RCA Limited, Australia

Australian record company and manufacturer, based in Sydney, Australia. Operating under this name between 1969 and 1988. Not to be confused with Canadian company RCA Limited. Renamed from RCA Of Australia Pty. Ltd. on 14th March 1969 and renamed to BMG Arista / Ariola Limited on 20th January 1988. Manufacturing and distribution of records and cassettes took place in their North Ryde factory. After closure of the plant in 1980, manufacturing was usually handled by EMI Australia. The North Ryde factory had vinyl and cassette mastering departments, vinyl plating and pressing capabilities with 16 record presses (10 fully automatic Toolex Alpha and 6 Johns semi-automatic presses - the latter were replaced with Toolex Alpha fully automatic presses not long before the plant closed) as well as tape duplication and printing facilities. RCA in Australia also used the Dynaflex 12" record profile. The vinyl mastering was equipped with a Neumann VMS70 lathe and matching cutter head, amps and mastering console. Known lacquer cutting engineers: Don Bartley (1975 - 1980) - can be identified by DB in the runouts. Bruce Sheldrick (1975 - 1980) - can be identified by B.S. or BS in the runouts. A New Zealand branch was established in 1975, and thereafter the company was presented on releases as RCA Limited Australia and New Zealand (though there was no actual change to the registered name of RCA Limited). For the labels, see RCA, RCA Victor or RCA Australia.