William Sandford (26 September 1841 – 29 May 1932) was an English-Australian ironmaster, who is widely regarded as the father of the modern iron and steel industry in Australia. Early life in England Sandford was born at Torrington in Devon and became an accountant, eventually becoming manager of Ashton Gate Iron Rolling Mills. Early years in Australia In 1883 he moved to Sydney, employed to organise a wire-netting plant, at what was then part of Five Dock now Chiswick, NSW After visiting Lithgow, he became enthusiastic about the local iron industry and tried to persuade his English employers to buy the Eskbank Ironworks. He left the wire netting plant, and set up a company (the Fitzroy Iron Company), leased the Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong in March 1886—in order to re-roll rails—and commenced production there in August 1886. Initially, Enoch Hughes—another pioneer of the Australian iron industry—was his manager at Mittagong. While there, he had made what was probably the first galvanised iron sheet manufactured using sheet iron rolled in Australia, around September 1886. Lithgow Lessee (1887—1891) The rolling mill at Mittagong proved unsuitable and Sandford relocated his operations, in 1887, to the rolling mills of the Eskbank Ironworks at Lithgow, which he leased for the purpose from James Rutherford. He bought a 2000 acre property at Bowenfels, to the west of Lithgow, and added a second story to the existing house, creating an 11-room home, which he later named 'Eskroy Park' Ownership, expansion, and tariff protection (1892—1900) In 1892, Sandford purchased the Eskbank Ironworks, using money loaned by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, and was given a government contract in railway parts. It was a brave move, at a time when Australia was enduring a serious economic downturn. Moreover, he began expanding the plant, in the expectation that protection against imports would be forthcoming. Around the time he purchased the Eskbank works, Sandford became a vigorous protectionist, leading the Lithgow National Protection Association. The issue of protection against imports was the principal political division of late 19th-century Australia. In New South Wales, almost alone of the Australian colonies, there was widespread support for free trade. A growing force was the Labor Party; it somewhat favoured protection, as a means to maintain relatively high wages, but also advocated nationalisation of major industries, complicating its policy toward enterprises like Sandford's. However, at the 1891 election, it was the protectionists who