The Start

The Start

In 1939 Engineer - Inventor A.C. (Carlyle) Day met Import-merchant F.E. (Frank) Wright to ask him to form a company to exploit his new machine which produced 360 bobby pins per minute against the worlds best of 120 per minute. Bobby Pins Pty Ltd was formed in February 1940 and 2 machines produced the pins at 5 Mary Street, Surry Hills until 1965 where we were unable to make plastic tipped pins and production ceased.

The War Years

In 1940 we were allotted the wartime duty to manufacture Bowden Cables by the Dept of Aircraft Production and Ministry of Munitions.

We built our own cable stranding machines & conduit coilers. There was no plastic sheathing then and our cotton braiders of American make were appropriated from Ireland while we built our own in-line lacquering plant.

We are indeed proud of letters of thanks for our help in the manufacture of Mosquito and Beaufort aircraft.

Letters received. Please click image.

Samples of cables supplied

In 1942 we changed our name to Consolidated Wire Pty Ltd supplying bulk reels of cable and conduit.
After the war we started to assemble motorcycle and bicycle cables. In 1948 Warren Wright (Franks' son) joined the company.

An avid motorcycle enthusiast, Warren initiated the manufacture of complete pre-lubricated cables for every function. We gave spare cables to all competitors in the first Redex Trial in 1953.

From 1950 we started supplying cables for the Morris Minor & Oxford models. When local production started in 1957 we supplied the accelerator and handbrake cables for the Morris Major & Austin Lancer.

In September 1953 we purchased an "old house & land" at Arncliffe N.S.W. where we installed our first Plastic Extruder in the ramshackle building. We perservered till a new factory was built and became operational in January 1963.

Lawnmowers were never a significant market until Merv Richardson invented the rotary mower in 1952.We were associated with him from the start and are still a "Proud Australian"