James Hardie and Co.

Don't dream, build : your guide to building beautiful new style homes of Hardie's "Fibrolite" / issued with the compliments of James Hardie and Coy. Pty. Ltd., "Fibrolite" asbestos cement building material manufacturers. (Sydney : James Hardie & Coy, [195-?])

James Hardie was a Scottish businessman who migrated to Melbourne in 1887. He started a tanning business, but after a trip back to Britain, Europe and North America in 1903, he became interested in a new type of roofing and lining material made by the French Fibro-Cement Co. It was made from cement and asbestos and had the advantages of being fire and pest resistant, as well as being light-weight and cheap to manufacture. The firm began to manufacture “fibrolite” in 1917, and it was seen as being very useful in building especially in the lower end of the domestic house market. Robin Boyd’s “House of tomorrow” for the 1949 Melbourne Modern Home Exhibition was made of fibro, and he built a fibro “mansion” in Eltham as an example of what could be achieved to offset the malaise analysed in his book The Australian Ugliness (1960)

It was not until the 1970s that a general awareness began to develop as to the dangers in working with asbestos. The dust generated in the manufacture was causing mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

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