Corporate entry: Goldsbrough Mort and Company Limited (1853 - 1963)
- From
- 1853
- To
- 1963
Summary
Records 1853-1963. An Australian wool-broking agency and pastoral company, originally established in Melbourne in 1848 by Richard Goldsbrough. In 1881, following an amalgamation with the Australian Agency and Banking Corporation Limited, it became a limited company under the title R. Goldsbrough & Co. Ltd. The purchase in 1888 of the Sydney firm Mort & Co. Ltd founded by Thomas Mort in 1843, led to a change of name to Goldsbrough Mort & Co. Ltd, as it remained, despite changes in the firm's financial structure and the acquisition of other businesses, until the merger with Elder Smith & Co. Ltd, in 1962. During its history the company has held extensive business interests throughout Australia, with particular emphasis in the pastoral area. Records are of the company's head office in Melbourne and of the London, Adelaide and Perth offices; there are eight deposits comprising 1,718 linear feet and four reels of microfilm. The following is a general description of deposit two, one of the principal collections of head office records, which gives an indication of the nature of material held.
Head Office 1855-1955. Records fall into two main categories:
1. records of the business proper.
2. records of various station properties with which it was concerned.
The first section comprises minutes of board meetings, board papers, correspondence, account books, papers relating to company shares, legal papers, branch letters and newspaper extracts. Section two includes correspondence, returns, station and farm reports (see below), account books, clients' documents, papers relating to land matters and maps. A small sub-group contains papers relating to property owned by the company in the Northern Territory, from which a live-cattle business operated, between Darwin, Batavia (Djakarta) and Singapore, during the 1880s and 1890s. Reports of farms and stations relating to properties of particular interest here, include the following: Artesian Downs, Aldingham, Arralla, Bendigo Park, Balmoral, Bude, Blendon, Clarafield, Cressey, Crewkerne, Devonshire, Dundee, Eden Downs, Glendower, Lucindale, Lubrook, Lorraine, Maydo, Mernoo, Moselle, Mountain View, Mount Devlin, Newlands, North Oakvale, Nottingham Downs, Oorindi Park, Parkdale, Roscraven, Strath T, Sumana, Tweedsmuir, Uanda, Vellum Downs, Vindex resumption, Vuna, Winslade, Withywine, Wongalee, Wyaldra. 1930-1944. A.B.L. 2. A.B.L. total company deposits: 2, 2A, 2B, 88, 98, 106, Microfilm M. 25, M39.