With the closure of the local Ford plant scheduled for 2016 and Shell’s recently-unveiled plan to sell its oil refinery, the city is looking to “high-end” manufactures and economic diversification as the key to its future.

One new business, Dulhunty Poles, makes a lightweight, fire resistant power pole that can be installed by helicopter in difficult terrain. Dulhunty exports 90 per cent of its output, mostly to Pacific nations such as New Zealand and French Polynesia.

Its executive director, Tony Wingrove, hopes the company can also break into the US market in the bushfire prone states of California and Nevada. “Our design suits situations where people have problems with fire, corrosion and difficulty with access,” he says.

The poles are made out of a mixture of fibreglass, clay and cement, with half the raw materials sourced locally. Total investment in the site is $8 million, most of which comes from private investors, Wingrove says.

The company employs 25 people at its Geelong plant and, crucially for the city’s ongoing relevance as a manufacturing hub, many are from a new generation of manufacturing workers. “We’ve discovered that the young guys adapt very quickly, as a lot of the production is done using computers,” Wingrove says.

Over at Carbon Nexus, a collaborative research facility, staff are working to streamline the production of carbon fibre, making it cheaper and more energy efficient. Carbon fibre, created by heating or “carbonising” polymer, has three times the tensile strength of steel and is much lighter.

Recent speculation suggests an international company is on the brink of piggy-backing the research effort by establishing a hi-tech carbon fibre factory. Multinational DowAksa is reportedly looking to team with Deakin University and local partners in a $220 million project that could create 250 production line jobs and a further thousand jobs in the city.     

John Beurle is the business development manager for the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing (VCAMM), a non-profit organisation that helped create Carbon Nexus. He says carbon fibre has many uses, from Formula One vehicles to blades for wind turbines. BMW, he adds, is currently designing a car that would be 60 per cent made from carbon fibre.

Mr Beurle says that although carbon fibre production had been relatively stable over recent decades, “it is about to explode”.     

The two most significant factors holding carbon fibre back, he says, have been production times and the expense, both of which the Deakin research facility hopes to reduce. Boeing, which operates a manufacturing plant at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne, is a potential customer for a new Geelong facility: carbon fibre is increasingly used in aeroplane parts with Boeing currently sourcing such products offshore.

If governments were to set goals for innovation, manufacturers would adapt, [says Austeng’s Ross George]. “That’s what industries do.”

Elsewhere, Geelong manufacturer Austeng has unveiled two new so-called EcoWhisper wind turbines. Co-designed with Renewable Energy Solutions Australia, the turbines are spruiked as some of the quietest in the world and can power the equivalent of seven homes.

Austeng’s managing director, Ross George, thinks niche and specialist manufacturing are the future for both Geelong and Australia. Governments, he says, have a role to play in creating demand. 

“Rather than just buying Australian cars, they should say, ‘we want a car that can drive 100km to the litre’,” says Mr George. If governments were to set goals for innovation, manufacturers would adapt, he adds. “That’s what industries do.”

Mr George says Austeng has several other projects underway for different clients, such as geopolymer cement (a low carbon alternative to regular cement), nanofibres and some “very clever” fire training equipment.       

Local Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden says there is huge investment potential for “high-end” manufacturing in the Geelong region. The manufacturing sector more broadly is the third biggest employer in the Geelong reghion (after retail and health care), paying out $800m in local wages and salaries per year and contributing $10 billion to the economy – almost half of Geelong’s $25 billion annual economic output. The next biggest contributor to Geelong’s economic output is the construction sector, worth $1.9 billion annually.

JOBS IN GEELONG: WHERE MANUFACTURING SITS

(Source: G21)

“There are 5000 tradies that rely on Ford, Shell and Alcoa for work,” says Mr Gooden. The most vulnerable people affected by the decline of manufacturing, he says, are school leavers and those who have moved to Geelong with their families and are in the 35-55 age range. Those aged 20-35 with working experience were most able to adapt to industry changes.

“If [the manufacturers] are not there, who’s going to soak up all those young workers out of school?” he asks.

The fate of manufacturing dominated a forum for Corangamite voters held as part of the Citizens’ Agenda project prior to this year’s federal election. Many groups – both government organisations and private enterprise – are pledging money to help the region invest in  innovation.      

Recently, $24.5 million was allocated for new and expanding business through the Geelong Regional Innovation and Investment Fund (GRIIF). Around 60 per cent of the money has been contributed by the Federal Government, with the rest coming from the state government and Ford. A previous incarnation backed by state and federal governments —the Geelong Investment and Innovation Fund – contributed $17 million towards new projects, creating roughly 800 jobs.        

Dulhunty Poles was a recipient of a $750,000 grant from the latter. While the money is helpful, Mr Wingrove is disappointed that the state’s energy bodies have shown “minimal” interest in his company’s product, despite Victoria being bushfire prone. Especially “as we are a Victorian manufacturer”, he adds. With Geelong’s reputation as Australia’s “motor city” seemingly heading for a dead-end, the region is entering an uncertain transition. But Elaine Carbines, the chief executive of G21, an organisation that lobbies on behalf of five councils in the Geelong region, says she is confident in the future of Geelong’s economy and acknowledges the huge growth in the health and education sectors. While diversifying the economy is critical, she says it is important that “manufacturing doesn’t get left behind”.

“While there are dark clouds hovering over our region, there is a considerable amount of energy to make sure there are opportunities for our people.”