Irish in Australia’: Octavius Charles Beale
The Beale Piano Factory in Annandale Sydney was once praised as the ‘largest piano factory’ in the British Empire. It was founded by Octavius Charles Beale who arrived in Australia as a child from Co. Leix during the gold rush of the 1850s. By the mid 1920s the factory had turned out more than 60,000 instruments and Beale himself was a prominent business man and public figure, confidante of politicians and active in manufacturers’ associations. Prior to making pianos,…
