John Wilson Fell (1862–1955) was an industrialist involved in the shale oil operations at Newnes, New South Wales and the establishment of two early oil refineries, on Gore Bay at Greenwich and at Clyde, both suburbs of Sydney. He was the principal of John Fell & Company and was, for many years, the Managing Director of Commonwealth Oil Corporation, which he revived from receivership.
Contents
Early life and family background
John Wilson Fell was born at Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. on 7 November 1862. He was the son of Alexander Morrison Fell, Senior (1825–1890) and his wife Margaret (née Ferguson) (1828–1901) He migrated to Australia, with his parents during the 1870s.
Alexander Morrison Fell, Senior, was an important figure in the Scottish shale oil industry, at the time the most advanced and largest in the world. In 1860, contributing shale mining leasehold in lieu of capital, Alexander had become a partner in the West Calder Oil Company, and its manager. The company’s works was known as the ‘Gavieside Oil Works’, or ‘Fell’s Works’ after its manager. However, there was disharmony among the partners and an unsuccessful court case, with the end result being that Alexander was made bankrupt in 1873. Alexander subsequently migrated, with his family, to New South Wales.
During Fell's youth, after his migration to New South Wales, his father was already an important figure in the local oil shale industry; first at Mount Kembla, where he was manager for the American Creek Oil Co., until 1877, and later at Joadja, where he was manager, from 1877 to 1881, for the Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Co.
John Fell’s cousin, James Walter Fell (1847–1882) was almost certainly the first of the extended Fell family to migrate to Australia. James was also involved in the shale oil industry, both in Scotland and in New South Wales. He was manager of the Western Kerosene Oil Co. at Hartley Vale, by 1870, then manager of Hartley Vale's refinery at Waterloo, and later was at Joadja. Like his uncle, Alexander, James was an expert in the field of shale oil processing; both men had worked together, at the West Calder Oil Company, in Scotland, and later at Joadja. With T.S. Mort, James was pivotal in the amalgamation of two shale oil companies—Hartley Kerosene Oil and Paraffine Co. Ltd. and Western Kerosene Oil Co.—to form the New South Wales Shale & Oil Company, in 1872. Aside from his role in the shale oil industry, James Fell was a founder of the North Shore Gas Company in Sydney. James had acted as an engineer for other gasworks—including Australian Gas Light Company—and retained a business interest in the gasworks at Goulburn. In 1870, James married Helen Wilson Thomson (1849–1935), who under her married name, Helen Wilson Fell, became a philanthropist and diarist. James died at only 35, already a wealthy man, while visiting London on business, and his only son, John Walter Fell (1872–1891) also died young, at only 18 years old.
Fell was also a cousin of William Scott Fell (1866–1930), principal of Scott Fell & Company—with interests in coastal shipping and coal mining—and politician, and his younger brother David Fell (1869–1956), an accountant and politician. Fell was related to them via their father, also named John Wilson Fell (1820–1879), a ship’s captain, who was an older brother of Alexander Morrison Fell, Senior. After the death of the elder John Wilson Fell, his widow, Jessie Fell (née Power) (1845–1937), remarried, in Sydney. However, her new husband already had a wife in England, who then sued her husband successfully for divorce, but found he was, by then, insolvent.
Career
Early business career
By 1885, under a lease agreement with the N.S.W. Shale & Oil Company, his father's family company, A.M. Fell and Sons, was running an oil refining business at Waterloo (sometimes mentioned as Alexandria) in Sydney, processing crude oil, which had been produced in retorts that A.M. Fell and Sons also ran at Hartley Vale. The Waterloo refinery was closed around 1887, and the refining operation was relocated to Hartley Vale. The company had an oil works—for container filling and distribution—at Darling Harbour, by 1891.
There was a court case, involving the company, in 1889; John Wilson Fell was nominated as a plaintiff, and so was by then already a partner in his father's company. He gave evidence for at least one day. Under the settlement A.M. Fell and Sons role at Hartley Vale ended. Fell's father died in 1890.
By the time of his father’s probate in 1891, John Wilson Fell was described as an ‘oil and grease manufacturer’. Fell, with his brother Alexander Morrison Fell, Junior—also described as an ‘oil and grease manufacturer’—carried on his father’s business interests. Another brother, Walter John Fell (d.1938), was also a partner but, in 1891, was described as a 'fruit grower' and so almost certainly was only a silent partner in the business at that time.
Fell spent some time outside the oil industry, while involved in setting up two plants for the production of condensed milk, in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales, at Bomaderry and Coolangatta Estate. Based upon the birth locations of two of his children, he was living in the Shoalhaven district, during the period 1897-1901. His brother, Walter John Fell, was also involved in the condensed milk industry, at Berry. In May 1901, Fell stood down, as Managing Director of the Jersey Milk Company Limited, and was succeeded by his brother Walter. The family left the Shoalhaven area, around the end of July 1901. Fell was now free to reenter the family business.
His brother, Alexander Morrison Fell, Junior, died in 1904. In the meantime, in 1902, Fell had either set up his own company, John Fell & Company, or more likely had renamed A. M. Fell & Sons to use that new name. In mid 1903, he attempted to convince ferry companies operating on Sydney Harbour to convert coal-burning steam ferries burn oil using an oil burner design that he had patented, by providing a demonstration aboard Lady Napier. It was a technical success, but observers noted the "continuous noise" generated by the oil burner.
Shale oil
The Commonwealth Oil Corporation had made a major investment in the production of shale oil at a site in the Wolgan Valley that they named Newnes, after Sir George Newnes, a director and chairman of the company. A large amount of English capital—around £1,250,000—had been invested to create a vast industrial complex, in what previously had been a near wilderness. They built a railway into the isolated valley, and a sizable mining village grew in the valley.
Fell was on record as saying that the investment in Newnes had been "extraordinarily wasteful" and that it would never be possible to recoup that investment in profits.
Although the oil shale at Newnes had a very high oil content, its seam thickness and depth dictated that it was mined using relatively-costly, conventional, underground mining techniques. There was also a coal seam that could be mined to fuel the processing the shale and crude oil. The coal was of good quality and was also used to make coke. Ammonia was produced as a byproduct of the shale retorts and would be treated with sulphuric acid to produce ammonium sulphate, which could sold as a fertiliser.
Construction of the plant had begun in 1906, but the retorts only began working in June 1911. The company encountered technical difficulties with its process and, as well, was subject to numerous and protracted industrial disputes with its workforce, particularly its miners. Retort operation was partially suspended in February 1912 and ceased altogether in March 1913. The retorts had operated for less than two years. Commonwealth Oil Corporation Ltd. was placed into receivership, in December 1912, and the receiver was accountant and auditor, David Fell, John Fell's cousin.
Fell was an acknowledged expert in the processing of oil, and it was during a visit made by him to England that the COC approached him to assist in rectifying the problems at Newnes. The retorts that the COC used were designed to process Scottish shale, with a far lower oil content that the very rich shale—grading up to 150 imperial gallons per long ton—mined at Newnes. The result was that the retorts at Newnes clogged up with carbon compounds and would not work properly. Fell became interested in taking over the ailing business, but first constructed four retorts to his own design to prove that the oil-rich shale could be processed successfully.
Sydney
John Fell and Company operated refineries on Gore Bay at Greenwich and at Clyde on the Parramatta River, both in Sydney.
The refinery was located, on the foreshore of Gore Bay, just south of Shell's bulk unloading and storage facility. It appears that the site was acquired from the Greenwich Timber Company in 1911. Before it was a timber yard, the site had been a bitumen refinery, operated by the Patent Asphaltum Company of New South Wales, from 1884 to 1908, which processed crude bitumen from Trinidad.
Fell relocated storage tanks from the old Hartley Vale railway station, to install at the refinery in 1914.
The Gore Bay refinery was used for the production of lubricants. In 1921, the company acquired land adjacent to the refinery and erected a four-storey brick reinforced concrete building, with brick curtain walls, for use as a bulk store for its products. In 1923, with Fell's operations shifting from shale oil to imported crude oil, he planned to also use the Gore Bay site as a tanker berth and to store imported crude oil. Despite local opposition he succeeded in erecting storage tanks there.
John Fell and Company constructed a refinery at Clyde (sometimes referred to as being at Granville) that commenced operation in 1925. The land had been purchased in 1923, probably once it became clear to Fell that Newnes and its refinery would be shut down permanently. The site had access to the rail network and a river frontage, to where crude oil unloaded from tankers in Sydney Harbour, at Gore Bay, could be brought by barge, and plenty of land for subsequent expansion.
The new refinery reused bricks and other items recovered from the old Commonwealth Oil Corporation plants at Newnes and Torbane.
The plant included a 'Dubb's cracker' for the production of 'knockless' fuel for motor vehicles. The first unit entered full production in 1926, and a second one was planned. The products were distributed, under the names 'DUX' motor spirit (for cars) and 'Ajax' power kerosene (for tractors). The cracker allowed more fuel to be obtained from the same amount of crude oil.
John Fell & Company Limited
The company John Fell & Company had been set up in 1902. Needing to raise funds for the expansion of operations at Clyde and for working capital, the company went to the market in May 1926, to raise more capital in the form of preference shares. The shares of John Fell & Company Limited were listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange, on 24 October 1926. Fell was Chairman and Managing Director, and Fell's surviving brother, Walter John Fell (d. 1938), was General Manager.
Death of eldest son, sale of assets, and voluntary liquidation
On 19 August 1927, Fell’s eldest son, John Simpson Fell (1894–1927), died as a result of an explosion at the Clyde Refinery on the previous day. Two other men also died. This occurred only days after the assets at Newnes had been put up for sale.
In December 1927, it was announced that the Clyde refinery was also to be sold. John Fell and Company “would manufacture motor spirit and fuel oil for another organisation, on a profit-sharing basis,” and that a “provision in the agreement requires the vendor company to carry on for a period on behalf of and at the expense of the purchaser until it is convenient to put the company into liquidation.” At the time it was stated that the name John Fell would continue to be used in the name of a private company, owned by the new owner of the assets.
The reasons given for the sale were high labour costs and keen competition. John Fell & Company Limited had made a loss of £16,375 in year to 30 June 1927, and had paid no dividend since June 1926. Payments to preference shareholders resulted in the holders of ordinary shares receiving less than the face value of their shares, from the proceeds of the asset sale.
It seems that Fell had concluded that his company did not have the necessary capital—only £300,000—to compete against larger international oil companies, but quite possibly the recent work-related death of his son and his own advancing age—by then he was 65—were also factors in the decision to sell the assets.
The new owner was, the British Imperial Oil Company, owned by Royal Dutch Shell, better known by its brand name ‘Shell’. Shell operated the oil fields in Borneo, which had proven to be so competitive with the Newnes crude oil. As part of the sale, Shell also acquired the Gore Bay refinery and storage site; Shell already owned the adjoining site at Gore Bay. The Gore Bay lubricant oil refinery and blending plant continued operating, under Shell ownership.
John Fell & Company Limited was voluntarily liquidated on 17 June 1930.
Family, homes, later life and death
Fell married Margaret Clark Simpson (1866-1945), in 1888.
The couple had five children. Their eldest child was Janet M Fell (1892–1988); it seems that she married and went to live in America. Their eldest son was John Simpson Fell (1894–1927), an engineer, who served in the First World War, and who died as a result of an explosion at Clyde refinery. Their second daughter was Helen Marion Fell (1897–1977), who was well known as the socialite, Marion Fell; she never married but continued the family involvement in the Kindergarten movement began by her relative, philanthropist, Helen Wilson Fell (1849–1935). Their second son was Douglas Alexander Fell (1901–1962). After receiving a Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Colorado, he began his career with John Fell & Co. at Clyde, and then became an executive with Shell, working in Borneo and the U.S.A. as well as Australia; he became Shell's N.S.W. Manager in 1942. In retirement, Douglas was a grazier at Campbelltown. Their youngest son was Ian Buchan Fell (1904–1962), who was a Squadron Leader and is now best known for the Ian Buchan Fell Housing Research Centre, in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney, which was endowed by his bequest.
During the time that the family lived in the Shoalhaven, their residence at Nowra was known as 'Rosstrevor'. They gave a very similar name, 'Rostrevor', to another house, with a notable garden, where the family lived for many years, from around 1906, at 16 Point Road, in the harbour-side Sydney suburb of Northwood. It is probable that the house was named after Rostrevor in Ireland.
Fell was to live a long life, after his retirement in 1928. He was a guest at the official opening of a Shell bitumen refinery at Clyde, in 1948. Although he was not involved in National Oil Proprietary Limited, he did advise Sir George Davis on retort design issues for the shale oil extraction facility at Glen Davis. He defended the design of his 'Fell retorts' in a letter written in 1951, by then in his 89th year. Fell was still alive, when the last Australian shale oil was made, and the Glen Davis operation closed, in May 1952.
He was living at Pymble, by January 1951, and it was still his address when he died on 11 June 1955.
Legacy
Fell was an important figure in the Australian oil industry, in the first three decades of the 20th century. His name is often connected with the industrial ruins at Newnes and, of those associated with the place, Fell was by far the most successful.
Three generations of his family were involved in the oil industry, spanning from his father's pioneering role in the Scottish shale oil industry of the 1860s, including Fell's own involvement, and on to his sons' involvement in the refining of conventional oil in Australia. The State Library of New South Wales collection includes the papers of the Fell family covering a period from around 1837 to 1975, including news cuttings, relating to shale oil industry.
The former Shell facilities at Greenwich and Clyde—both now owned by Viva Energy—are Fell's main legacies, although neither refine oil now.
His wife, Margaret, was significant in making the jacaranda popular in Australia. Many of the trees in the avenue of jacarandas, at Grafton, were grown from seed of the trees she grew in the garden of the Fells' home, 'Rostrevor', at Northwood, part of which still survives. It was also at 'Rostrevor', where Margaret hosted the first of the meetings that brought about a branch of the Red Cross in New South Wales, in 1911.