William Sandford
William Sandford (26 September 1841 – 29 May 1932) was an English-Australian ironmaster, who is widely regarded as the father of the modern iron and steel industry in Australia. Early life in England Sandford was born at Torrington in Devon and became an accountant, eventually becoming manager of Ashton Gate Iron Rolling Mills. Early years in Australia In 1883, he moved to Sydney, employed to organise a wire-netting factory, at what was then part of Five Dock now Chiswick, NSW. At the time of his first involvement in the colonial iron industry, his later views on providing import protection and increasing local manufacturing were already formed. After visiting Lithgow, he became enthusiastic about the local iron industry and tried to persuade his English employers to buy the Eskbank Ironworks. He left the wire netting factory, and set up a company (the Fitzroy Iron Company), leased the Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong in March 1886—in order to re-roll rails—and commenced production there in August 1886. Initially, Enoch Hughes—another pioneer of the Australian iron industry—was his manager at Mittagong. While there, he had made what was probably the first galvanised iron sheet manufactured using sheet iron rolled in Australia, around September 1886.