CGEF worker's woollen shirt

Shirt or tunic used in the Commonwealth Government Explosives Factory in Maribyrnong. A worker wearing such a shirt is seen in the press photograph from the collection. Anti-spark features included no metal buttons and the wearing of braces to hold up trousers rather than a belt with a metal buckle.

The Commonwealth Government Explosives Factory was the key installation in a network of defence factories which made Maribyrnong the Arsenal of Australia from 1910 to the 1980s.
The Explosives Factory was critical in the establishment of defence industries in Australia, making it one of the most important outcomes of Federation effecting defence and foreign policy in the 20th century.
The EFM was the first Government explosives factory (and only one until the Second World War) manufacturing Cordite for ammunition shells and other propellants and explosives.
The Defence site of 315 acres housed up to 500 structures in its heyday. The Munitions Supply Laboratories (M.S.L.) was another of the important facilitires on the site.
Local and foreign dignitaries were taken on tours of the site to show off Australia's defence capabilities.