An inside look at the Lithgow Arms Factory – an Australian institution
By Sam Talbot
Tucked away in the tiny town of Lithgow is a facility unlike any other in the country, and unique even in the world. It’s not just that Lithgow Arms makes rifles. It’s that they do it all there in one spot without any outsourcing. From raw steel to proof-tested firearms, all within one facility. It’s a level of ‘vertical integration’ even the big global brands rarely match.
I was lucky enough to tour the factory recently, which started with a short history lesson. Lithgow began turning steel in 1910, with full-scale military firearm production kicking off in 1912. Just next door to the facility is an outdoor range, which was surprisingly established even earlier. It’s not every day you see a 900-yard range nestled right next to suburban streets, but that’s all part of the legacy in Lithgow.
Barrels with mirroring.
Inside the facility, the buildings are also part of that history. The first structure we entered featured rows of tall windows. Designed during wartime, the idea was that if the building was attacked, the glass would blow out, sparing the walls from collapse.
Meanwhile, inside the manufacturing area of the facility, the floors are 80 years old and hold more than 70 machines, each with a specific purpose. That’s fewer than in decades past, thanks to modernisation, but it still takes a wide variety of tools to turn raw steel into a finished firearm. It starts with thick steel cylinders, stacked on pallets. These are gradually reshaped, drawn out, drilled, heat-treated and measured until every part meets specifications.
One of the trickiest parts of the process is creating a perfectly straight hole down the centre of a barrel. This hole needs to be perfectly straight with a precision down to just a few microns. Lithgow Arms can maintain a high standard of production by having parts checked and measured repeatedly, including after critical steps like heat treatment. In some cases, tolerances are verified to within just three microns – which is significantly less than the width of a human hair.
The steel starts shorter and fatter and is slowly but surely crushed and drawn out. Here Talbot lines up a future barrel.
It takes about three months to take raw steel and turn it into a firearm that can be used. Throughout that time, there may only be a few hands-on hours spent working directly on a single firearm, but the full production timeline stretches to about three months. That’s because each component needs to be built, inspected and timed perfectly with the other parts and components. The entire process is coordinated to ensure everything comes together at just the right time, where one part may take five minutes to make, but another takes two months.
Lithgow’s setup is rare in that absolutely nothing is outsourced. Even the tools used to make the guns are made on-site in the factory’s own tool room. There’s also an electroplating area, which we were told is the highest standard of its kind in the country. The purpose of it is to add a protective coating to key components like firing pins, receivers and military barrels.
The part of the manufacturing process I would say is the least ‘sexy’, but Matt Duquemin, Director, Integrated Weapons and Sensors at Thales, explained to us is arguably the most important part, was the ‘degreaser’. After all, the parts need to be clean.
There’s well over 150 employees working at the facility and, surprisingly, about 15 to 20 apprentices at any one time. An experienced worker can manage up to four machines at once, but as you can imagine, it takes a diverse mix of skilled workers to keep the place running.
The last step in making the final product is proofing, essentially test-firing to ensure the firearm meets international performance and safety standards. This is done at the factory’s on-site range, which includes multiple setups for different models and testing types.
Lithgow Arms makes rifles for both military and civilians. Matt said most of their business is military, but those contracts come and go. “We rely on the civilian business to keep us going between the bigger rounds of military contracts – we need both,” he said.
Maybe the most amazing thing about Lithgow Arms is that their civilian rifles are made to the same standard as the military rifles. There are some different methods between the two, but ultimately, a civilian firearm is made to the same standards as a military firearm.
This was a point Chris Burton, Product Line Manager at Lithgow Arms, wanted to drive home.
After three months of hard work, the end product can turn into something like the LA105 Woomera.
“Every Australian should have at least one Lithgow rifle,” he said. “It’s a civilian rifle made to the same standard as the military. You’d be doing yourself a favour by getting one.”
