This thesis is an attempt to provide a special examination centering on some aspects on the development of metal processing and fabricating industries in the Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat from its foundation in 1851 to the end of its first half century in 1901. It is in effect a case study of a particular group of manufacturing activities made with the intention of improving general historians' understanding of the forces behind the establishment and growth of secondary industries in the non-metropolitan towns of nineteenth century Australia.