Perry Engineering had its origins in 1899 when
Samuel Perry purchased from the estate of
James Wedlock the Cornwall Foundry on Hindley Street, renaming it the Victoria Foundry. He leased or purchased a nearby property on
North Terrace and there established a bridge and girder factory. He purchased a large block of land at
Mile End with potential for a private
railway siding and around 1911 established the factory there, by 1916 it was known as Perry Engineering. In 1915, Perry purchased the
James Martin & Co Phoenix Foundry works in
Gawler from the estate of the owner
Henry Dutton of
Anlaby. The company had recently lost a major contract for locomotives, which may have affected the price, as may have
World War I which was then consuming capital and manpower. James Martin's locomotive manufacturing business was also being challenged by the state-owned
Islington Railway Workshops. Samuel Perry transferred most of the heavy work to the Mile End factory, leaving the Gawler works with the rump of the business. He took on his nephew Frank as works manager at Mile End around 1918; In 1930, on the death of his uncle, Frank took over the company, which in 1937 was registered as Perry Engineering Co. Ltd. The Victorian State Rivers & Water Supply Commission purchased eight for construction of the
Hume Weir and nine for the rebuilding of
Silvan Reservoir. During
World War II much of the factory was converted to manufacture munitions and defence equipment including two types of vehicles which were sold to the Americans. One of the two vehicles was the Ferret scout car. A heavy steel manufacturing plant was established in
Whyalla in 1958, and the factory at Mile End expanded. In 1947 the company became a
public company. In the 1950s, it manufactured mechanical presses for
Chrysler,
Ford and
Holden. In 1966 Perry Engineering merged with Victorian company
Johns & Waygood to form Johns Perry Engineering. In 1986 the company was taken over by
Boral. As part of a company-wide rationalization, Boral decided to divest its engineering division and subsequently, Perry Engineering was sold to the Pope Electric Motors Group however, due to financial issues and lack of projects & contracts, Pope Electric Motors & Perry Engineering went into administration in 2000 and were subsequently liquidated. In 2001, most buildings on site were demolished to allow construction of the Mile End Homemaker Centre, then in 2004/2005 the last remaining buildings were demolished to make way for stage 2 of the Homemaker Centre. ==Output==