Whilst Roche had been exporting products to Australia since the early 1900's, an increased number of the products became available for sale in Australia from 1942, through the Australian pharmaceutical chain Faulding's. British migrant John Traher was one of the key first Australians responsible for bringing Roche products to the Australian market.
In 1954 Roche was incorporated as an Australian company, as Roche Products Pty Limited. The business kicked off with 3 staff in office premises at Woolfes on Barrack Street, in Wynyard, Sydney CBD (shown in photo).
In 1896, Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche was driven by the idea that "what the world needs, is to turn pharmaceutical compounds that have been studied scientifically into medicine that is standard in terms of dosage and effects."
But all components of a pill must be evenly mixed and sufficiently compacted so that the tablet doesn't crumble, but not so hard that it won't dissolve.
Long serving GM of Roche Products Pty Ltd, Fred Najarian, reflected on this process "You're talking about medicines. It is not just a matter of making a good product most of the time.. every single tablet, every single capsule, has to be the right standard, the right specification, the right quality."
Roche Products Pty Ltd would eventually be required to manufacture pharmaceuticals to meet Australia and New Zealand market demand for pharmaceuticals, such as it's first chemotherapy Fluorouracil (1962) and anxiolytic Valium (1963). Later, pharmaceutical production in Australia included Bactrim, Librium, Leoxtan, and Roaccutane.
In the 1950s Roche began to diversify its manufacturing globally, and there became a need to manufacture products locally in Australia.
As road freight started to overtake rail and shipping during the 1950s, manufacturing sites no longer needed to be centrally located in the expensive CBD, Roche's search for an appropriate manufacturing site began and they purchased land in Lane Cove and Cronulla.
Roche came to see a need not just for land for a manufacturing site, but a site that could also support the need for an integrated workforce (from production through to sales and administration).
Around the same time, just north of Sydney's Manly beach, the Warringah Shire was seeing significant residential, industrial, and commercial development.