Olds Mechanical Engineers and Founders - Innovative Engineering Excellence

OLDS ENGINEERING     Mechanical Engineers & Founders

"Grandfather Reid's Plough Seat"
Bar Stool made by Olds Engineering

Plough Seat Bar StoolPioneer farmer William Reid took up land on the Calliope River, where he raised his family. Two Sons, James (Jim) and Malcolm (Mack) settled in Maryborough.

James, affectionately known as "Skin", became the well-known science master at the Boys Grammar School and later the Maryborough State High School for Boys.

Mack, while serving as an ambulance driver attached to the Maryborough Hospital, married Alys Semple, a nurse working at the Hospital. They had one son and four daughters.

Don, the family's only boy, was born in Maryborough in 1934. He began his working career as a telegram delivery boy with the PMG and retired as the Manager of Operations North Queensland Region of Australia Post.

When Mack returned to the Calliope River Property he found that his father's old horse drawn plough had been smashed by a bulldozer driven by a private operator working on the site.
Miraculously, the cast iron seat had survived without damage and was preserved to be finally handed down to Don, who brought it to Maryborough when he retired with his wife Dawn to the place of his birth.

The Reid and Olds families have enjoyed a friendship which has lasted through generations. Grandfather Reid's nostalgic plough seat was enthusiastically offered to Olds Engineering by Don when a search was being made for a suitable design to add to their range of heritage products. Using the old cast iron seat as a pattern, an exact replica was cast in sand as a master pattern.

This master pattern is currently used for production purposes in the Maryborough foundry.

Wm. Olds & Sons Pty. Ltd. trading as OLDS ENGINEERING
ABN 33 009 859 250 - MECHANICAL ENGINEERING & FOUNDRY
78-80 North Street, Maryborough Q, 4650 Australia
P.O. Box 3030, Pallas St. Post Office, Maryborough Q, 4650
Phone: 07 4121 3649 Fax: 07 4123 3590 International Phone +61 7 4121 3649 Fax: +61 7 4123 3590

Innovative Engineering Excellence ~ serving over 100 years