Edward Hallstrom

Sir Edward John Lees Hallstrom (25 September 1886 – 27 February 1970) was one of Australia's best-known philanthropists and businessmen of the mid-20th century. Hallstrom is best known for his long association with the Taronga Zoo and for his "Silent Knight" brand of refrigerators.

Early life and family background Born at High Park station, near Coonamble, New South Wales, Hallstrom was the eighth of a family of nine children born to William Hallstrom, a saddler from England of Swedish extraction, and his Australian wife Mary Ann (née Colless).

The accepted biographical narrative is that, at the age of four, his father's farm failed and the family moved to Waterloo, an inner-city suburb of Sydney. a suspicious fire destroyed a shed on his property, containing uninsured grains and goods, said to be worth over £300. In February 1890, his father was arrested, after another fire that caused damage to insured property worth £500—another man's shed containing property belonging to William Hallstrom—was found to be willfully caused. Charged with arson, he was acquitted at trial, in March 1890, after one of the witnesses against him had admitted to perjury. Soon after his acquittal for arson, William Hallstrom was arrested and committed for trial, on a charge of subornation of perjury. The charges were probably dropped, as there seems to have been no trial. By early April 1890, William Hallstrom was selling off his farm horses.

Not long afterwards, the family moved to Sydney, settling at Waterloo. There, Hallstrom formed a friendship with the young William McKell, whose early life and family circumstances have some striking similarities to Hallstrom's own. McKell became first a boilermaker and was involved in the Labour Movement, later studied law and became a barrister, entered politics and was later a Premier of New South Wales, and eventually became Governor-General of Australia. Although Hallstrom himself would never be a supporter of the Australian Labor Party, their friendship was lifelong.

Hallstrom's parents separated—actually his father, William Hallstrom, seems to have deserted the family—and, by the age of 10, Hallstrom was working, performing a variety of jobs to help supplement the family's income, as were his siblings. Hallstrom was apprenticed, as a cabinet maker and eventually took charge of a furniture factory. Hallstrom later founded a business of his own, manufacturing bedsteads. Hallstrom was a lifelong teetotaller, and neither smoked nor gambled. and that honour went instead to John Duigan.

The flights on 5 December 1909 are regarded as the first flights of a heavier-than-air aircraft in Australia,

Family Hallstrom met his first wife, Margaret Elliott Jaffrey, on a trip to Queensland. She was a talented artist, and shared his enthusiasm for birds and animals. They were married at her parents' home in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm, on 6 April 1912. After their reception, the newly weds left for Sydney on RMS Osterley. The couple had one son and three daughters.

Bedstead manufacturer Hallstrom's business, in Abattoir Road, Pyrmont—set up by late 1920 and possibly as early as late 1918 —flourished initially. Hallstrom claimed to have made the first innerspring mattresses in Australia.

Hallstrom set up a sawmill to mill his own hardwood timber, at Micalong (near Tumut), in 1921, reportedly at a cost of £3,500. The sawmill was sold to others in mid 1922, after being idle for several months. although it is likely that Hallstrom, or his family, owned most if not all of the new shares.

The never properly explained death of one of his wire-mattress makers, at the Pyrmont factory, in July 1923, both attracted nationwide attention and litigation that eventually reached the High Court, which directed the matter to arbitration under the Workmen's Compensation Act. The arbitration confirmed an award of £500 to the widow, in 1925, and that, with legal costs, crippled the business financially. E. J. L. Hallstrom Ltd, which had by then moved to Moore Street, Leichhardt, was voluntarily wound up in early 1926. Hallstrom was made bankrupt in February 1926. It seemed as if Hallstrom's business career was at an early end.

Eight difficult years While Hallstrom bedstead business prospered, Hallstrom and his family had been living in the suburb of Roseville, and he was well off enough to own a motor car. The financial difficulties that followed were described as "eight difficult years" by his daughter Esme. During that time, Hallstrom became bankrupt,

Esme says that the family fortunes began to improve once Hallstrom was employed at the same factory, in Redfern, where he had worked as a foreman before commencing his own bedstead business. He had been sought out by his former employer, when he heard that Hallstrom was in difficulty. In 1915, Hallstrom had been named as the inventor on a patent, but the patent had been assigned in the name of one Louis Joseph, a manufacturer of bedding, who had a bedding factory in Shepherd Street, Redfern; it is almost certain that he was Hallstrom's benefactor in difficult times. Hallstrom was said to have remained grateful to him, for the rest of his days, and claimed to have invented a new type of shell to strike ships below the waterline. However, it was his interest in refrigeration that would have the most tangible results. Self taught, he read up on the subject, including reading every patent on refrigeration taken out since Federation. but were expensive and so relatively uncommon. In towns, iceboxes, also called ice chests in Australia, were common but required home deliveries of blocks of ice, at intervals dictated by the weather conditions. Residents of rural areas, remote or yet to be electrified, had little choice other than the Coolgardie safe, an evaporative cooler of limited effectiveness. An affordable and effective refrigeration solution for the rural parts of the country was needed, and presented a great business opportunity.

Various sources state that Hallstrom invented his Icy Ball refrigeration device in 1923. However, there is a problem with that early date; there is concurrence that the invention took place in the backyard shed of his home at Dee Why, and 1922. Later, while consulting to the Crosley Radio Corp, he reused concepts from his earlier patents to design the Icy Ball. After Keith filed for a U.S. patent (1,740,737), on 27 June 1927, it was mass-produced in the United States by Powel Crosley Jr., but the US patent was only granted on 24 December 1929. It was being sold in Australia, by December 1927.

Yet another early, imported, kerosene-powered refrigeration device was the "Gnome ice producer"—its original German brand name was "Gnom" —which was on sale in Australia, by June 1926, even before the Crosley Icy Ball U.S. patent had been filed. Essentially, its operating procedure was the same as an Icy Ball. From around late 1927—possibly as early as June 1926—a more advanced kerosene-powered model, with an upright cabinet, referred to as a "Gnome refrigerator" was on sale, until at least 1931; its semi-automatic operating procedure was similar to Hallstrom's later 1934 model.

As Hallstrom became more prominent, he cultivated a public reputation as an inventor and engineer, a perception that contributed to his commercial success in selling refrigerators.

Refrigerator manufacturer

White Frost

Factory Hallstrom was an unlikely beneficiary of a new tax on fares of privately owned buses operating along tram routes, imposed in November 1931. Intended to stem losses due to bus competition with the government-owned tramways. It put some bus operators out of business and caused others to greatly scale back their operations to remain profitable. The White Transit Company's large bus depot building in Willoughby Road, Willoughby, close to where Hallstrom was living, was left unoccupied, after it was forced to abandon most of its services in the area. In 1932, Hallstrom bought the land and the building that would become the first building of his factory, which was later expanded to occupy adjacent land. The trams that ran right past its entrance made it easily accessible for his new workforce. German-made, kerosene-powered, "Gnom" absorption refrigerator (1928). It was sold as "Gnome" in Australia.

Domestic market and import protection Australia's population in 1928 was only 6.3 million, and its growth slowed dramatically with the onset of the Great Depression. After Federation, the Commonwealth government had protected Australian-manufactured goods from import competition. The tariff on refrigerators was 75%, or under the system of Imperial Preference, 55% if made in one of the participating countries of the British Empire. Such a large tariff that sheltered local refrigerator manufacturers from import competition worked both for and against him; it protected local manufacturers, like Hallstrom, but also encouraged large foreign firms to set up local manufacturing or assembly operations in Australia. The large American manufacturer Kelvinator commenced local assembly of its electric refrigerators in 1935. However, Hallstrom had the further advantage of having a niche market sector, in rural areas, then largely without electricity.

Mass production Advertisement showing improved chest model refrigerator of 1936. The cylindrical object, at top right in the photograph, is a water-filled tank, in which the condenser was immersed. In 1934, Hallstrom introduced a refrigerator design—based on his patent 16,396/34 of the same year—that was more sophisticated than the "icy ball" concept. It had a separate condenser and evaporator, rather than the combined condenser/evaporator used in the "icy ball" approach, and was semi-automatic in operation. but soon just became "Hallstrom". Separate advertisements, for the same product, using different brand names, could appear together. It was an early instance of an approach that later became known as "badge engineering".

By the later mid 1930s, Hallstrom's refrigerators, chest models with an external refrigeration unit and effective rather than aesthetically pleasing, suffered increasing competition from upright models that took up less floor area and had more features and a more attractive appearance. Hallstrom argued that the chest design was better than an upright design, for technical reasons, but the refrigerator market now demanded upright models. Hallstrom responded by also manufacturing an upright model refrigerator, from 1936, and improving his chest model refrigerators.

However, a major design deficiency that Hallstrom had to contend with was that his refrigerator designs relied upon water cooling. His 1936 "De Luxe" upright refrigerator still had the bulky water-filled tank, containing its immersed condenser, atop its cabinet.

Electrolux patents Eleven truck loads of Electrolux refrigerators, Sydney 1937. The advertising on the trucks reads, "Another shipment of Electrolux Refrigerators bound for country homes" Electrolux was a large multinational appliance manufacturer, of Swedish origin and controlled by Axel Wenner-Gren, which made absorption refrigerators generally regarded as superior to Hallstrom's. Its designs were based on a groundbreaking 1922 invention, by Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters, and used air cooling from 1931. Around 1927, Electrolux had entered the Australian market, selling upright refrigerators made at its factory in Luton, England.

Electrolux was a major competitor, with Hallstrom's factory, in the market segment of kerosene-powered refrigerators for rural customers. Its Australian presence became more firmly entrenched, once it commenced manufacturing vacuum cleaners, in Melbourne, in 1936.

Two key Australian patents held by Electrolux, covering its successful, continuously freezing, air-cooled design, were due to expire on 18 August 1938. Hallstrom had prepared his factory to make use of design aspects covered by the expiring patents. However, on 29 December 1938, Electrolux petitioned to extend its patents, for another ten years; they had already begun to manufacture their refrigerators in Melbourne.

Hallstrom had new models planned for 1938-1939,

Hallstrom and another local manufacturer opposed the petition, and it was subsequently dismissed, on 28 March 1940. Once the Electrolux petition was dismissed, Hallstrom was free to apply the technology covered by the expired Electrolux patents, including an air-cooled design, to his new models for 1940.

Silent Knight Hallstrom renewed his product line with the development of the popular "Silent Knight" upright refrigerator. These were absorption refrigerators, without any moving parts, obtained the necessary heat to drive the refrigeration process from either a kerosene or town gas burner or from an electric element. As the first of Hallstrom's refrigerators to use air cooling, the new model had a more aesthetically-pleasing and contemporary appearance.

"Silent Knight" refrigerator (kerosene-powered model) The famous brand name, "Silent Knight", was being used by mid 1940. These upright refrigerators were suited both to Hallstrom's traditional rural customers—many still not connected to electrical mains supply—and to those living in urban areas. The end of the war and returning military personnel would bring a rapid increase in family formation, and with that a high demand for refrigerators.

The refrigerators were produced in a factory in Willoughby under the business name of Hallstroms Pty Ltd. During World War II the factory manufactured munitions, as well as refrigerators for the use of the United States Army. The "Hallstrom Silent Knight" was a fairly priced, locally produced product at a time (post-war era) when imported refrigerators were very expensive. Their resulting popularity made Hallstrom a millionaire.

Hallstrom directed much of his fortune to the Taronga Zoological Park in Sydney, becoming a trustee and later chairman of the zoo. He personally funded the purchase of many large and exotic species from overseas. His major first involvement was when he funded the purchase of two rhinoceroses, in 1937. In 1947 alone, Hallstrom donated 1,649 birds and animals to the zoo, and he donated its first gorilla and its new enclosure, in 1959.

Hallstrom was also generous in his financial gifts to hospitals and medical research centres as well as numerous charities. His reputation as a philanthropist resulted in his being besieged with requests for financial assistance, and he was known to take personal interest in the many letters and requests he received. In 1952, he offered a free new-model Silent Knight refrigerator to replace any uninsured one lost in the bushfires of that year.

In 1959 Hallstrom brought the first Koala bears to The United States starting with the San Diego Zoo and ending with The San Francisco Zoo and an exclusive private dinner at The Olympic Golf and Country Club bringing a Koala Bear for the guests to see and experience.

He is also believed to have donated over A$4 million to philanthropic causes during his lifetime, He received gold medals from zoological societies in Belgium and San Diego, California. He also received an honorary Swedish knighthood.

He was also the first Australian to be named "Father of the Year", in 1957.

Hallstrom was a member of zoological societies in Sydney (Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales), London (Zoological Society of London) and New York (New York Zoological Society) and was also a member of the Explorers Club and the Royal Australian Historical Society.

He was a Freemason. He was an Honorary Ranger, and took that role seriously.

Later life With Hallstrom both aging and increasingly devoted to philanthropic projects, Hallstrom absorption refrigerators became less competitive with more modern designs, and the market for kerosene-powered refrigerators shrank as electrical power reticulation was extended in rural areas. From the early 1950s, Hallstrom's factory was producing conventional electric refrigerators, based on the vapour-compression cycle, with sealed unit compressors, under the "Silent Knight" brand. This type of refrigerator had a larger capacity. However, the company also continued to manufacture absorption refrigerators, powered by kerosene or gas, for its traditional markets in areas without electricity.

His philanthropy raised the public profile of Hallstrom and his wife, after 1952, Lady Hallstrom. She was one of the 300 Australian official guests, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, in 1953.

As well as his involvement with Taronga Zoo as chairman of the Taronga Zoological Park Trust, Hallstrom had his own menagerie on 65 acres of land that he owned at Mona Vale. Hallstrom's collection included a mob of white-coloured kangaroos and wallabies. Hallstrom attempted to breed animals and birds that were at risk of extinction there. The land at Mona Vale also produced fodder and fresh animal foods for the Zoo. There was also another private zoo, housing numerous birds and some pet monkeys, in the grounds of his home at Northbridge. The many species of birds-of-paradise were one of Hallstrom's particular interests. Hallstrom had aviaries at Nondugl in the Wahgi Valley of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This largely avicultural facility, managed from 1953 by Fred Shaw Mayer, later became known as the Nondugl Bird of Paradise Sanctuary. It acted mainly as a staging post for Taronga Zoo in Sydney, either to provide birds directly for Taronga, or for exchanges with other zoos. In 1967, Mayer was also involved in establishing the Baiyer River Sanctuary, set up after Hallstrom donated part of his collection of birds-of-paradise to the Australian-administered government of Papua New Guinea. At the height of its initial success, in 1949, Hallstrom was able to show his lifelong friend, then Governor-General William McKell, over the sheep-raising venture, and host a feast, complete with war dancers, of 60 roasted pigs and tons of sweet potatoes.

Hallstrom's adult children had all married and left their childhood home. He and Lady Hallstrom, while not estranged, led increasingly separate lives, as years progressed. Margaret Hallstrom pursued her interests of painting and travel, making a seven-month overseas tour in 1953-1954. In his later years, Hallstrom usually stayed in a spartan flat at the factory, on weekday nights, and generally only returned to his home at Northbridge, only 4 km away, for weekends.

Still beginning his work day at 7:30 a.m., he would leave the factory, in his chauffeur-driven car, at 1:30 p.m., to spend the rest of his day at the Taronga Zoological Park. The Zoo was a huge part of his later life, and was something of which he was proud.

In a response in an interview, published in October 1965, Hallstrom said, "The only man who could have told the story of myself and the work I have done is dead, and I have never confided much in others." The resulting article made scant mention of his inventions—other than his self-dismissive claim that he had just worked by trial and error—and made no mention at all of his years of financial difficulty; much of the article concerns the zoos, sanctuaries and, above all, the animals and birds In fact, he remained Chairman, until 1964, after which he remained a member of the Trust, holding the position at the Zoo of its Honorary Director, until 1966.

Hallstrom become involved in controversy over his long-term stewardship and continuing influence over the Taronga Zoo. Two state government inquiries criticised his lack of professional training in zoology as well as the extent of his use of concrete in animal enclosures. However, with Hallstrom now in his eighties, it was apparent that his time running the Zoo was at its end, even to Hallstrom himself. According to biographer Audrey Tate:

Hallstrom's wife of 56 years, Margaret, died in May 1968, compounding his despondency.

In June 1969, he married Dr Mary Mabel Maguire, née McElhone, a widow and an old friend. Dr Mary Mabel Maguire and her first husband, Dr Frederick Arthur Maguire, had worked together in cancer research that had been supported financially by Hallstrom. Hallstrom's second marriage was short, as Hallstrom had less than a year to live.

Death Hallstrom died at Northbridge on 27 February 1970, and was survived by his second wife and the son and three daughters of his first marriage to Margaret Elliott Jaffrey. Hallstrom's son John had been involved in the refrigerator business since his teens, and had run the factory operations, but the factory closed soon after Hallstrom's death. By that time, Hallstrom was one of the smaller Australian refrigerator manufacturers, and it had never made other large domestic appliances. As import protection levels decreased, there would be a rationalisation of the other manufacturers' operations, until only one local manufacturer remained; its whitegoods operations were bought, by Hallstrom's early nemesis, Electrolux, in 2000. The last refrigerator made in Australia was produced in April 2016.

John Hallstrom relocated the plastics division of the Hallstrom businesses to Bathurst, under the name, Polystrom Plastics Pty Ltd, and was involved in running it until around the time of his own death in 1998. and the factory is no longer in operation.

With his family no longer centred in Sydney, Hallstrom's home at Northbridge was sold in 1971 then demolished, and its land subdivided.

Taronga Zoo was redeveloped to provide a more natural environment for its animals. However, by 2021, it would once again be accused of having "too much concrete".

Legacy Philanthropy Hallstrom is now mainly remembered for his philanthropy.

Business achievements Hallstrom's achievements in business and as a self-taught refrigeration engineer are considered remarkable. Hallstrom had been bankrupted in 1926, at around 40 years of age, after having seen his first manufacturing business go under. After his discharge from bankruptcy in 1932, he opened a factory just two years later, in 1934, which by mid 1938 employed 150 skilled workers and produced 300 refrigerators per week. By the mid 1940s, around the time that Hallstrom was 60, it was making 1,200 "Silent Knight" refrigerators per week. Personal ownership of a successful company allowed him to do much as he pleased with the personal fortune that it generated. There is a memorial plaque bearing his image and a commemorative blue plaque, both at the zoo. However, long after his death, further allegations of his involvement in illegal trafficking of wildlife would be made.

Western Plains Zoo The ill-advised over-stocking of the Taronga Zoo collection with large animals—its collection included 66 red kangaroos, 15 lions, 12 tigers, 15 giraffes, 38 red deer, 44 fallow deer, and 11 elephants, in 1966—and the need to house parts of the Zoo's collection, during urgently needed redevelopment of its enclosures, led to the formation of the open-range Western Plains Zoo, near Dubbo. As animal welfare became a greater priority, the new facility would also become the home of large animals from other zoos. That zoo is also, even if indirectly, a part of Hallstrom's legacy.

Various species named after Hallstrom Hemiscyllium hallstromi or Papuan epaulette shark Delias hallstromi, a butterfly endemic to the Central Mountains, Chimbu Province and Western Province of Papua New Guinea Pteridophora alberti hallstromi or King-of-Saxony bird-of-paradise of New Guinea (synonymous with Pteridophora alberti bürgersi) Psittacella madaraszi hallstromi, a subspecies of Madarasz's Tiger Parrot found in New Guinea. Canis hallstromi or 'Hallstrom's Dog' (former name), when the New Guinea singing dog was considered to be a separate species. It is now more generally considered to be a domesticated dog known to share a common ancestry with the Australian dingo, but its status remains contested, following the 2016 discovery of a wild dog population in New Guinea (a.k.a. New Guinea Highland wild dogs).

Hallstrom Theatre in the Australian Museum The Hallstrom Theatre in the Australian Museum, was named after him, following his generous gift, in 1958, that financed its remodelling.

Hallstrom Park and old factory sites Hallstrom Park, on land opposite where his factory once stood at 462-464 Willoughby Road, Willoughby, is named after him. In 1946, he had contributed £3,000 for improvements to the land to allow it to be used for recreational and sporting purposes. The area closest to the road was known for many years as the Hallstrom Playing Fields, before the area was extended eastward over what had been the open-air rubbish tip of Willoughby Municipality, as the Bicentennial Reserve. The factory site itself is now occupied by apartment blocks. It closed not long after Hallstrom's death, stood empty for a while, and was demolished around 1975. The site of his former home at 26 Artarmon Road, Willoughby, where Hallstrom first manufactured his refrigerators, before his factory opened, later became part of the Channel 9 studios, later redeveloped as yet more apartments.

Hallstrom Point Hallstrom Point on Middle Harbour at Northbridge, and the roadway on it, Hallstrom Close, is named after him. It was the site of his former home, Figtree House, which was demolished after his death. Much of what is the modern-day Hallstrom Close lies inside the 2.25 acres of harbourside land that were his former house's grounds, with its private zoo.

Edward Hallstrom Faunal Reserve (1961–1969) The southern part of what is now the Muogamarra Nature Reserve was known as the Edward Hallstrom Faunal Reserve, between 1961 and 1969. It resulted from a collaboration between Hallstrom and the conservationist Allen Strom, which aimed to protect a population of koalas on that land.

National Library of Australia

Hallstrom Pacific Collection

Hallstrom donated a collection of over 1,600 rare books on Asia and the Pacific, to the Commonwealth Government in 1948. Initially, the collection became the Hallstrom Pacific Library of the Australian School of Pacific Administration at Middle Head. When that institution closed, the collection passed to the National Library of Australia and was subsequently placed on permanent loan to the University of New South Wales. However, the books are once again part of the National Library's collection, identified by the series "Hallstrom Pacific Collection" that now comprises 1,765 items.

Family account

Hallstrom's daughter, Esme Bell, wrote an account of her family, Never say never, self-published in 2007, a copy of which is held in the National Library of Australia.

Two photographic portraits of Hallstrom by Max Dupain are in the collection or the National Portrait Gallery, as is a portrait in oils of Hallstrom, by his daughter Esme Bell. Willoughby City Library has photographs of the factory in Willoughby Road.

The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences collection includes a Hallstrom "Silent Knight" electric refrigerator from 1958.