About Sir Edward Hallstrom
Sir Edward Hallstrom was an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Self-made and self-educated, Sir Edward cared deeply about animal conservation and left his lasting mark at Taronga Zoo.
He remains one of the zoo’s most generous private benefactors, donating over half a million dollars towards animal upkeep and breeding programs during his lifetime.
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An early start to Edward Hallstrom’s working life
Edward Hallstrom was born near Coonamble in 1886. He did not have an easy start in life, working odd jobs from the age of 10 and leaving school at 13 to become an apprentice cabinet maker.
Business success
Showing genuine business talent, Edward was soon managing a furniture shop, and quickly progressed to running his own business outright as a young man.
Edward established a refrigerator factory in 1928. Inventive and resourceful, he designed a kerosine-powered refrigerator specifically for the Australian outback. Realising that imported refrigerators were too expensive for most consumers, he sought to fill the gap in the market.
In this, he was enormously successful. By the mid-1940s, Hallstrom’s Pty Ltd was producing 1,200 refrigerators each week and employing over 700 people. Silent Knight-branded refrigerators became a household name, and Edward became a millionaire.
Enduring connections to Taronga Zoo
Having immense wealth meant Edward could devote more attention to his love of birds and animals. With the proceeds of the sale of 500 refrigerators in Africa in 1937, he bought 2 rhinoceroses, which he presented to Taronga Zoo.
In 1941, the zoo appointed him as a trustee. He was vice-chairman and then chairman from 1951 and 1959, and then an honorary life director for the remainder of his lifetime. During these years, Edward financed expeditions to New Guinea, Africa and South America, establishing links with overseas zoos and museums, and setting up a private farm at Mona Vale to produce fresh food for the zoo’s animals.
Edward raised the public profile of the zoo by exhibiting animals such as 'King Kong', the gorilla, and 'Nellie', the harmonica-playing elephant, and by introducing a successful breeding program that included rare black rhinoceroses.
In response to changing attitudes to animal keeping in the 1960s – including a move away from concrete and cages – the NSW government undertook a major review of the operations of the zoo. A professional zoologist was appointed the zoo’s director and Edward became director emeritus.
A lasting legacy
A deeply compassionate man, Edward made donations to a wide range of charities during his lifetime, but especially to those involving medical research. The Hallstrom Institute of Cardiology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was set up to recognise this generosity.
In a move that would have pleased him, a genus of petrels found off Australia’s east coast is named Hallstroma in his honour.
Edward died in 1970 at his Northbridge home, leaving behind a legacy as a genial philanthropist and animal lover. He was a significant figure in the history of Taronga Zoo and a practical humanitarian.