Under the Canopy

A steel-framed canopy shelters what remains of a derelict brick interior at the former Davies Coop / Bradmill factory on Francis Street, Yarraville. Painted columns have rusted along their length, corrugated roof sheets overhead have begun to sag, and a coiled hose lies across the stained concrete floor alongside scattered debris. Grass and weeds press in at the foreground edge, the line between outside and inside no longer particularly clear. The factory's origins trace to 1952, when Davies Coop & Co. Ltd formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Davies Coop (B.D.A.) Pty. Ltd., to run dyeing and finishing at property already acquired at West Footscray. The arrangement was tied to an agreement with the Bradford Dyers' Association Ltd of England, giving Davies Coop exclusive Australian rights to the "Rigmel" shrink-control process. By 1954 the company reported a record year and noted the new West Footscray dye house, started in 1952, was expected to be finished by November. The company had purchased 40 acres at West Footscray as the basis for what its directors described as large-scale development of the textile industry in Australia. The manufacturing buildings that followed reflect a transition phase in factory design: south-lit sawtooth roofs carried on trussed roofs, a form documented in the Maribyrnong Heritage Overlay HO125 as architecturally significant. The site later operated under the Bradmill name as a denim and workwear fabric manufacturer. Textile production ceased around 2001 as tariff protection wound back and import competition intensified. The site sat vacant until around 2007. This photograph was made in 2011, during the dormant years before the Bradmill Yarraville redevelopment advanced. The canopy, the rusting columns and the weeds pushing through the concrete floor are what that window looked like. It is gone now.