Bhp Will End Long Link To Steel City

15 November 2008

THE final chapter in the long history of BHP in Newcastle will come to an end next year with the closure of the company's technology centre at Shortland, affecting 56 jobs.

A spokesman for BHP Billiton confirmed the closure yesterday.

The Herald reported in August that the world's largest resources group was reviewing operations at the centre as part of a global rearrangement of BHP's technology functions in Newcastle, Brisbane, Perth and Johannesburg.

Under the plan, BHP Billiton will close the Shortland centre in stages over the next 12 months.

Around 22 of the 56 employees at the centre will be offered the chance to transfer to Brisbane.

It was expected the Shortland site, opened in 1957, would be offered for sale.

BHP Steelworks began production in Newcastle in 1915 and operated from its Mayfield site for 84 years before its closure in 1999.


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