Colgate-Palmolive Pty. Ltd. - oral history interviews with former employees, used in the compilation of 'Down the 'Olive: a memory of Colgate-Palmolive in Balmain, New South Wales'

MLOH 183

fonds

26 April-22 September 1994

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

412159

Digitised

37 audiocassettes (23 hr., 45 min.) - 10 × 7 cm, 4 mm tape

Palmolive, a Milwaukee based company, opened a soap factory at East Balmain in 1923. In 1924 Palmolive soap was launched in Australia.
By 1925 one hundred and forty four people were employed at Balmain by Palmolive, ninety six in the factory and forty eight in the office and sales sections.
In 1926 Palmolive merged with Peet and in 1928, when the factory began production of Colgate toothpaste, Palmolive-Peet merged with Colgate to become Colgate-Palmolove-Peet. In 1953 the company became Colgate-Palmolive.
During the 1950s and 1960 shampoos and various household cleaning products were added to the Colgate range.
In 1955 the company purchased land at Villawood and production of household cleaning products commenced at that site in 1956. In 1985 a central distribution centre was established at Clyde and in the late 1980s production of some Colgate items was begun at Queensland and New Zealand. In 1993 closure of the Balmain plant was begun. The Colgate-Palmolive site was reopened in 1998 having been redeveloped as residential apartments.
In 1994 Colgate-Palmolive conducted a series of oral history interviews with former employees of the Company. Interviewees, many of whom lived and worked in Balmain for most of their lives, discuss their work at Colgate-Palmolive and the people they worked with. Interviews were conducted by Else Lackey. As a result of the oral history interviews the Company published 'Down the 'Olive: a memory of Colgate-Palmolive in Balmain, New South Wales', written and edited by Else Lackey and Monica Vardabasso in 1994.

Item 01: Jean Mathews interview by Else Lackey
Item 02: Jack Shaw interview by Else Lackey
Item 03: Ray Bransby interview by Else Lackey
Item 04: Pat Madden interview by Else Lackey
Item 05: Geoffrey Howland Handley interview by Else Lackey
Item 06: Eileen Santry interview by Else Lackey
Item 07: Elva Blaydon interview by Else Lackey
Item 08: James McLuckie interview by Else Lackey
Item 09: Ray Dale interview by Else Lackey
Item 10: Ernie and Myrtle Rogers interview by Else Lackey
Item 11: Rose Walker interview by Else Lackey
Item 12: John Holcombe interview by Else Lackey
Item 13: Ray Collyer interview by Else Lackey
Item 14: Grace Pearce interview by Else Lackey
Item 15: Cecelie Ward interview by Else Lackey
Item 16: Frank Manley interview by Else Lackey
Item 17: Robert M. Gardiner interview by Else Lackey
Item 18: Rene le Platrier interview by Else Lackey
Item 19: Patricia Powell interview by Else Lackey
Item 20: Fay Sylvester Anderson interview by Else Lackey
Item 21: Catherine Pegram interview by Else Lackey
Item 22: Allan Moran interview by Else Lackey
Item 23: Lillian Cargill nterview by Else Lackey
Item 24: Adele Isabel Gourlie interview by Else Lackey
Item 25: Bill and Shirley Burke interviewed by Else Lackey
Item 26: Peter Frederick Waterman interview by Else Lackey
Item 27: Kenneth Heggen interview by Else Lackey
Item 28: Joyce Isaac interview by Else Lackey

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

The description of this material has been supplied from the Oral History Digitisation Program, undertaken 2014 to 2017 of the Library's oral history collections.

Transcripts of tapes are available.
Copy available at CY MLOH 183/1-37

This Working Life - State Library of New South Wales (1 February - 13 June, 2004)