Obituaries Australia

Burns Philp & Company Limited was created in the 1870s, when its founding partners, James Burns and Robert Philp (both from Scotland), established a regular shipping line between Sydney and Townsville to supply their own trade stores. In the 1880s the company took on wider shipping agencies and expanded its branch activities along the Queensland coast, soon moving into pearling in Torres Strait and establishing a steamship run between Port Moresby and Thursday Island. While carrying passengers and trade for the Morobe gold fields, Burns Philp ran the mail service to New Guinea and set up trading branches at Port Moresby and Samurai in 1890–91. By 1896 the company had established itself as carriers for (then German) New Guinea, and was driven out by Nord Deutscher-Lloyd (NDL) in 1900 only because the administration was able to support a German company with massive subsidies.

Following similar expansion into the New Hebrides, Burns Philp further extended its area of interest into the central Pacific, opening branches in Tonga (1899), and an agency in Samoa (1912), acquiring a Fijian company in 1916, and opening depots in Solomon Islands (1910) and Gilbert Islands (1912). Extensive business was also conducted with planters and traders on its ships, used as floating shops where goods from Australia might be traded for Copra and other island products.

Plantation ownership (copra production) became part of the company’s Pacific mercantile activities, while both copra and tourism ensured the continued success of the shipping operations. Successful efforts to sustain and extend its dominance in the Pacific through the 1930s and 1940s included the establishment of subsidiary companies to manage operations in the New Hebrides and other non-Commonwealth areas of the Pacific, and major expansion in New Guinea.

For 75 years Burns Philp ships were household names in the South Pacific—including the Bulolo, Burnside, Macdhui, Malaita, Malekula, Mamatu, Marella, Marsina, Matunga, Merkur, Montoro, Morinda, and Neptuna. In World War II, eight company ships were requisitioned and six were lost in enemy action. Many of its Pacific branches ceased operating and Burns Philp took on a wartime role as agent for the United States Army Small Ships Command.

Since the war, retail trading and manufacturing have become increasingly significant activities for the company. Burns Philp’s shipping interests virtually ended with the sale of the Montoro in 1970, following the decision of the Australian government in the 1960s to withdraw its shipping subsidy. By 1998 the company had absorbed substantial abnormal losses from its forays into the international herbs and spices industry and the antibiotics market, and was relying for survival on the sale of its terminals group, operating bulk storage facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Further reading K. Buckley and K. Klugman, , 1981. The History of Burns Philp: the Australian company in the South Pacific, Allen & Unwin. ——, 1983. ‘The Australian Presence in the Pacific’: Burns Philp 1914–1946, Allen & Unwin. C. Pritchard, , 1992. ‘Chronicle’, Burns Philp and Company Ltd, Noel Butlin Archives Centre, N115.