Main entrance, Lithgow Small Arms Factory

Depicts the front facade of the building of the Lithgow Small Arms Facory with trees and cars in the foreground. New administration buildings as well as many other additions and alterations were made at the Commonwealth Small Arms Factory at Lithgow to cope with tremendously increased output required during the Second World War. This modern factory with its background of wooded hills was the nerve of small arms production in New South Wales. R. Malcolm Warner was appointed Official War Artist in 1943, covering the activities of the RAAF in Canada, United States and the Bahamas. His first mission was in Papua New Guinea recording Australian operation against the Japanese. In 1945 Warner continued to work as a war artist recording civil and industrial war efforts and food production in areas of New South Wales and Victoria. After the war he returned to commercial art, designing posters, murals and postage stamps and illustrating books.