CSR is one of Australia’s largest public companies. It is the parent company for a number of brands that sell building supplies, including plasterboard, insulation, bricks, and roofing for commercial and home building. CSR also operates manufacturing facilities and a distribution network across Australia and New Zealand. Its property division redevelops former manufacturing sites and industrial land for sale. CSR also has an interest in an aluminum smelter.
Edward Knox, a British businessman, founded CSR as The Colonial Sugar Refining Company in 1855. The company established sugar mills in northern New South Wales in the 1870’s and then moved into Queensland. The company changed its name to The Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited in 1887, and then, in 1973, to CSR Limited. CSR expanded into building materials in the early 1940’s. It later began to produce renewable energy by manufacturing ethanol from sugar byproducts. In 2009, the company separated its building products operations from its sugar refining and renewable energy unit. The sugar and renewable energy business was renamed Sucrogen. CSR sold Sucrogen in 2010 to the Singapore-based agricultural products group Wilmar International Limited. The sale marked the end of CSR’s 155 years in the sugar business.
CSR operated an asbestos mine in Wittenoom in Western Australia from the early 1940’s to the mid-1960’s. Asbestos is a soft, threadlike mineral fiber once used by manufacturers in thousands of products, including cloth, paint, insulating and roofing materials, plasterboard, floor tiles, and fire-resistant clothing. When the Wittenoom mine opened in 1943, it was hailed by the government as a great benefit for the state. However, following a number of warnings about the dangers of asbestos, the mine closed in 1966, and the town of Wittenoom was finally closed in 2006. When asbestos fibers are inhaled, they may damage the lungs and cause such diseases as cancer. Asbestos affected the health of many CSR workers and their families, and the company faced a number of lawsuits for asbestos-related conditions and diseases.
