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Fremantle Anglo Persian Oil Co
In 1919, the Western Australian Parliament passed a special Bill, giving Anglo Persian Oil Co authority to lay pipelines under Fremantle’s streets and to build large oil storage tanks at a cost of £31,495 (about A$3.3 million today). The deal let Fremantle Council charge the company rates but ensured it wouldn’t hold a monopoly, leaving room for competitors if they wished.
Construction soon followed on a nine-acre site east of the water reserve, near Swanbourne Street. The first tank, capable of holding two million gallons of oil, was connected to Victoria Quay by more than a mile of pipelines running under the streets to a depth of three feet. By 1921, Fremantle was officially in the oil business. The new system allowed ships to refuel faster and more cleanly than coal, a significant turning point in the modernisation of Australian shipping.
In the beginning
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was a British company, established in 1909, following the discovery of oil in Persia on 26 May 1908. In 1914, the British Government acquired a 51 per cent stake in the company.
In 1935, when Persia officially changed its name to Iran, the company amended their name to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. After Iran nationalised its oil industry in the early 1950s, the company was renamed British Petroleum Company (BP). The change was formally approved by shareholders in December 1954.
Expansion and modernisation
As demand for oil grew, so did the scale of works. By the mid-1920s, a second tank had been installed, bringing total capacity to 4.5 million gallons. Pipelines were duplicated and bunkering points (a connection outlet consisting of a pipe fitted with valves, where flexible hoses can be attached to a ship for refuelling) along Victoria Quay were increased from eight to nineteen. This meant that two ships could now refuel at the same time, while an oil tanker could continue unloading its cargo, even as other vessels bunkered.
These improvements, costing around £15,000 (about A$1.6 million today), made Fremantle’s facilities among the most advanced in Australia. Statistics show how quickly the port was rising in importance. In 1925–26, more than 71,595 tons of oil was bunkered in Fremantle and by the following year, the figure had jumped to nearly 100,000 tons. Coal remained in use, with both Collie coal and imported coal still in demand but oil was becoming the dominant fuel.
The infrastructure was spread across the working harbour, instead of being limited to a single industrial complex. Facilities were located along North Quay, Victoria Quay and around Rous Head, where fuel tanks, pipelines and wharf connections were installed.
Growth of Anglo-Persian
At the same time, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was becoming a major global oil producer. The oil found in Persia was lighter and cleaner than other oil sources, making it cheaper and easier to refine into petrol, kerosene and fuel oil. Its wells in Persia were already producing about 4.5 million tons of crude oil each year. Additional wells had also struck oil and were sealed, kept in reserve to meet future demand. Many of these wells were shallow, which made extraction quick and cost-effective. Their location near the Persian Gulf allowed oil to be piped directly to the coast and loaded onto ships, keeping transport costs low
By the mid-1920s, the company controlled more than 700 miles of pipelines, over 1,500 storage tanks and nine refineries around the world. Since 1914, it had reinvested nearly £19 million (about A$2.04 billion) into expanding its operations, while still paying out more than £8.5 million (roughly A$912 million) in dividends to shareholders.
Independent experts spoke highly of the company’s Persian oilfields and shareholders supported it remaining British-owned. The British Government held a £2.2 million stake (about A$236 million), which gave it control and helped protect consumers from inflated prices set by foreign oil monopolies. As the Royal Navy shifted from coal to oil, Persian oil provided Britain with a secure, government-backed fuel supply that was not dependent on foreign-controlled companies.
Constructing a refinery
By the late 1940s, Fremantle Harbour had reached the practical limits of what it could handle for fuel operations. There were growing safety concerns about large fuel tanks operating close to busy port activity and insufficient space to accommodate a modern refinery. At the same time, increasing pressure from shipping, rail operations and surrounding urban growth made further expansion difficult.
The State began developing Kwinana as a heavy industrial area, taking advantage of the deep waters of Cockburn Sound, rail connections and expansive flat land. The site provided space to separate hazardous industry from residential and port activity and the State guaranteed the electricity and water needed for refinery operations.
Negotiations between the Western Australian Liberal Government and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had begun in 1951, after the State sent representatives to the eastern states to argue Western Australia’s case as the preferred refinery location (p.1876).
In 1952, the Oil Refinery Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Limited) Act was ratified by Parliament. This State Agreement formally established the Kwinana Industrial Area and set out the terms under which the refinery would be built and operated on the shores of Cockburn Sound.
Construction began in the same year and was completed in 1955. When the Kwinana refinery opened, crude oil imports moved to Cockburn Sound and refining began in Western Australia for the first time, reducing Fremantle’s role to storage, bunkering and general port operations.
Imported crude oil could now be processed locally into petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, lubricants and bitumen.
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Naphtha - a light liquid made from crude oil, mainly used to make petrol and plastics.
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Kerosene - a mid-weight fuel once used in lamps, now commonly used in jet engines and heaters.
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Diesel – a heavier fuel than petrol, used in trucks, trains, ships and some cars.
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Bitumen - the thickest residue of oil refining, used for road surfacing and roofing.
To support the growing trade, two additional tugs, Cockburn and Parmelia, were brought into service, arriving from Djakarta.
After Indonesia gained independence in 1945, the country continued to use a Dutch-influenced spelling system. The sound now written as “j” was spelled “dj”, so Jakarta appeared in documents as Djakarta. In 1972, Indonesia introduced a new standard spelling system that removed these older Dutch spellings. From that point on, “Djakarta” became “Jakarta”.
The Cockburn, a former wartime minesweeper, had been converted into a powerful fire-fighting tug, fitted with Rolls-Royce engines and foam monitors capable of blasting a jet over 200 feet. Both tugs anchored in Cockburn Sound, ready to serve the first tankers arriving at Kwinana.
The operations today
The refinery built at Kwinana is the same refinery site that exists today. While the site has remained in continuous use since, the facilities have repeatedly been expanded, rebuilt, upgraded and partly reconfigured over the past seventy years.
Whilst the site still plays a role in fuel production today, it’s no longer the dominant refinery it once was. Parts of the operation have been shut down or converted and Australia now relies far more heavily on imported refined fuels than it did in the mid-20th century.
The refinery has since entered into an agreement with the Western Australian Government to continue operating at Kwinana until 2050.
The former BP bunkering tank site at Knutsford Street was cleared in 2005, with the demolition of all the site’s oil tanks. The land is now owned by the Public Education Endowment Trust (PEET), a Western Australian entity established under the Public Education Endowment Act 1909 to manage land and funds, with proceeds supporting public school initiatives.
The site has recently been subdivided for development, encompassing 37 to 59 Knutsford Street and adjoining lots on Amherst Street, including Lot 1192 to 1213 (eastern frontage) and Lot 1191 to 1214 (western side). This combined holding forms Development Precincts 2 and 3 and is zoned “Development” to guide and facilitate subdivision and redevelopment. Precinct 2 has a minimum target of 65 dwellings and Precinct 3 has a minimum target of 45 dwellings.
August 2023
