Armstrong in Australia


Armstrong, Australia, and the US Navy Goodwill Tour of 1925

Written by James McMahon, Ph.D.
Posted by Emily Miller

My name is James McMahon and for the past few months I have been working as a project archivist for LancasterHistory. My responsibilities include cataloguing and digitizing a vast collection of archival materials that document the significant role of the cork industry in the local economy.


Bales of processed cork in a warehouse, Djidjelli, Algeria, January 1935. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.
Bales of processed cork in a warehouse, Djidjelli, Algeria, January 1935. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.

Working in the Armstrong Archive, I have catalogued a large number of photographs that document the foreign operations of the Armstrong Cork Company—Armstrong World Industries since 1980—throughout much of the twentieth century. Images of the bark of the cork oak tree being grown, harvested, and processed in the Mediterranean countries of Portugal and Spain in Europe as well as Algeria and Tunisia in northern Africa are mixed in with images that document partnerships with overseas manufacturers and distributors of finished flooring and ceiling products from around the world. In many of these countries the Foreign Operations Office typically partnered with a network of local agents to manage imports. Only after the end of World War II did Armstrong establish a permanent presence in these countries.

Charles T. Midlane and wife crossing Sydney Harbor from their home in Neutral Bay to view the US Naval Fleet, July 23, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.
Charles T. Midlane and wife crossing Sydney Harbor from their home in Neutral Bay to view the US Naval Fleet, July 23, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.

Prior to establishing a permanent presence in Australia in 1960, the Foreign Operations Office of Armstrong Cork Company partnered with local agents such as Charles T. Midlane of Midlane Brothers, Pty. Ltd. of Sydney to assist in managing imports. In the Armstrong Archive on the reserve of a series of photographs taken in July and August 1925 on the occasion of the United States Navy visiting the Australian coastal cities of Melbourne and Sydney, Charles T. Midlane is identified as an “Armstrong Australian Representative.” Since Midland is identified in many of the photographs, it appears that the series of photographs documenting the visit of the US Navy to Australia were either taken by or for Charles Midlane. Apparently Midlane and his company maintained a longstanding relationship with Armstrong. In an article that appeared in the Lancaster New Era on May 28, 1947 documenting a visit by Charles T. Midlane to Lancaster to meet with James L. Knipe, Assistant General Manager Foreign Operations, Midlane Brothers is described as “agents for Armstrong Cork Co.”

USS Mississippi in Sydney Harbor, July 23, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.
USS Mississippi in Sydney Harbor, July 23, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.

The visit of United States Navy vessels to the Australian coastal cities of Melbourne and Sydney took place between July 23 and August 5, 1925 as part of a Pacific goodwill tour to Australia and New Zealand. The visit was just one in a long series of such visits to Australian ports beginning with the 1839 visit by the US Navy Exploring Expedition, a surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps the most well-known visit to Australia by the US Navy is the August 1908 visit of the Great White Fleet. The 1908 visit was authorized by President Theodore Roosevelt who sent the US Atlantic Battle Fleet of 16 battleships, all painted white in peacetime colors, on a 14-month goodwill cruise around the world to demonstrate American naval power as well as strengthen diplomatic ties. In all, 23 US Navy vessels entered the ports of Sydney, Melbourne, and Albany in 1908. The visit by the Pacific Fleet to Australia in 1925 was part of an effort to both cement and renew that long-standing alliance. That tour saw a record-breaking total of 56 ships enter the ports of Sydney and Melbourne; the largest single foreign naval fleet ever received in Australia.

Of the 56 US Navy ships that comprised the visiting contingent to Australia, 43 arrived to wind and rain at Port Phillip, Melbourne and 13 to sunshine and blue skies at Sydney Harbor. With its deep harbor, Sydney hosted eight of the fleet’s largest ships—the battleships California, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, and West Virginia—as well as the destroyer Artic, the supply ship Bridge, the hospital ship Relief, and three oil tankers.

A contemporary newspaper account from the Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, Thursday, July 23, 1925 noted the following:

USS New Mexico in Sydney Harbor, July 25, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.
USS New Mexico in Sydney Harbor, July 25, 1925. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.

The arrival of eight of America’s greatest battleships this morning in Sydney Harbour made a spectacle which will long be remembered. The dim shadows of the shapes of great vessels were seen from Coogee at 6.30. It was a quarter to ten, half an hour before schedule time that the leading battleship, California, passed between the Heads amid roars of applause from massed crowds on the deadlands.

The sightseers witnessed a thrilling spectacle when a seaplane took off from the stern of the Colardo [sp]. It gracefully rose over the crowd to a height of 2.000 [2,000] feet, demonstrating for the first time to the Australian people the state of efficiency which America’s fighting prowess has achieved.

The sailors and “blue jackets,” another term for an enlisted person in the United States Navy, who served on the vessels visiting Australia toured the countryside and attended a variety of social events and other functions held in their honor. Photographs included in this particular series depict events held in the Blue Mountains, a rugged area west of Sydney, in the towns of Medlow Bath and Katoomba. Both towns offer spectacular mountain views, including steep cliffs, eucalyptus forests, and waterfalls.

Armstrong-Nylex Hexology Flooring Exhibition, undated. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.
Armstrong-Nylex Hexology Flooring Exhibition, undated. Photo: LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive.

After establishing a more permanent presence in Australia in 1960, Armstrong entered into a joint venture with Australian manufacturer Nylex Corporation in 1968, constructing a vinyl flooring manufacturing facility at Braeside, Victoria.

In 1999, Armstrong took over the Nylex share of what had been called Armstrong-Nylex, rebranding the new company as Armstrong Flooring Pty. Ltd. According to the company’s own website, “Armstrong Flooring’s Braeside Melbourne-manufactured products are the only resilient vinyl flooring & walling products that are made right here in Australia”; testament to the longstanding relationship between Armstrong, Australia, and America that continues to this day.

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