The story
The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative of Australian prime minister Billy Hughes.
The board was to consist of seven members, three representing the Government of Australia and four representing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The provisional board consisted of: Sir Robert Garran, M. C. Lockyer, and Robert Gibson for the Commonwealth, and F. H. Bathurst, Professor Payne, Thomas John Greenway, and W. J. Windeyer for the oil company. Greenway served as chairman for the first year.
In 1922, COR purchased the disused shale oil refinery at Hamilton, New South Wales, that had been operated by British Australian Oil Company, and relocated equipment from there for use in its new refinery in Victoria.
In 1924, the company opened Australia's first refinery to process imported crude oil, near Laverton, Victoria, north of the Melbourne - Geelong railway line, adjacent to Kororoit Creek Road. The refinery received its first shipment of crude oil on 12 March 1924, with product coming "on-stream" on 17 May 1924. The refinery had an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tons of crude oil. The refinery was shut down on 6 August 1955, having been eclipsed by much larger refineries built around the country.
In the 1930s, the company was involved in oil search ventures.
From Wikipedia’s article on Commonwealth Oil Refineries, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3