution to the development of pre-mixed or ready mixed concrete was significant.

From 1920 to 1930 the company prospered and grew in numbers of skilled craftsman to more than one hundred. Marble, mosaic terrazzo, scagliola, sculptured fibrous plaster were in great demand and Melocco Bros led the field in all these industries. When the depression hit Australia in 1929 demand for these products fell away very quickly. The youngest brother Galliano (Galli) had just joined the firm and went to Brisbane to open up a branch of the company.

To keep their valued skilled man usefully employed was the major problem of the day. The Brisbane branch was closed and Galli was placed in charge of a newly formed subsidiary company called “Road Constructors Pty Ltd”, which successfully tendered for concrete road contracts for the Sydney City Council and the DMR. In the following years a great volume of concrete work was completed which maintained employment for the majority of the man. However, it was very arduous work as the concrete itself had to be mixed on site by large mechanical mixers fed by shovel and then wheeled into place by wheelbarrow.

The oldest brother Peter had learned his trade as a young man with his three Uncles in New York. He maintained correspondence with his New York contacts and was always interested in all new developments there, including the developments of “ready mixed concrete” in that city. In 1936 Road Constructors obtained a very large contract in the St. Peters area (Gardeners Road, Ricketty Street and Botany Road) and a rather crude batching plant was constructed by the company which employed gravity feed for all materials, to a large mechanical mixer and then to flat top trucks which delivered the mixed concrete directly to the point of placement Due to vibration of the truck the concrete set very quickly giving the delivery trucks a very short range. On completion of this road contract the batching plant was sold to a Mr Bennett who used it successfully for many years for bricklayers’ ready mixed mortar It is interesting to note that many years later (about 1952) Mr Bennett sold the batching plant to a Mr Tristam Antico, who in his early career had been employed as the company Secretary of Melocco Bros Pty Ltd and was now Managing Director of the newly formed Pioneer Concrete Pty Ltd.

In 1936 a Sydney building company “Concrete Constructions Pty Ltd” built a more advanced concrete batching plant using a cylindrical type of rotating agitator to transport concrete to sites  which would tip up to discharge the wet concrete. A company was formed called “Ready Mix Pty Ltd” which still exists to this day.

Ready Mix Pty Ltd sold concrete to the building trade including Road Constructors. This new method was viewed with great suspicion by most authorities as no supervision was possible in mix control. Also the concrete was tipped out in a great heap to be manually handled, again a very arduous task.

Nevertheless the three Melocco brothers could see huge potential in pre-mixed concrete but delivery improvement was essential and confidence of the architects and authorities had to be achieved.

Following American developments which had eliminated the cylindrical tipping agitator for a high discharge transit mixer based on the principle of the Archimedes Screw, similar to current mixers, a new modern concrete batching plant was built by the company at its Annandale factory and twelve two and a half cubic yard mobile concrete mixers were constructed in Sydney, based on the American design.

Romalo Curtis, a nephew to the three Melocco brothers, was responsible for this work, which commenced in 1940. Due to restrictions of wartime material supplies, the plant was not operational until the end of 1941. To overcome the resistance of the purchasing public, delivery dockets were automatically stamped with the weight of the ingredients of the concrete, except water, which was added on site from the trucks own water tanks.

For this reason the new subsidiary company was called “Certified Concrete Pty Ltd” and was an immediate success. As the concrete was batched into the mobile mixer as dry ingredients, the range for delivery became even greater, extending in some cases to Lithgow and beyond.

After World War II, competition between Ready Mix and Certified Concrete became intense with Ready Mix converting to similar high discharge transit mixers.

In 1952 the company obtained a licence to have the six cubic yard American “Challenge” mixer built in Sydney. Some 42 units were built and operated by Certified Concrete and new batching plants were constructed at Pennant Hills, Bankstown Ryde and Alexandria.

During the 1950’s a small number of companies commenced operating pre-mixed concrete plants. Pioneer Concrete from the old St Peters plant, Metropolitan at Ryde later purchased by Certified Concrete and C.A.M. Concrete at Leichhardt. At this time it should be noted that the large material supply companies selling cement blue metal and sand, remained separate from the concrete companies who were amongst their best customers.

In 1958 the writer arranged to obtain for the company a permissive occupancy from the NSW government over Shaw’ s Island, a large deposit of gravel and sand on the Nepean river. A crushing and washing plant was built operating by September 1959, dealing with approximately two thousand tons a day of crushed aggregate and sand. This was sufficient to meet the requirements of Certified Concrete for many years to come.

Melocco Bros Pty Ltd with its subsidiaries Road Constructors, Certified Concrete and Yarramundi Properties (the gravel crushing plant) had experienced enormous growth since the end of the second world war. Being a private company holding a key position in the building and construction industries, a number of offers to amalgamate with larger public companies were received during 1959 - 1960.

An exchange of shares was made with Blue Metal Industries Ltd in March 1960giving full control of Melocco Bros and its subsidiaries to that company.Only Melocco Limited now exists and operates from a new factory in Euston Road, Alexandria and is now owned and operated by Boral Limited.

Of the many achievements of Melocco Bros from 1908- 1960, evidenced in this city and country, perhaps the least known is its pioneering contribution to the concrete industry. Worldwide I know of no other company outside the United States of America that preceded Melocco Bros into ready mixed concrete as we know it today.

After 1960 Melocco Limited produced pre-cast concrete units for major building construction for over 20 years. This is the subject of a further essay.

 

 

JOHN P. MELOCCO
(Son of the Founder
Peter 0. Melocco)
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