Marketing of the Matraville refinery products was always a major concern for management. In the early 1960s, Bitumen and Oil Refineries found itself with a surplus of oil that it needed to offload. The company liaised with the engineering department of New South Wales Railways, helping them convert their coal-burning locomotives to the use of oil. This venture was successful and the company contracted to supply oil to them.         The company also expanded in related businesses. Until 1963 Bitumen and Oil Refineries made no significant takeovers, except in road-surfacing operations. Its subsidiary, W. B. Carr Constructions, had asphalt-spraying operations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. However, Bitumen and Oil Refineries essentially marketed bitumen and fuel oil in New South Wales. Most of the white products - the petrol and kerosene and distillates - were taken back and marketed by Caltex. Griffin saw an expansion opportunity in the spraying of bitumen and the mixing and laying of asphalt, and bought BHP's road-surfacing operations in New South Wales. They also acquired one or two similar smaller operations in Victoria such as Dammann Asphalt.         The forecourt of the Sydney Opera House during construction - Boral supplied and laid the asphalt.     Eric Neal (later Sir Eric Neal, and Governor of South Australia), who succeeded Griffin as managing director in 1973, recalls, 'In those early years Griffin was the operator and [Sir] Ian Potter of Potter and Partners, a Melbourne stockbroking firm, was a de facto corporate planner (Potter was on the Boral Board for many years). They made some very fine acquisitions which were of great benefit to Boral but there wasn't any particular pattern to them, they were very diverse. The company's strategy was somewhat opportunistic and Potter played a key role in this - he was in his heyday in the 1960s.' Potter advised Griffin on the acquisition of asset-rich companies such as Huddart Parker and Mount Lyell by Bitumen and Oil Refineries. Those early takeovers were 'add-ons' to the company as a limited oil refiner and marketer of petroleum products. Even the investment in Huddart Parker Industries, a leading Australian coastal shipping group, had practical applications. Apart from greatly increasing the financial strength of the company, this purchase gave it access to additional outlets for its oil products using Huddart Parker's well established shipping routes. The acquisition cost Bitumen and Oil Refineries nearly 2 million pounds, whereas Huddart Parker's net asset value amounted to more than 6 million pounds.   Huddart Parker brass plaque frmo the Adelaide office of D. and J. Fowler Limited. They were Huddart Parker's South Australian agents from the late 1890s to about 1970 (with permission Bill Fowler).     »»