INVENTION AND INNOVATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN NON‐FERROUS MINING INDUSTRY: WHOSE TECHNOLOGY?

Diane Menghetti

Australian Economic History Review, 2005, vol. 45, issue 2, 204-219

Abstract: Metalliferous mining was of major importance to the Australian economy throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The industry depended heavily on technology transfer for efficient and economical operations. The country's isolated mining fields tended to rely on adaptation rather than on invention, with toughness, portability and ease of repair and use being the prime criteria for the adoption of new machinery. This article argues that both the internationalism of the mining industry and the nature of its technology transfer blur the lines between invention, innovation and adaptation. Mining machinery, techniques and people were all highly mobile. Hence, attributing national origins to mining technology often seems irrelevant.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8446.2005.00135.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ozechr:v:45:y:2005:i:2:p:204-219

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0004-8992

Access Statistics for this article

Australian Economic History Review is currently edited by Stephen L Morgan and Martin Shanahan

More articles in Australian Economic History Review from Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().