Like its neighbours, Knox on Bowman occupies a site dominated (after 1900) by the tanks which stored molasses and industrial chemicals.
The building commemorates Edward Knox (1819-1901) and Edward William Knox (1863-1932), who helped create and build the Colonial Sugar Refining Company into an industrial giant.
Edward came to Australia in 1840, and rose rapidly in business, becoming (among other things) director of the Australasian Sugar Company. When ASC became insolvent in 1855, Knox pulled the wreckage together to create CSR. As chairman of directors (until 1901) his business skills helped the enterprise through early crises. He organised the move from Chippendale to Pyrmont, and its expansion through Australia to New Zealand and Fiji.
In 1880 he handed over to his second son as General Manager: Edward William had joined from school and worked his way up. He recruited first-rate chemists and engineers to apply science and technology to every aspect of sugar production. As a manager, he resented state intervention and adopted a paternalist approach to industrial relations. As CSR came to dominate the sugar industry, he defended it from the charge of monopoly, defied two Royal Commissions, and negotiated from strength, with the Australian, Fijian and British governments.
Edward William’s brother Thomas was managing director of Dalgety & Co., another brother, Adrian, chief justice of the High Court of Australia.