In April 1893 'Buronlong' wrote to the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (8 April 1893, p. 694), for advice on how to dispose of around two tons (approximately 1.8 tonnes) of quinces. He was directed to the principal jam manufacturers then operating in Sydney: G. Peacock and Sons, Dyason Brothers, Johnson Brothers and Co., Southern Cross Preserving Company, Sydney Jam Company, and Taylor Brothers.
The story of George Peacock, recognised as the first person to produce jam on a commercial scale in Australia, is well known. George began manufacturing in Hobart in 1861, expanded his operations to the mainland around 1880, and by 1886 had factories in Hobart, Sydney, and Melbourne. His Sydney factory was established at Alice Street, Newtown. George retired around 1890/91 and died at his home in Stanmore in 1900 (see obituary Daily Telegraph, 2 May 1900, p. 7, ‘Death of Mr George Peacock’). The Peacock Jam Company continued its operations in Newtown under the management of George B. Edwards, George Peacock’s son-in-law, and George’s son, Herbert Peacock. Henry Jones and his associate Achalen Woolliscroft Palfreyman became directors of the company and took over the business in 1902. The intricacies of the Peacock dynasty, George Peacock’s association with Henry Jones and the story of IXL, the subsequent holding combine masterminded by Henry Jones, are best told by Bruce Brown in I excel! The life and times of Sir Henry Jones (Hobart: Libra Books, 1991).
The Jam Combine
It isn't possible to talk about jam manufacturing in Australia without reference to Henry Jones and the business he established. Beginning in 1900 Jones concentrated on buying up rival jam manufacturers and expanding his business interests, the company's dealings often being less than transparent. By 1907 Jones had all but a strangle hold on the fruit industry in general and jam manufacture in particular. His company held sway over the principal jam producers in the eastern states, owned or acted as agent for the ships which carried jam and fruit pulp out of Hobart, owned orchards which provided the fruit, controlled the supply of tin plate (through investment in Tongkah Tin Dredging Company, established on Phuket Island, Thailand) and operated saw mills which cut the timber for the cases in which the jam tins were packed (Brown, p. 67).
Although the existence of a combine and the control it had over the industry was vehemently denied[1] it was clear to anyone with knowledge of the industry that by 1909 'To all intents and purposes the whole of the Australian jam trade is held in the same hands' (Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 25 November 1909, p. 11). In February 1910 Henry Jones Co-operative Limited, combining the businesses of Henry Jones and Co. Ltd, Hobart and Sydney; The Australian Jam Company Pty Ltd, Melbourne; the Peacock Jam Company Ltd, Sydney; and the distributing house of F. W. Moore and Co., London, was registered in Melbourne. The activities and the true nature of the business of the Co-operative were largely hidden from public scrutiny. As the Sun newspaper explained the balance sheet revealed little: 'Some shareholders with other means of obtaining information may find out more, but the average investor has to be content with what the report tells him' (Sun (Sydney), 12 February 1912, p. 10, 'Henry Jones Co-operative, Ltd'):
It is understood that the subsidiary companies, about a dozen in number, are all doing well, but the report is absolutely silent on the point. The companies concerned do not publish reports, and as the bulk of the shares are held by the Co-operative company there is little chance of the outside shareholder knowing much about them.
In his report on the trust movement in Australia, H. L. Wilkinson (The Trust Movement in Australia (Melbourne: Critchley Parker, 1914), pp. 88–89) was particularly concerned with the plight of the fruit grower:
There is now little competition anywhere in Australia in the buying of fruit, as the large jam factories are either controlled by the one company or agreement as to prices paid for fruit have been entered into by all the factories in the same district.
He conceded the advantages of having 'a strong and wealthy "holding company", controlling both home and export trade', when it came to securing markets and establishing a viable export trade, but noted the disadvantages. For one, centralising production in the large centres of population, the location of the principal market for jam, coupled with the power of the virtual monopoly, prevented other factories from starting up in the fruit districts, thus forcing fruit to come to the jam factories rather than vice versa. Wilkinson also observed:
It is only natural that a company having control of the consumption of jam fruits will pay no higher prices for fruits than it is obliged to in order to get supplies. The price is fixed so that it is just worth while for fruit growers to produce fruit. In such circumstances it is impossible to expect fruit growing for jam to prosper.
Over the years the directors of the Co-operative continued to obfuscate and generally avoid scrutiny of their operations, while the company flourished. The Australian Worker (17 October 1923, p. 15, 'Subsidising the jam combine') summed up the situation in 1923:
The jam and canned fruit industry of the Commonwealth is controlled by a powerful combination of subsidised corporations, which, in turn, are controlled by the "holding" company, known as Henry Jones Co-operative, Ltd. This "holding" company does not manufacture jam or fruit, but controls the companies that do, holding the bulk of the shares in them. These subsidised companies are situated in Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The result being that no matter what brand of jam consumers purchased, the profits all ended up with what the newspaper called 'the Jam and Canned Fruits Trust'. The Australian Worker continued:
Years ago there was keen rivalry between small and competitive jam and fruit factories throughout the Commonwealth. Then the fruit growers got a decent price for their products, and the consumers paid a decidedly lower price for the manufactured goods. But one by one the competitors have been eliminated - the general method being to take over half their properties at a valuation, and allot them, in return, shares in the trust.
If competitors were not somehow absorbed into the Trust they were 'mercilessly crushed out of existence' so that 'slowly but surely the Trust has coiled its tentacles around the various jam and canned fruit concerns, until now it is in absolute control of the jam and canned fruits industry in the Commonwealth.' The monopoly was 'a law unto itself', dictating the price to fruit growers, and, through the Jam and Canned Fruits Convention (the selling agency for the Trust made up of representatives of the various subsidiary manufacturing concerns) fixing the prices at which jams and canned fruits were sold, and arranging the discounts and rebates to be allowed to distributors.
The fate of all the now largely forgotten companies mentioned in the Sydney Mail in 1893 was determined by the machinations of Henry Jones Co-operative Ltd. Although little record of these businesses remains, each has its own history, and together they paint a picture of a dynamic industry and a time when a jam factory was a common feature of the inner city suburbs.
Dyasons
Jam manufacturing was slow to establish in NSW in part because of the lack of variety and availability of good quality fruits. Peaches, apples, quinces, and plums were the main local crops, while soft fruits and berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants had to be imported from Tasmania. Shipping these fresh fruits was not possible without them fermenting. (Keith Farrer, A Settlement Amply Supplied (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1980), p. 155). In addition, before Federation, individual colonies imposed tariffs and trade barriers designed to protect local industries. George Peacock developed a technique for preparing fruit pulp making it safely transportable interstate and incidentally made it possible to produce jam when fruit was out of season. He also took on the government bureaucracy in New South Wales to establish a regular trade in fruit pulp from Tasmania which not only benefitted his own businesses on the mainland but opened opportunities for other manufacturers. (For this saga see Farrer, pp. 154–159).
It may not be possible to determine who first produced jam on an industrial scale in Sydney, but one of the earliest successful operations was that of the Dyason brothers. Of the six companies listed in the Sydney Mail in 1893, three were associated with the Dyason family.
Joshua Dyason, a baker, his wife Eliza, their infant son Edwin and Joshua’s brother John arrived in Sydney in 1837. The Dyason family claim that Joshua Dyason was manufacturing jam and cordials in Sydney as early as 1851 (see R. W Dyason, Melon & Lemon Jam (Melbourne: R.W Dyason, 1991-1999)), but on what scale and using what sort of equipment is unrecorded. Only a couple of years later Joshua had relocated to Melbourne and was established as a baker in Brunswick.[2] From the 1870s the family name became associated with Collingwood and the manufacture of cordials, jam and tomato sauce in the area around Wellington, Oxford and what was then Dorset Street.[3] Meanwhile Joshua’s sons, William Bayley/Bailey, Henry Robert and Joshua junior were manufacturing jam in Sydney.
William Bayley Dyason was manufacturing cordial, vinegar and jam in Glebe from 1866.[4] What happened after he was declared insolvent in 1869 is unclear but in 1879 the Australian Town and Country Journal was able to report on the Sydney Jam Company factory at Alexandria, managed by Mr. Dyason and trading as Dyason Brothers.[5]
The Dyasons were credited with being the first to successfully compete with jam imported from the southern states and praised for having established a business hitherto ‘left almost entirely in the hands of the Tasmanians and Victorians’:
The starting of this local enterprise is deserving our best attention for besides opening up employment in several branches of trade and providing an outlet for surplus fruits it retains money in this colony which would otherwise go to another for what we ourselves can produce at a much less cost. [6]
The business expanded and by 1885 it had outgrown the original Alexandria site and a new, more efficient works opened in Golden Grove Street, Darlington. From here the Dyasons were reported as distributing to New South Wales and exporting to Queensland, Fiji and New Caledonia, with an output of 50 tons (45 tonnes) of jam per week during the season.[7] Altogether they used 16 different types of fruit, the Dyason speciality being melon and lemon jam. The cans and boxes were still made at the Alexandria site while the boiling filling and labelling operations were all done at Darlington.[8]
By 1887 the brothers had started manufacturing cordials and had also established a factory in Brisbane, with Henry Robert managing the Queensland business and William Bayley the Darlington factory. The business was using fruits from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and tropical fruit from Queensland as well as local raw materials, producing 500 to 600 lbs (225 to 270 kilos) of jam per day in the season.[9] But William and Henry had overstretched themselves and in July 1888 called a meeting of their creditors to declare total liabilities of some £60,000. The Sydney Jam Company was purchased by Mr Montague Marks, and eventually taken over by Henry Jones and Co. in August 1900.[10] This purchase followed the acquisition of the Boyce Brothers factory in Alexandria. Former employees of the Sydney Jam Company, the Boyces had become successful competitors and sourced most of their raw material from Jones’s operation in Hobart. As Bruce Brown (pp. 43–44) tells the story the purchase of the Sydney Jam Company was proposed by the Boyce brothers to enable them to expand their business to meet the projected production levels determined by Jones and his right-hand man, A. W. Pafreyman, who brokered the deal. As such it is also an example of the devious operations of the jam combine.
Henry Dyason remained in Queensland and continued in business there. William Bayley and his son Hamilton went on making jam - first as Dyason Brothers, in Young Street, Annandale (Hamilton and his brother Albert), then as W. B Dyason and sons, and finally as Dyason and Johnson in Pyrmont.[11] The partnership with Johnson was dissolved in early 1898 and by the end of the year the jam business went into liquidation which seems to have ended the Dyasons’ operations in Sydney. The extended Dyason family continued manufacturing a diverse range of products, marketed under their own name and a range of brands (for example, Cockatoo Tomato Sauce, Tassell’s Mango Chutney, Parramatta Pineapple Cordial), in Victoria (Melbourne and Mildura) and Queensland.[12]
The other Dyason operation in Sydney was the Southern Cross Fruit Preserving Company which was started in Glebe by Joshua Dyason jnr. in 1888/89.[13] How long Joshua was associated with the business is unclear, but it remained in production until 1900.
Johnson Brothers
The demise of the other Dyason brothers in 1888 coincided with the Melbourne based fruit merchants Johnson Brothers and Co. establishing a factory in Sydney.[14] Johnson Brothers began producing jam in Hobart in conjunction with George Peacock in the 1860s and built their own jam manufactory there in 1869.[15] In 1890 they were producing jam at Queen Street, Glebe.[16] This business was also acquired by Henry Jones in 1910 but the factory continued in operation at Glebe until around 1925/6 when the business transferred to Bridge Road, Stanmore.[17]
The only business to hold out against Henry Jones was that begun by the Taylor brothers – see part two.
[1] For example see Daily Telegraph (Sydney) , 21 December 1907, p. 14, ‘Alleged jam ‘combine’, Australasian Jam Co. Pty. Ltd. Claims no connection with Mssrs Peacock of Hobart; The Age (Melbourne), 4 April 1908, p. 15 ‘The jam combine’, letter from A.W. Palfreyman, director Australasian Jam Co. Pty. Ltd ‘the insinuation that manufacturers … combined to dictate prices to growers is the vilest nonsense.’)
[2] The Argus, 29 June 1854, p. 1. Advertising for a bread and biscuit baker, one who understands his business, Brunswick, near the Retreat Inn, Sydney Road.
[3] https://collingwoodhs.org.au/resources/notable-people-2/collingwood-notables-database/entry/553/
[4] Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter SMH), 15 September 1866, p. 5 ‘Metropolitan District Court’ Dart v Dyason. Plaintiff claimed for jam tins and blacking boxes made by him to the order of the defendant. Admitted to blacking boxes, but re other items called evidence to show that the tins were leaky and consequently the jam put into them had depreciated in value. SMH, 12 December 1867, p. 8, Wanted a young man accustomed to bottling, Dyason and Co, Walton’s premises Bay Street, Glebe. NSW Government Gazette. 3 April 1868, p. 963. Insolvent, William Bailey Dyason, Crown Street, Surry Hills, late of Bay Street, cordial and vinegar manufacturer. SMH, 8 July 1868, p. 4 Dyason and Co exporting 22 cases jam to Wide Bay.
[5] The Mercury (Hobart), 15 December 1877, p. 2 announced the opening of the works at Alexandria, and claimed the Dyasons had employed ‘two of the most competent jam makers from Tasmania’. Australian Town and Country Journal (hereafter AT and CJ), 15 March 1879, p. 32, ‘Sydney Jam Company'. SMH, 15 March 1878, p. 3, ‘Manufactures’, reports 5 jam factories in New South Wales.
[6] AT and CJ, 15 March 1879, p. 32.
[7] AT and CJ, 17 January 1885, p. 41 ‘colonial industries’. Each case held 6, 1 lb tins of jam.
[8] Evening News, 23 January 1886, p. 6, ‘Jam making in NSW’.
[9] Queensland Figaro and Punch, 16 April 1887, p. 17 ‘A Brisbane Jam Factory’. AT and CJ, 19 February 1887, p. 22. ‘Jam Making Industry’.
[10] SMH, 22 September 1888, p. 12; SMH, 20 November 1900, p. 9, ‘Monetary and Commercial’.
[11] NSW Gov. Gaz., 5 February 1892, p. 1034; Australian Star, 7 January 1895, p. 3, ‘Jam making industry’; Australian Star, 9 May 1895, p. 8, ‘W. B. Dyason and sons’; Australian Star, 22 June 1895, p. 3 ‘Dyason & Johnson’; Sunday Times, 20 December 1896, p. 18, ‘Three Pyrmont industries’.
[12] Daily Telegraph, 5 February 1898, p. 15; Daily Telegraph, 28 November 1898, p. 9.
[13] First recorded in Sands Directory for 1889. Address 33 Campbell Street, Glebe.
[14] SMH, 18 August 1888, p. 10, ‘Monetary and commercial’. The firm of Johnson Brothers should not be confused with the Mr James Johnson who was in partnership with the Dyasons.
[15] At one time there had been a partnership between Johnston and Peacock. See Tasmanian Times, 28 April 1869, p. 1 announcing the dissolution of the partnership between G. Peacock and G. T. Johnson and confirming that both would continue manufacturing: G. Peacock wishes it to be known that he intends to continue in the same lines; Mr G. T. Johnson informs growers of fruit that after the present season he intends to carry on manufacturing jam in connection with his fruit and produce business under the style of Johnson, Brothers & Co. The Mercury (Hobart), 9 November 1869, p. 2.
[16] NSW Government Gazette, 25 July 1890, p. 5928. Registration of trade mark.
[17] Johnson Brothers acquired by H. Jones Evening News, 27 July 1910, p. 5 ‘New companies’. Brown, p. 96, states that the Henry Jones cooperative ‘formed a small jam manufacturing company called Johnson Brothers’ in 1910, but the evidence is clear that Johnson Brothers had been in operation long before this.
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