From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 61:
"In 1945, an engineer was appointed to the C.S.I.R. staff to help the Head Office and the Divisions with their engineering problems. Some of these problems were concerned with the engineering services of laboratories, and some involved the design of new research equipment. The engineer, Mr. R. N. Morse, soon found it necessary to have the assistance of two more professional engineers, and the small team became involved in a large number of projects, ranging from the installation of gas turbine testing equipment for the Division of Aeronautics to the development of flow metering devices for irrigation research.

In the immediate post-war era, manufacturing facilities in the engineering industry were in heavy demand, and in 1949 C.S.I.R.O. was obliged to set up its own manufacturing establishment, known as the C.S.I.R.0. Central Experimental Workshops. The Workshops, situated at Maribyrnong, Victoria, undertook the design and construction of all kinds of novel apparatus and experimental plant.

The group soon began to develop research interests of its own, and in 1955 its name was changed to the Engineering Section. By J 957, when it moved to Highett, Victoria, it had an established programme of research into solar energy utilization, air conditioning and artificial climate control. The work on climate control has found application in the Division of Plant Industry's phytotron, for which the Section carried out the engineering development and general design. Although the Section still assists other C.S.I.R.O. groups with their engineering problems, it is now mainly preoccupied with its own research programme, which has been extended to such fields as agricultural machinery, electronics, refrigeration and solar distillation."