First Quarter Report

THE BROKEN HILL PROPRIETARY COMPANY LIMITED
17 September 1999

    
                BHP ANNOUNCES STRONG FIRST QUARTER PROFIT
                        DIVIDEND RATE MAINTAINED

The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) today announced an
operating profit of $354 million, excluding abnormals, for the quarter
ended 31 August 1999, an increase of $3 million or 0.9 per cent compared
to the same quarter last year.

Including abnormals, the result for the quarter was $466 million, an
increase of $115 million or 33 per cent compared to the corresponding
period in 1998 (there were no abnormal items reported in the August 1998
quarter.)

Managing Director and CEO, Paul Anderson, described the result as
encouraging and said the Company would continue its focus on identifying
cost efficiencies and maximising the performance of individual operations
to ensure a solid base for future growth in shareholder wealth.

'We are now beginning to see the emergence of a much stronger operational
base which is able to immediately capture the benefits of any upswing in
market forces.

'Lower commodity prices for most of BHP's major minerals and steel
products, compared to the same period last year, stripped more than $230
million (after tax) from the result.  Lower sales volumes, particularly
for petroleum and iron ore, impacted the result by a further $35
million.'

Mr Anderson highlighted that lower costs offset the impact of lower
prices and volumes and contributed $180 million (after tax) to the
quarter result.  A reduction in discretionary expenditure positively
impacted the net profit by a further $25 million.

'The result underlines the imperative for BHP to focus on those business
factors that we can control.  We must continue to work at extracting
maximum value from our entire asset portfolio, drive down costs and
optimise the operating performance of each of our businesses as we move
through this next phase of rebuilding the Company.

'The boost in oil prices contributed about $50 million profit (after tax)
compared to the corresponding quarter in 1998 and the continued
improvement in copper prices is encouraging.  Asset sales contributed a
further $70 million (after tax) to the quarter, although $44 million less
than for the same period last year.

Mr Anderson said the Company was now also realising the benefits of the
difficult decisions implemented during the past 10 months.  'The
decisions to close or cease operations at the Hartley platinum mine,
Beenup mineral sands operation and North America copper effectively
stopped the bleeding' of cash flow from those operations and generated a
favourable result of about $45 million (after tax), compared to the
corresponding period.'

The BHP Board declared an interim dividend of 25 cents per share based on
the encouraging outlook for the Company, commodity prices and the broader
natural resource industry.  The dividend was not franked due to the lack
of franking credits from BHP's Australian operations.

The inability to pay franked dividends has resulted in automatic
suspension of the Company's Bonus Share Plan.  The Board also announced
the suspension of the Dividend Investment Plan following payment of the
November dividend.

Mr Anderson said that in situations where dividends are unfranked,
dividend re-investment is not an effective way of raising equity capital.

                                    
For information contact:

Media Relations:   Mandy Frostick
                   Manager Media Relations
                   Group External Affairs - Melbourne
                   Tel:      [phone]     (bh)
                             [phone]     (mobile)
                             [phone]     (ah)

Investor Relations:Rick Thiele
                   Manager Investor Relations & Assistant Secretary -
                   Melbourne
                   Tel:      [phone]     (bh)

                   Pierre Hirsch
                   Investor Relations Manager, North America
                   Tel:      [phone]     (bh)