Most old safes in Australia came off a ship from England, but Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney had safe makers of their own. Here’s who they were, what the names on the door tell you, and what to do with the safe in front of you.
1866
Simpson’s bonfire test on Adelaide’s South Park Lands
1888
first order of merit for Makutz and Barke, Melbourne
2,000
Ajax safes for governments, by the firm’s 1919 count
1921
Chubb’s own safe works open in Sydney
Key takeaways
- Most old safes in Australia were imported from Britain and sold through local agents, so a Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane name on the door may be the seller, not the maker.
- A. Simpson & Son of Adelaide put its own patent fireproof safe through a public bonfire test on the South Park Lands on 20 September 1866.
- Bela Makutz made safes in Melbourne from the early 1880s (as Ehret & Makutz, then Makutz and Barke) and in Perth from the mid-1890s until his death in 1923. His sons carried on.
- The Ajax Safe Co. of Alma Street, Darlington, in Sydney said it was established in 1890 and claimed 2,000 safes supplied to governments by 1919.
- Chubb’s Australian Company was set up in Sydney in 1897 to sell Chubb’s English safes. Its own works at Waterloo opened in early 1921.
In This Article
Australian safe makers at a glance
These are the names you’re most likely to find on an old safe in Australia. Each one’s got its own section below, and our list of old safe brands covers the British, American and European makers too.
| Maker | Where | Recorded | Names to look for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Simpson & Son | Adelaide (Gawler Place, later also Pirie Street and Wakefield Street) | Safes from 1866 | A. Simpson & Son; “Adelaide Patent Fire and Thief Proof Safes” |
| Ehret & Makutz; Makutz and Barke | Melbourne and South Melbourne | 1883 to 1893 | “Reliable” safes; Reliable Safe Works |
| B. Makutz | Perth (Murray Street) | Mid-1890s to the late 1920s at least | B. Makutz; later run by his sons E. and R. Makutz |
| Ajax Safe Co. | Alma Street, Darlington, Sydney | “Established in 1890”; recorded 1903 to 1919 | Ajax; sole agents S. Hoffnung & Co. (1913) |
| Chubb’s Australian Co. Ltd | Sydney (Clarence Street); works at Waterloo | Agency from 1897; local works from 1921 | Chubb’s Australian Co.; “Chubb, Australia” trade mark (1923) |
| British imports | Liverpool, London, Wolverhampton | From the 1850s | Milner, John Tann (Reliance), Tann’s Defiance, Chubb, Price, Skidmore |
Why most old safes in Australia are British
Start with the odds, because they’re useful. Before the 1880s nearly every safe in an Australian office came from England, and the newspapers show how ordinary that was. In November 1865 a Melbourne pawnbroker advertised for “a good secondhand fireproof safe, by Milner or Price”, on the same page as Bright Brothers and Co.’s “large assortment” of Milner’s safes, offered as agents for the Australian colonies.1 An Adelaide firm kept “a stock” of Milner’s safes in 1867,2 and one ship landing in Sydney in June 1884 carried 32 Milner’s fireproof safes in a single consignment.3
Some of those safes are still around, or at least their plates are, and they’re worth a look. Museums Victoria holds two brass plates from the Flinders Street Stationmaster’s safe in Melbourne, both by the Milner Safe Co.: a curved “Holdfast Safe” banner and a round “Milners’ 212 Patent Fire-Resisting” plate that the museum dates to about 1857.4,5 If your safe’s got a similar plate, our history of Milner safes explains how to date it.
Milner kept Australian agents into the 20th century. In 1904 Webster and Co., Ltd., of Brisbane were “sole Queensland agents for Milners Safes and strong-room doors” and carried “large stocks” in Brisbane.6
Tann, Defiance and the agents’ names
John Tann’s Reliance safes didn’t arrive any differently: twelve cases of them landed in Brisbane in April 1877.7 Don’t confuse them with “Tann’s Defiance” safes, which were made by a separate branch of the Tann family (our history of Tann safes sorts out which is which). Defiance had Australian agents as well. J. Herman and Co. of Barrack Street, Sydney, were sole agents when 36 cases of Defiance safes arrived in October 1890, and in 1903 King, Cribb and King were appointed Queensland agents. They showed off a Defiance safe in their Queen Street rooms that had come through a fire in the Barbican, London, in 1902 with its contents saved.8,9
That’s why the plate can mislead. An agent’s name and city on a safe tell you who sold it, not who built it, so it’s worth looking for a second plate, a name cast into the hinges or lock, or a British town. Smaller English works turn up too. A blogger in Beechworth, Victoria, photographed a wood-effect safe in a local pharmacy with a plate reading “Thomas Skidmore, Bilston Road Wolverhampton, Nonconduction Fire and Thiefproof Safemakers”.10,11 And not everything was British: the Toronto firm J. & J. Taylor won prizes at Australian exhibitions and sold its exhibition safes here.
A. Simpson & Son, Adelaide
Adelaide’s safe maker didn’t start out in iron at all: it started in tin. According to the National Portrait Gallery, Alfred Simpson opened a tinsmith’s business in Topham Street, Adelaide, in 1853 and moved to larger premises in Gawler Place in 1863. Wikipedia instead dates the firm to 1855 in Gawler Place, so the sources don’t quite agree.12,13 It became A. Simpson & Son when his son Alfred Muller Simpson turned 21 in 1864.14
Safes weren’t long in coming. In July 1866 the South Australian Register inspected “colonial workmanship by Mr. Simpson, of Gawler-place”: fireproof doors about six feet high, with bolts thrown by a handle and secured by Chubb’s locks, “after the best style of English safes”. One had been fitted at the Town Hall for the Government, another at Boucaut and Whitby’s office, and a third was going into the South Australian Company’s office, at no more than the cost of an imported door.15
The bonfire on the South Park Lands, 1866
I went through the Adelaide papers for that September, and the trial’s one of the best-documented safe tests in colonial Australia. On Thursday 20 September 1866 Simpson & Son took a party of gentlemen out to the South Park Lands in a Bay omnibus. Between five and six tons of firewood had been stacked around and over a safe about 2 feet 4 inches high, standing on open brickwork so the fire could get underneath. Inside went account books, a ledger, a list of Adelaide Bank shareholders, cancelled and good bank notes, handkerchiefs, newspapers and a silver watch. The door was locked, the key handed to a witness, and a few gallons of tar poured over the pile.16,17
While it burned, the party went to the Green Dragon for lunch. Within half an hour the safe was at a white heat and the brass handles had melted off; the fire kept its full intensity for nearly two hours. When the safe was forced open next morning in Gawler Place, the bank notes and letters were “in perfect preservation”, the books were charred but legible, and the watch, which had stopped at a quarter past two, started again when it was lifted out. The weight of the wood had torn off the outer plate and let some of the “non-conducting material” escape, which the reporters blamed for the scorched books.17
“In a few years the colonial manufacturers would be able to beat importers out of the market.”
E. M. Martin, an Adelaide importer of iron safes, as reported in 1866
My favourite detail is that one of the lunch guests, E. M. Martin, said he was himself an importer of iron safes and still wished the experiment well.16 Adelaide’s gossip column agreed that “not a single slip of paper was defaced” among the loose notes and that the safe was “as secure against thieves as against fire”.18 The following year A. Simpson and Son showed one of their fireproof safes, alongside cooking ovens and tinware, at the South Australian Agricultural and Horticultural Society’s exhibition of November 1867.19
Dynamite, Pirie Street and the later firm
The firm kept growing: a former Congregational chapel in Freeman Street (now part of Gawler Place) in 1871, a second factory in Pirie Street in 1876 and a new plant in Wakefield Street in 1894. According to the firm’s own centenary history, as summarised by the SA History Hub, Simpson safes were used in offices and banks across South Australia and interstate for about fifty years.14 They were sold as “Adelaide Patent Fire and Thief Proof Safes”, which the National Portrait Gallery says were “famous for their purported ability to withstand attempts to explode them with dynamite”.12 Wikipedia adds that a later model had an explosion-proof lock, developed after a run of safe-blowing by “dynamitards”, citing Adelaide’s Chronicle of 1908.13
Bear in mind that safes weren’t the firm’s main line: they were one product among many in a very large metalworks that also made stoves, bedsteads, enamel signs and munitions. The Simpson name survives today on household appliances, now part of the Electrolux Group.14 I couldn’t find a date when Simpson stopped making safes, or any published serial number list.
Makutz: Melbourne, then Perth
If your safe says Makutz, you’re in luck: the partner’s name and the city on it tell you most of what you need. Bela Makutz was born in Central Europe in about 1858: his Perth obituaries call him Hungarian by birth in one paper and “born in Bohemia” in another.20,21 By April 1883 “Ehret & Makutz, 22 Lonsdale-street west” were advertising fireproof safes in Melbourne, “all sizes, best and cheapest”.22 The next year their safes and strongroom doors were on sale in Perth through agents, Courthope and Co., who claimed they were superior to all others and cheaper than English goods.23
By 1886 the firm was Makutz and Barke, of Bourke Street West.24 In 1887 they built a six-foot safe for the iron merchants Briscoe and Co. with a quarter-inch steel outer case “in place of the ordinary 1/8 in. iron”, a body four inches thick “with its asbestos packing”, a half-inch steel door and Lowmoor iron rivets. A New South Wales editor who reprinted the report couldn’t resist adding that a rival’s safe was every bit as good.25
They also took out a Victorian patent in 1888 for “an improved boot scraper or door scraper and dust accumulator”, which tells you something about Melbourne’s streets.26 At the Centennial International Exhibition of 1888 the jury gave Makutz and Barke a first order of merit for safes, in the same list as Chubb, the Milner Safe Company and J. & J. Taylor.27 The firm’s pamphlet, printed above, adds a silver medal and the “Reliable” badge that’s worth comparing with the plate on your door.28
Timeline
- 1883 Ehret & Makutz, 22 Lonsdale Street West, Melbourne.
- 1886–1887 Makutz and Barke, Fire-proof Safe Works, Bourke Street West.
- 1888 First order of merit for safes, Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition.
- 1891 “Reliable” safes and locks, 346 Little Collins Street.
- 1893 Reliable Safe Works, Clarke Street North, City Road, South Melbourne.
- 1894 Makutz lands at Fremantle in March and is at Cue, on the Murchison goldfields, by June.
- 1922 B. Makutz, Murray Street, Perth, “Established over 30 years”.
- 1923 Bela Makutz dies at home in Palmerston Street, Perth, in August.
- 1927 B. Makutz (E. Makutz and R. Makutz), Murray Street, “Largest Manufacturer in W.A.”.
The addresses come from the firm’s advertisements and letterhead.29,28 The 1893 letter describes a pair of folding doors of 3/8-inch solid steel plate, secured by the firm’s “Patent Extended Multiple Bolt Lock”, which threw bolts at the top, bottom and face of the door, “all controlled by one key”.28
B. Makutz of Perth
Then came the depression of the early 1890s in Melbourne and the gold rushes in the west. Shipping lists put B. Makutz among the passengers landing at Fremantle in March 1894, and that June a correspondent at Cue, on the Murchison, was shown a small stamper battery “by the courtesy of Mr. B. Makutz”.30 A Perth columnist’s obituary sums up what followed: he had run “a girder and fireproof safe works on an extensive scale” in City Road, South Melbourne, came west after the Coolgardie rush, and “after a spell on the fields returned to Perth and opened up at his old trade”, becoming known for steel girders and safes as well as ordinary locks and keys.21
By 1922 his advertisements offered builders’ ironwork from Murray Street and claimed “over 30 years” in business, counting the Melbourne years.31 He died suddenly at his home in Palmerston Street on the night of 9 August 1923, aged about 65, leaving two sons, Rudolph and Ernest.20 They didn’t let the name go: in 1927 “B. Makutz (E. Makutz and R. Makutz)” of Murray Street called itself the largest safe and strongroom door maker in Western Australia, a contractor to the Commonwealth and State governments, and offered to open and repair “all makes of safes”.32
The Ajax Safe Co., Sydney
Ajax is the most searched-for Australian safe name, and the best account of the firm is its own. A long piece in Sydney’s Daily Commercial News of 6 August 1919, which reads very much like a company handout, says the Ajax Safe Co. of Alma Street, Darlington, was established in 1890 to make “fire, fall and thief resisting safes, strong iron doors and grilles equal to anything imported”. It describes bodies with bent corners of steel plate, fire chambers filled with “the purest steam-generating composition”, and six-lever locks, “explosive-proof”, supplied with duplicate keys.33
The same article makes some big claims, and they’re the firm’s own, so treat them that way: an Ajax safe protected its contents in the George Street North post office fire of 1909 after a week in the burning debris and a 50-foot fall; another came through a 1907 fire at Keefer Bros.’ store in Pittsworth, Queensland; two thousand Ajax safes had gone to the Federal and State governments, the GPO and the New South Wales Railways, 150 to shires and municipalities, and 50 strongroom doors to post offices. The largest safe made in Australia, it says, was a 2¼-ton Ajax for the GPO Parcels Department, and Ajax safes were “twenty-five per cent. cheaper and better than the imported”.33
Independent mentions do back up the local-government trade, at least. In 1903 Manilla council in New South Wales debated buying a second-hand Ajax safe for £11 against a new safe by another maker for £11 10s.34 In 1913 builders’ advertisements list the Ajax Safe Co., Alma Street, Darlington, with S. Hoffnung & Co., Ltd., of Pitt Street as sole agents, so a Hoffnung name on an Ajax safe isn’t a contradiction.35 We haven’t found when Ajax closed or who owned it, and no Ajax serial list is known.
Chubb’s Australian Company
Chubb safes were reaching Australia from England by the early 1850s.36 In 1897 the firm set up Chubb’s Australian Company in Sydney to handle the whole range across the country.36 That year the company’s address was Clarence Street, and it called itself “Sole Agents for Australasia”; a Sydney tobacco firm’s testimonial describes burglars giving up on its new Chubb safe after some work with a sharp chisel.37 At an exhibition in Sydney the same year it showed a scale model of the steel strongroom Chubb had built for the National Bank of Scotland.38 Victoria had its own agent: J. Shenton Gordon of 370 Flinders Street, Melbourne.39
So a Chubb safe in Australia from before the 1920s wasn’t made here: it almost certainly came from England, whatever the local plate says. For the English side of the story, see our history of Chubb safes.
The Waterloo works, 1921
Sources disagree on when Chubb started making safes in Australia. The Chubb Archive says that “by 1926” sales had grown enough to open a plant in Sydney, while the London Archives’ catalogue gives a factory built in 1921.36,40 The newspapers settle it in favour of 1921. In December 1920 a factory was already installed in Sydney and taking orders for light work, partly to serve the banks and partly because steel could now come from Newcastle.41 Early in 1921 the Commonwealth Treasurer, Sir Joseph Cook, formally opened the works of Chubb’s Australian Company at the junction of Short and Elizabeth Streets, Waterloo, which took in the art metal business of George and Albert Richard.42
The new works weren’t meant to make everything, and Chubb didn’t pretend otherwise. Heavy treasury doors of ten to twenty tons still needed the hardening furnaces of the English factories, and armour plate and special steels were imported.42 In 1923 Chubb registered an Australian trade mark for locks and safes: a fish with the words “Chubb, Australia” across it.43 A plate or badge with that wording points to the local works.
How to identify and date an old safe in Australia
Very few Australian makers left records you can look a serial number up in, so dating’s mostly a matter of reading the door. Our guide to dating an old safe covers the general method. These clues are specific to Australia.
Clue 1
Maker or agent?
A Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne name may be the importer. Webster and Co. sold Milner, King, Cribb and King sold Tann’s Defiance, and Hoffnung sold Ajax.6,9,35
Addresses help where they appear, on a plate, a dealer’s label or an old invoice kept inside the safe:
| Name and address | Recorded |
|---|---|
| A. Simpson & Son, Gawler Place, Adelaide | From 1864; head office there in 191713 |
| Ehret & Makutz, 22 Lonsdale Street West, Melbourne | 188322 |
| Makutz and Barke, Bourke Street West, Melbourne | 1886–188724 |
| Makutz and Barke, 346 Little Collins Street, Melbourne | 189129 |
| Makutz and Barke, Reliable Safe Works, Clarke Street North, City Road, South Melbourne | 189328 |
| B. Makutz, Murray Street, Perth | 1922–192731,32 |
| Ajax Safe Co., Alma Street, Darlington, Sydney | 1913–191935,33 |
| Chubb’s Australian Co. Ltd, Clarence Street, Sydney | 189737 |
| Chubb’s Australian Co. works, Short and Elizabeth Streets, Waterloo, Sydney | From 192142 |
The lock is a clue too. Simpson’s doors of 1866 used Chubb’s locks, Ajax fitted six-lever locks with duplicate keys, and Makutz and Barke had their own multiple-bolt lock worked by one key.15,33,28 A Chubb lock on its own doesn’t make a safe a Chubb.
Myths and mix-ups
An Australian name on the plate means the safe was made in Australia.
Often it’s the agent. Milner, Tann’s Defiance and Chubb all sold through local firms, and Chubb’s Australian Company sold English-made safes for over twenty years before its own works opened.6,8,42
Simpson’s tested safe went to the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition “the following year”.
The fire trial was in September 1866. The following year Simpson showed a fireproof safe at the Agricultural and Horticultural Society’s exhibition of November 1867. The Jubilee International Exhibition was twenty years later, in 1887.17,19
What is an old safe worth in Australia?
The honest answer hasn’t changed much in a century. In 1929 a reader in East Brisbane asked the Brisbane Courier what his Tann safe was worth. The paper replied that a Tann “usually realises a good price”, that cheaper safes were now on the market, and that without seeing it the safe “might be worth anything from £10 to £40”.44 Condition, size and who’s buying still decide the price.
As an informal guide, not an appraisal: a working lock with its key or combination, the original paint and plate, and a name collectors recognise (Simpson, Makutz, Ajax, Milner, an early Chubb) all help. Rust, missing keys, repainting and a door you can’t open all hurt, and in a heavy safe the cost of moving it can be more than the safe is worth. Our guide are old safes worth anything? goes through real prices and where to sell.
I have an old safe in Australia: what now?
Weight
How heavy is it?
It’s heavier than it looks. Ajax’s biggest safe weighed 2¼ tons, about 5,000 lb (2.3 tonnes).33 Measure yours and try our safe weight calculator before anyone touches it.
Opening
No key or combination?
There’s no master key or factory code for these makers. Call a qualified locksmith or safe technician; see locked out of an old safe for what to expect.
Moving
Safe movers
Use a specialist safe removalist in Adelaide, Melbourne or wherever you are, and tell them the size, stairs and floor. Our guide covers how to move or get rid of an old safe.
Before you drill or cut
Treat the walls of any old fire safe as possibly containing asbestos. Makutz and Barke’s 1887 safe for Briscoe and Co. was described as having “asbestos packing”, while Simpson and Ajax only said “non-conducting material” and “steam-generating composition”.25,17,33 Asbestos was banned completely in Australia from 31 December 2003.45 Read do old safes contain asbestos? first.
Not sure what you’ve got? Send us photos of the door, the plate and any name, number or address, with the outside height, width and depth, and we’ll help you work out who made it and roughly when.
Frequently asked questions
Who made Ajax safes?
The Ajax Safe Co. of Alma Street, Darlington, Sydney, which said it was established in 1890. In 1913 S. Hoffnung & Co. of Pitt Street were its sole agents. Its closing date isn’t known.
How old is my Simpson safe?
A. Simpson & Son of Adelaide made safes from 1866, and they were in use for about fifty years after that. There’s no published serial list, so the plate wording, the lock and the construction are the best guide.
Was my Makutz safe made in Melbourne or Perth?
“Ehret & Makutz” or “Makutz and Barke” means Melbourne, roughly 1883 to 1893. “B. Makutz” on its own points to Perth, from the mid-1890s, including the years after 1923 when his sons ran the firm.
Is my Chubb safe Australian or English?
Before 1921 almost certainly English, even with a Chubb’s Australian Co. plate. From 1921 Chubb also made safes at Waterloo in Sydney, though heavy treasury doors still came from England.
What is an old safe worth in Australia?
It depends on the maker, size, condition and whether it opens. Small, working safes by a known name sell best; large, locked ones can cost more to move than they fetch. This is an informal guide, not a valuation.
Sources:
- Classified advertisements (“Milners’ safes, large assortment on hand”, and “Wanted, a good secondhand fireproof safe, by Milner or Price”), The Argus (Melbourne), 28 November 1865, p. 1, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Milner’s Fireproof Safes. The undersigned have always a stock of these on hand”, South Australian Register, 9 August 1867, p. 1, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Imports. June 12” (32 Milner’s fireproof safes ex Revenue), Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 1884, p. 10, via Trove. ↩︎
- Museums Victoria, “Plaque – ‘Holdfast Safe’, Brass, Milner Safe Co.”, from the Flinders Street Stationmaster’s safe. ↩︎
- Museums Victoria, “Plaque – ‘Milners’ 212 Patent Fire-Resisting’, Brass, Milner Safe Co., circa 1857”. ↩︎
- “Milners’ Safes”, The Brisbane Courier, 24 August 1904, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Shipping Intelligence. Arrival” (12 cases Tann’s Reliance safes), The Telegraph (Brisbane), 26 April 1877, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Shipping” (36 cases Tanns’ Defiance safes, sole agents J. Herman and Co.), The Australian Star (Sydney), 29 October 1890, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Personal”, The Brisbane Courier, 12 September 1903, p. 5, via Trove. ↩︎
- D. G. Moncur, “Thomas Skidmore and Sons, Wolverhampton” (blog, 21 April 2022), plate on a safe in a Beechworth pharmacy. ↩︎
- Grace’s Guide, “Thomas Skidmore and Son”. ↩︎
- National Portrait Gallery (Australia), “Alfred Simpson”. ↩︎
- Wikipedia, “Alfred M. Simpson” (citing Today Not Tomorrow: A Century of Progress, A. Simpson & Son Ltd, 1954, and The Chronicle, 19 September 1908, p. 8). ↩︎
- SA History Hub, “A. Simpson & Son”, after the firm’s centenary history Today Not Tomorrow (1954). ↩︎
- News paragraph on Mr. Simpson’s fireproof doors, South Australian Register (Adelaide), 9 July 1866, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- News paragraph on the trial of A. Simpson & Son’s fireproof safe, South Australian Register (Adelaide), 21 September 1866, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Topics of the Week”, South Australian Weekly Chronicle (Adelaide), 22 September 1866, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Talk on the Flags”, South Australian Register (Adelaide), 24 September 1866, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- “South Australian Agricultural and Horticultural Society’s Exhibition”, Sydney Mail, 23 November 1867, p. 11, via Trove. ↩︎
- “B. Makutz Passes”, The Daily News (Perth), 10 August 1923, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Peeps at People”, Sunday Times (Perth), 19 August 1923, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- Classified advertisement, “Fireproof Safes … Ehret & Makutz, 22 Lonsdale-street west”, The Age (Melbourne), 20 April 1883, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Ehret & Makutz, Fireproof-Safe and Strongroom-Doors Manufacturers, Melbourne”, Courthope & Co., agents, The Daily News (Perth), 8 August 1884, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- Classified advertisement, “Fireproof Safes and Strongroom Doors, manufactured by Makutz and Barke … Bourke-street west”, The Argus (Melbourne), 1 June 1886, p. 3, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Unique Fire-proof Safe” (from the Melbourne Argus), Goulburn Herald, 2 July 1887, p. 3, via Trove. ↩︎
- “New Patents”, The Age (Melbourne), 20 April 1888, p. 6, via Trove. ↩︎
- “The Exhibition: the Centennial International Exhibition. Awards. Cutlery, hardware, ironmongery, &c.”, The Australasian (Melbourne), 2 March 1889, p. 41, via Trove. ↩︎
- Museums Victoria, “Letter – Makutz & Barke, Reliable Safe Works, 1 May 1893”, with the firm’s pamphlet. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Makutz & Barke, Fire Proof Safe and Locks … First Order Merit C.I.E.M., 346 Little Collins-st.”, Oakleigh Leader, 1 August 1891, p. 1, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Shipping. Port of Fremantle. Arrived”, The Daily News (Perth), 19 March 1894, p. 2, via Trove; “Cue”, Victorian Express (Geraldton), 29 June 1894, p. 3, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “B. Makutz. Established over 30 years … Murray-street”, The West Australian, 25 December 1922, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Safes, Fire-proof Safes and Strong-room Doors … B. Makutz (E. Makutz and R. Makutz), Murray-st.”, Westralian Worker (Perth), 4 February 1927, p. 8, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Ajax Safes”, Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney), 6 August 1919, p. 11, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Municipal Council”, Manilla Express, 21 October 1903, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Ajax Safe Co. Fire, Fall, and Thief-resisting Safes, Doors & Grilles. Alma Street, Darlington. Sole Agents: S. Hoffnung & Co., Ltd.”, Construction (Sydney), 7 April 1913, p. 2, via Trove. ↩︎
- The Chubb Archive, “Office locations and more recent history”. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Burglary at the Home Rule Tobacco Company … Chubb’s Australian Company, Limited, Sydney, Sole Agents for Australasia”, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August 1897, p. 4, via Trove. ↩︎
- “At the Exhibition”, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 2 July 1897, p. 3, via Trove. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Another testimonial for Chubb’s safes” (J. Shenton Gordon, 370 Flinders-street, Melbourne, sole agents in Victoria for Chubb’s Australian Company), Kalgoorlie Miner, 11 January 1898, p. 3, via Trove. ↩︎
- AIM25 / The London Archives, “Chubb and Son Ltd”. ↩︎
- “A New Industry. Chubb and Sons’ Australian Works”, The Brisbane Courier, 1 December 1920, p. 8, via Trove. ↩︎
- “More British Capital. Lock and Safe Manufacturing”, Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney), 2 March 1921, p. 10, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Trade Mark Applications”, Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney), 8 August 1923, p. 19, via Trove. ↩︎
- “Answers”, The Brisbane Courier, 27 March 1929, p. 16, via Trove. ↩︎
- NSW Government, “When was asbestos banned in Australia?”, asbestos.nsw.gov.au. ↩︎
