Toowoomba Foundry

FURTHER to the letter that the Toowoomba Foundry would have turned 150 this year, I would like to note that I had three generations of my family work there: my brother, father and great grandfather on my mother’s side Thomas Lockitt.

Thomas Lockitt arrived in Brisbane on October 12, 1883 with his wife and five of his children on the Western Monarch.

He was a furnaceman with Steelworks in Crew (Source 1881 Census Monks Coppenhall Cheshire England).

Following some difficult times, the Toowoomba Foundry was expanding in 1883, and I am lead to believe that special trades were required and Thomas lockitt was sourced to fill one of those positions with supported passage to Australia.

Thomas Lockitt’s obituary can be read in archive copy of The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette Qld 1922-1933, Wednesday, April 27, 1932, page five.

I am sure other workers would have stories to tell.

RALPH LEE, Toowoomba