Very nice work indeed! In particular I absolutely love the Miniwatt "Made in Australia" in picture two - I still have two of their catalogs purchased in an old bookstore years ago, and several vaccuum tubes somewhere in the house...
Maybe it's because I'm not as old as I feel, but seeing Made In Australia on ANYTHING electronic kind of blows my mind. I pulled apart an old Dept. of Education issue portable record player a few weeks back that my Grandma had in her garage. I expected to find cheap, mass-produced-in-China 80's shit inside. But nope. Found a 1962 date stamp and a Made In England marking, all hand wired point to point with Australian made tubes in there. I just don't think of Australia as being somewhere that produces components (though I remember my Nanna telling me loads of stuff that USED TO BE made here...), so it was an interesting surprise to see that stuff in there.
Australia used to make an incredible amount of Electronics stuff back in the day.
Looking back,there was a lot less manufacturing in Asian countries other than Japan,& parts from the USA ,UK & Europe were not always competitive in price with the Australian made stuff.
As Japan started to ramp up their production,their components & complete units became cheaper,
(with a lot of help from the Japanese taxpayer).
There was also the "cultural cringe" factor---"Australian made?---Really,my dear,how could you?"
Rightly,or wrongly,the decision makers went with the idea that "Australian made" meant inferior,so any subsidies were dropped,& local manufacturing fell away to nothing.
Of course,the local manufacturers were often their own worst enemies--there was more profit in importing something & putting your own label on it,than making it yourself.
And,the Japanese stuff
was good,& got better over the years!
"Karma is a bitch",though,& we now see long established Japanese brands being pushed aside by the brash new competitors from Korea & China.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
