Made Here.
Every Part of It.
We’ve beening spinning, coating, wiring up, and assembling every fitting in our Melbourne workshop since 2012. And in July 2024, we acquired Elettra Lighting — a boutique lighting manufacturer that had been running in Victoria since the 1980s, well before Jesse & Melinda were born — to make sure that tradition doesn’t quietly disappear to support independant lighting companies.
Barn Light is proudly Australian-owned, which is rare enough in itself, but we go even further. While other companies still rely on imports, we find ever more ways to source and craft in Australia. We have truly earned our “Australian Made” certificate. Want to know more about the people behind Barn Light? – Check “About Barn Light“
We believe in Australia’s ability to manufacture with self-sufficiency. Our aim is to reach for the best that Australia can produce. We believe in Australian design, engineering and true affordability. We only wish that other manufacturers would do the same. Its in uncertain times like ours, when manufacturing locally makes the biggest difference, and so and in proud support of fellow Australian business, we use Australian materials wherever possible.
We sport our well-earned Green & Gold ‘Australian made’ Kangaroo on products only where we manage to exceed 70% of Australian content. This makes it easier for you to believe in our products just as much as we do.
40+
Years of Elettra History Preserved
3 Year
Warranty – Because we MAKE IT
100%
MADE ON
AUSTRALIAN SOIL
The Distinction
Australian Made Is Not the Same as Australian Owned.
It’s a meaningful difference, and one that a lot of lighting brands quietly gloss over. When a company says “Australian Owned & Operated,” they’re telling you where the head office is — not where the product comes from.
At barnlight.au, when we say Australian Made, we mean our lights are physically built in Australia. The shade is spun here. The coating is applied here. The wiring is done here, by our team, to Australian electrical standards. The testing happens at our bench before it leaves our door.
That’s not a claim you can make if your fittings are imported and assembled, or shipped from overseas with a local plug fitted on arrival. The word means something specific. We take it seriously.
“Australian Owned & Operated”
The business is headquartered in Australia. The people running it are Australian. The products may still be sourced, manufactured, or assembled offshore — and the listing won’t always tell you which. Rarely does anyone actually pickup the phone, nor know the details that are not on the product page.
“Australian Made & Owned”
- Shades spun from heavy-gauge Aluminium — on our suppliers floor, on their own lathes.
- Powder coated in-house, at our Carrum Downs workshop using predominately Dulux PowderCoatings®
- Wired by our team to AS/NZS electrical standards
- Assembled and tested before dispatch - by *real employees* - Not robots.
- Colorbond® colour matching — possible only because we do our own coating
- IP44/IP55 ratings we can stand behind, because we built what they’re applied to
You’re buying from the people who made it
When something needs attention — and with quality fittings, it rarely does — you’re calling the people who wound the wire and spun the shade. That’s why we can offer a 3-year warranty and a 90-day cash return. We know exactly what went into it.
28 Buontempo Road, Carrum Downs VIC
What Happens in Our Workshop
Every barnlight.au fitting follows the same path — from raw aluminium blank to finished, tested, warranted product. Here’s what that looks like.
Aluminium Spinning
Heavy-gauge aluminium blanks are laser cut and spun into shape by our suppliers using decade old molds on their floor lathes. Consistent geometry, clean edges, no casting marks or thin spots. Added durability but rolling a lip provides evidence of quality workmanship
Why don't we spin ourselves? A common question - Its a dying art, difficult to program, and not a cheap process. Buying 25pc and 100pc orders is easier to manufacture with.
Surface Preparation
Shades are cleaned, de-greased, and prepared for coating. The quality of the finish is decided at this stage — shortcuts show up under powder.
Bought something that rusted?
They clearly skipped this step!
Powder Coating
Applied on-site in our Carrum Downs Factory. We offer the full Colorbond® palette because we do our own powdercoating. Nobody else makes colour decisions for us, and we buy premium powdercoat
We use Dulux Duratec, Electro, Charisma, & Quality Suppliers like Interpon® as specified
Electrical Wiring
Our team wires every fitting to Australian standards. Sourced predominately from Bambach Cables. We source SAA Certified Ceramic Lampholders from Overseas - Direct from the manufacturer, as nobody is left to make them.
Gaskets from Foam Sealant, Components are sourced for the conditions — IP44 and IP55 rated where outdoor installation demands it.
Assembly & Testing
Hardware fitted, wiring checked, function confirmed. It doesn’t leave Carrum Downs until we’re satisfied — every time, not just in batches.
This is where the lead-times happen. Looking for a standard product - we get it out quicker than importers. Otherwise, custom lighting made for you in two weeks. #AustralianMade
Powdercoating. Made Here. Not There. Made by Hand @ BarnLight
In-House Capability
We Don’t Outsource the Parts That Matter
Most lighting sold in Australia arrives in a container. The manufacturing decisions — alloy grade, coating thickness, wiring specification — were made by someone overseas, optimised for a price point, not a standard.
When you control the process end-to-end, you control the outcome. Our IP ratings aren’t a data-sheet claim made by a data entry clerk — they’re the result of how the fitting is built. Our warranty isn’t a marketing number — it reflects how long we expect what we’ve made to actually last.
And because Jesse and Mel run the workshop, when you call with a question about a custom colour or a non-standard bracket configuration, you’re talking to the people who can genuinely answer it.
The Elettra Story
When a 40-Year-Old Australian Manufacturer Was About to
Close, We Bought It.
This is not a story about growth strategy or portfolio expansion. It’s a story about what happens when you take Australian manufacturing seriously enough to put real money behind it — and what gets lost forever when nobody does.
Dandenong South, VIC. Est. 1980s.
Elettra began manufacturing lighting in Dandenong South in the 1980s — right in the heart of what was then a thriving corridor of Victorian industrial production. For four decades they turned out pendants, wall lights, surface-mounted fittings, spotlights, pressed metal components, and custom products. They were the kind of operation that didn’t need to advertise: their work was well known in the trade, their quality was consistent, and their knowledge ran deep.
That knowledge lives in the machinery, yes — but it lives more completely in the people who run it. The settings dialled in over years. The instincts built up across thousands of production runs. The understanding of how a fitting behaves under Australian conditions, in Australian environments, with Australian electrical infrastructure.
When the original owners decided to retire, that knowledge was about to walk out the door for good. Without a buyer, Elettra’s accumulated capability — the lathes, the tooling, the presses, the institutional memory — would be sold off piecemeal or simply wound down. Another chapter of Australian manufacturing, quietly closed.
“When Elettra’s doors were about to close, we didn’t want to lose what they’d built. We weren’t prepared to watch forty years of Australian manufacturing knowledge just disappear. So we bought it.”— Jesse & Mel, JAM Industrial Pty Ltd
July 2024: Elettra Moves to Carrum Downs.
JAM Industrial Pty Ltd — the company behind barnlight.au — acquired Elettra’s entire lighting division: the machinery, the tooling, the product range, and critically, the team. Warren and Carol came with the acquisition. That matters more than it might sound. You don’t preserve a manufacturing capability by buying equipment alone. You preserve it by keeping the people who know how to use it.
Elettra is now operating out of the Carrum Downs workshop alongside the barn light range. The combined workshop holds the capacity for pendants, wall lights, surface-mounted fittings, spotlights, pressed metal components, and custom and bespoke fittings — all made in Victoria, all to the same exacting standard.
Elettra’s full product range will be integrated into barnlight.au in the near future. If you’re looking for something specific in the meantime — reach out directly. The machinery is running. We can build it.
Elettra - At a Glance
Years of Elettra History Preserved
- Originally based: Dandenong South, VIC
- Operating since: 1980s
- Moved to Carrum Downs: July 2024
- Acquired by: JAM Industrial Pty Ltd (barnlight.au)
- Makers retained: Warren & Carol
Workshop Capability
What the Workshop Can Now make
- Pendants
- Wall Lights
- Surface Mounted Fittings
- Directional Spot Lights
- Bespoke Light Fittings
- Complete White Labelled Lighting Fixtures
Why this matters
Manufacturing Knowledge Doesn’t Reinstall Itself
When a factory closes, the machinery can sometimes be recovered. But the settings, the techniques, the judgement built across thousands of production runs — that goes with the people. Keeping Warren and Carol, keeping the team, was the whole point of the acquisition.
Elettra’s Full Range will be listed on barnlight.au. In the meantime, reach out if your looking for something specific – We’re likely already made it, or making it!
A Century of Craft
The Heritage Behind Every Fitting
The barn light silhouette didn’t appear from nowhere. It follows a lineage of industrial manufacturing that stretches back a century — through American foundries, Australian workshops, and the handful of people who refused to let the craft disappear.
The Shades That Built a Nation: ROWCO & Benjamin
While America had its RLM standard, Australia had ROWCO. From the 1930s through to the 1960s, ROWCO’s vitreous enamel dome shades — green on the outside, brilliant white on the inside — hung from the ceilings of factories, woolsheds, and workshops across the country. Alongside Benjamin, they were the names pressed into the lip of every industrial pendant from Collingwood to Kalgoorlie. Spun steel, enamel-fired for durability, cast iron hooks — no plastic, no shortcuts. Built for Australian conditions. Built to outlast the building.
The RLM Standard is Born
The RLM — Reflective Luminaire Manufacturer — has its roots in early twentieth-century America, where spun metal dome shades were first engineered to throw focused light downward onto factory floors and warehouse workbenches. Formally established in 1919, the RLM standard codified a design born in industry — a simple, honest fixture built to help people see what they were doing and do it well.
The Man Who Wired the Factories: Oliver J. Nilsen
Every great light fitting needs someone to wire it in. Oliver John Nilsen — born in Collingwood, educated at the Working Men’s College — founded his electrical contracting firm in Melbourne in 1916 with twenty employees and £200. By the 1920s, as Melbourne’s manufacturing sector boomed and the Latrobe Valley started feeding the grid, Nilsen’s crews were installing the switchboards, running the cables, and connecting the power that brought ROWCO’s shades to life. He went on to sit on Melbourne’s electric-supply committee for thirty years, become Lord Mayor, and build a company that still operates nationwide today. The light fitting is only half the story — someone had to make it glow.
The Original Manufacturers Fade
In 1973, tariffs were slashed overnight. Through the 1980s and ’90s, successive governments opened Australia to global competition, and the protection that had sustained local manufacturing for decades was steadily dismantled. Cheaper imported fittings — first from Japan, then Southeast Asia, then China — eroded the market for locally-made product. ROWCO’s green enamel shades stopped coming off the line. The silhouette survived in the millions of fittings already installed — in woolsheds, factories, and workshop ceilings across the country — but new production of the form largely disappeared.
Elettra Begins Manufacturing in Dandenong South
Against the tide, Elettra establishes itself in Victoria’s industrial south-east and builds a four-decade reputation for quality commercial and decorative lighting — pendants, wall fittings, surface mounts, and bespoke pressed metal work. They quietly supply the trade while the rest of the industry drifts offshore. Companies like Richmond Lighting, Lights Lights Lights, and similar high end lighting designers and retailers keep their business humming during the 2000’s
The Revival Begins: Barn Light Electric, FL - USA
In Titusville, Florida — in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Centre and in the teeth of the Global Financial Crisis — Bryan and Donna Scott turned a weekend hobby restoring antique light fittings on eBay into a manufacturing business. Once known as “Dog Dish Lights,” the name “Barn Light” was coined by the Scotts when they rebranded as Barn Light Electric Company. They revived porcelain enamel lighting that hadn’t been produced in America for over fifty years — handcrafted, locally made, fully customisable using Italian frit (liquid glass). They proved that the RLM silhouette wasn’t dead — it had just been waiting for someone to care enough to make it properly again. The Modern Farmhouse movement was gathering pace, designers were rediscovering industrial heritage, and suddenly that old dome reflector shape wasn’t vintage — it was current.
barnlight.au: The Baton Arrives in Melbourne
Having established Barn Light Australia alongside Bryan and Donna Scott in Titusville, Jesse returns to Melbourne on the cusp of a mental breakdown — with a newborn son, seed money, a 40-foot container of quality USA shades, and a taste for all things vintage. The RLM silhouette crosses the Pacific. Within six months, he outgrows the double-car garage in Cranbourne North, moves in with his powder coater in Dandenong South, and six months later lands in a 200sqm factory in Hallam. For the first time since the ROWCO era, Australians have access to properly made barn lights — backed by someone who understands the craft, the heritage, and the hustle it takes to bring it back.
G&W Metal Spinners: A Partnership That Changed Everything
Unable to keep up with imports from the USA, Jesse turns to Warren Grenness at G&W Metal Spinners for locally produced aluminium spinnings. The partnership clicks — and eventually the original shade moulds come over from America to support local production. The changing value of the US dollar makes the numbers work, but the real gains are operational: faster production, zero stock damaged in transit, and the ability to develop new fixtures without waiting on a container from Florida. Barn Light grows as a direct result of the partnership — and Warren becomes the supplier whose name runs through every chapter of the business from here on.
barnlight.au: Then He Met Mel
After a rough chapter and a fresh start, Jesse meets Melinda — and the business finds its second wind. Together they establish barnlight.au from a conviction that Australians deserve the real thing, not an imported approximation. With Mel’s management experience and her ability to work with people who don’t necessarily listen, Barn Light starts to grow up. They outgrow the Hallam workshop and in 2019 move into two factories at Fibre Place, Carrum Downs — one clean for assembly and despatch, one dirty for powder coating and pre-treatment. When COVID shuts down imports, demand for locally made product surges, and they’re ready. The RLM silhouette is no longer imported from America — it’s spun from Australian aluminium and coated in colours drawn from the Australian landscape.
JAM Industrial Acquires Elettra's Lighting Division
When David Ceeney retired after building Elettra into a respected name in Victorian lighting manufacturing, the business passed to Warren Grenness of G&W Metal Spinners (est. 1971) — Barn Light’s long-standing supplier of lighting fixtures. Faced with the prospect of Elettra’s lighting division closing and 40+ years of capability disappearing, Jesse and Mel acquire the Elettra brand from Warren and bring its lighting division home. The machinery, the tooling, and Elettra’s star employee Carol — all of it moves to Carrum Downs. Lathes, copper and brass stock, hardware, and the accumulated know-how of four decades supplying the trade. Australian lighting manufacturing survives to the next generation.
Made in Carrum Downs, VIC
Our Australian Made Range
Every fitting below was designed, spun, coated and wired in our Victorian workshop. Browse by category or explore the full shop.
A solid-brass cylinder ceiling light, surface-mounted. Three diameters, made-to-order lengths from 130mm, and five hand-finished brass tones. GU10 supplied as standard, with E27 or a 1500lm LED module on request.
Steel corrugation holder for surface-mounting Barn Light products to 76mm-pitch corrugated steel sheet. 150mm x 150mm surface plate in 2mm electro-galvanised steel, powdercoated to match your fitting. Non-returnable.
Spring-loaded coverplates that conceal existing ceiling holes or old downlight cut-outs — flush, fixing-free, and installable without a plasterer.
| Ø50 x 20mm Ø60 x 20mm Ø60 x 40mm Ø80 x 25mm Ø100 x 30mm Ø100 x 55mm Ø120 x 25mm Ø120 x 55mm Ø150 x 25mm Ø150 x 55mm Ø190 x 25mm Ø190 x 55mm Aluminium Brass Copper |
Australian-made round spun ceiling canopies — aluminium, brass or copper, Ø50–190mm in standard and extra-length depths. 10.5mm centre hole, supplied with mounting bracket. Powdercoat or natural finishes.
The Promise
The Warranty Only Means Something Because We Made It
A three-year warranty is only meaningful if the company offering it understands, in detail, what they made. We do. Jesse and Mel know what alloy the shades are spun from, what thickness the powder coat was applied at, how the wiring was terminated, and which components were used at every step of assembly.
We can offer this because we *made* it. We know what went into it, when things go wrong - the knowledge and measure of a company is clear when you ask for a resolution. You're talking to the people who build it, who can fix it. All said - 90% of all install errors is because someone didn't read the instructions, the 10% is where we forget a backing plate.
That’s the difference between a warranty backed by a manufacturer and one backed by a distributor on the phone to a supplier in another timezone. We’re down the road from most of our Melbourne customers and we answer our own phone. That’s not a coincidence — it’s the whole point.
3 Year Warranty
Full coverage on all barnlight.au fittings. Electrical components, powder coat, hardware — covered. We build to last and we back that with real terms, not fine print.
90 Day Cash Refund Policy | 180 Day Credit Policy
Changed your mind or ordered the wrong shade? 90 days, full cash refund. No store-credit-only conditions, no restocking fee games. We're confident enough in what we make to offer this without conditions. Took a bit longer to decide - 180 Days for a Credit towards your next purchase. We do ask that you send it back (at your cost however)
Ring! Ring! Ring... - You're Calling the Makers
When you contact us about a fitting, you reach Jesse or Mel - ; the people who run the workshop. Not a call centre. Not a support ticket. The people who actually made what you're looking at. That said, we get busy, so leave a message and we'll call you back as soon as practicle
Colorbond® / Dulux® / Interpon® / Paint?!
We can match to the full Colorbond® palette because we run our own powder coating. Custom colour requests are handled in-house - no third-party lead times, no minimum order surprise. There is a good chance that we've got that exotic powdercoat that isn't listed online either.. Just ask!
When you Buy a Barn Light, You're
Choosing What Gets Made here.
Every fitting we sell is a reason for our workshop to keep running. It’s a reason we, our staff, and Banjo (an Aussie Shepard!) turn up on Monday morning. It’s a reason the lathes keep spinning and the powdercoating oven stays warm.
We didn’t acquire Elettra because the numbers demanded it. We did it because Australian manufacturing is worth preserving – and because when the moment came, someone had to step up. If that matters to you, and we think it should, we’d like to make your next fitting
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