Moore, Malcolm Stewart (1888 - 1969)

Summary

Malcolm Moore, CBE MInstCE MIEAust AMAusIMM, was an innovative engineer who established Malcolm Moore (Industries) Ltd in 1920, that grew to become a leading manufacturing firm specialising in the design and manufacture of mechanical-handling and construction equipment.

Early in his career Moore was inventive and designed an improved crane operated grab. Over many years, he and his firm, successfully registered and manufactured many new inventions, some of which are detailed below.

The firm also took advantage of the emerging use of electric arc welding in fabrication and employed some of the leading engineers in this field to make a wide range of equipment - from small tractors to large industrial cranes and conveyors, as well as hundreds of road rollers and road graders.

Branches of the firm were progressively opened in every State capital and several provincial centres.

During the Second World War, Moore was a consultant engineer to the Commonwealth Department of Supply and Development, and a member of the Australian Army Mechanisation Board. He experiences in manufacturing in Great Britain before and during the First World War were invaluable.

Based on his inventions, his firm manufactured many narrow-gauge rail tractors for the Army, and these were later reused in forestry, sugarcane and irrigation industries.

Moore was also a director of many other emerging industrial enterprises, and from 1939 he took a leading role in promoting industrial management training and establishing the Industrial Management Association of Australia, that later became the Australian Institute of Management.

After he retired in 1953, Moore devoted himself to philanthropy and improving technical education. He was an active leader of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service and establishing it as the Flying Doctor Service of Australia in 1942.

His significant and valued contributions to engineering, management and society were recognised when he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958; awarded the John Storey Medal, Australian Institute of Management in 1963; and the Jack Finlay Memorial Award, Institution of Production Engineers in 1968.

Details

Chronology

1910

Career position - Assistant engineer, Assistant manager, Anchor Tin Mines Ltd, Tasmania [under J B Lewis MInstCE]

1911 -

Career position - Assistant engineer, Construction Branch, Victorian Railways [designing and inspecting railway construction works, and the machinery and plant required, under M E Kernot MInstCE]

1911

Education - Bachelor of Mining Engineering (BME), University of Melbourne

1912

Career event - Associate Member (AMAusIME), Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers [from 1919 Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy]

1912

Education - Bachelor of Civil Engineering (BCE), University of Melbourne

1912 - 1914

Career position - Assistant engineer, Construction Branch, Victorian Railways [In charge of steel and concrete bridge erection]

1 Dec 1914

Career event - Associate Member (AssocMInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1915

Life event - Moved to the United Kingdom

1915 - 1916

Career position - Assistant to Machine Shops Manager, William Beardmore and Co, Glasgow [Gun and shell manufacture]

1916

Career position - Assistant manager, National Projectile Factory, Cardonald. Ministry of Munitions [Overseeing 2000 hands, capacity of 15,000 8-inch high explosive shell cases per week]

1916 - 1917

Career position - Assistant to general manager, National Projectile Factories, Glasgow. Ministry of Munitions [Administering three main factories]

1917 - 1918

Career position - Director, National Ordnance Factories Section, London. Ministry of Munitions [under MacLean Controller, later under V B Stewart]

1918

Life event - Returned to Australia, on account of his health

1918 - 1920

Career position - In general consulting practice, Melbourne

1919

Career event - Foundation Associate Member (AMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1920 -

Career position - Established Malcolm Moore Pty Ltd, engineer and manufacturer's agent

1927

Career position - Established the manufacturing centre for Malcom Moore (Industries) Ltd in Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne

11 Jan 1927

Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1931 -

Career position - Director, Moulded Products (Aust) Pty Ltd

1937 -

Career position - Foundation Director, Diamond Cutlery Co Pty Ltd

1937

Career event - With other industrialists, lobbied the Education Department to introduce courses for foremen at the Melbourne Technical College

1939 -

Career position - Foundation Member, Melbourne Technical College Foremanship Association [later the Industrial Management Association of Australia, the Institute of Industrial Management of Australia, and the Australian Institute of Management]

1939 - 1945

Career position - Engineering consultant, Commonwealth Department of Supply and Development (Shipping)

1939 - 1945

Career position - Member, Australian Army Mechanisation Board

1941

Career event - Member (MIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1942

Career event - Helped establish Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service and the Flying Doctor Service of Australia

1945 -

Career position - Australian representative on the Council, Institute of Civil Engineers, London

1947 - 1951

Career position - President, Victorian section, Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

1950

Career event - Stepped down as Managing Director, Malcolm Moore Industries Ltd, but remained a director

1953 -

Career position - Member, Weapons and their Equipment Industry Advisory Committee, Minister for Defence Production

1953

Life event - Retired. [Devoting himself to educational and philanthropic interests]

1956 - 1958

Career position - President, Australian Institute of Management

1956 - 1958

Career position - Variously secretary, treasurer, consultant and president, Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

12 Jun 1958

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) - for Public Service

1960 -

Career position - Inaugural President, Indo-Council of International Congress of Scientific Management (CIOS)

1961 - 1964

Career event - Major benefactor to Australian Institute of Management. [Providing donations to help build Management House, Brisbane]

1963

Award - John Storey Medal, Australian Institute of Management

1965

Award - Jack Finlay National Award, Australian Council, Institution of Production Engineers, UK

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Spreadborough, E. F., 'Moore, Malcolm Stewart (1888-1969), engineer and industrialist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), p. 398, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/moore-malcolm-stewart-11154. Details

Journal Articles

• Kernot, Maurice Edwin, 'Bairnsdale to Orbost railway (Paper & Discussion)', Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers vol. XVI (1917), 163-193, 201-202, 278-280. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24599. Details
• Moore, Malcolm, 'Control of divers and diving work (Illustrated)', Commonwealth Engineer, 7 (12) (1920), 358-359. Details
• Moore, Malcolm S., 'Report on the tin field of the Blue Tier District, Tasmania', Proceedings of the Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers, 8 (1912), 24-. Details
• Moore, Malcolm S., 'Machines and appliances for concrete mixing [Part 2]', Commonwealth Engineer, 1 (2) (1913), 49-53. Details
• Moore, Malcolm S., 'Machines and appliances for concrete mixing [Part 1]', Commonwealth Engineer, 1 (1) (1913), 22-25. Details
• Radcliffe, David F., 'Malcolm Moore & Albert Longoni: a tale of two innovative engineers', Engineering heritage Australia magazine, 3 (7) (2021), 23-30, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/Learned%20Society/EHA_Magazine_Vol3_No7_January_2021.pdf. Details

Resources

• Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 14502, 1914', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 66684/1965. Title: Rehabilitation machine', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1965066684. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 15793/1944. Title: Prefabricated concrete building structures', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1944015793. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 13333/1944. Title: An improved casting table for precast building structures', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1944013333. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 19568/1924. Title: Improved means for converting a petrol or kerosene-driven tractor into a locomotive', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1924019568. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 19569/1924. Title: Improved attachments to a tractor to enable it to operate a crane, shovel, winch, or any other machine requiring a frame or platform', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1924019569. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 19571/1924. Title: Improvements in winches or hoists for tractors', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1924019571. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 2148/1921. Title: Improvements in earth or like grabs', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1921002148. Details

See also

• 'Notes and personals', Commonwealth Engineer, 3 (2) (1915), 31. Details
• 'Notes and personals', Commonwealth Engineer, 3 (12) (1916), 341. Details
• 'Notes and personals', Commonwealth Engineer, 5 (8) (1918), 215. Details