Meadowbank Manufacturing Company

Mellor Brothers, a South Australian firm, established factories in Sydney (Meadowbank Manufacturing Co) and Melbourne (Braybrook Implement Co) in 1890 to manufacture agricultural equipment. Braybrook was taken over by Hugh Victor McKay in the early 1900s and that site became the Sunshine Harvester Works.

The company purchased the 95 acre Isaac Shepherd "Helenie" estate on the Parramatta River adjacent to Meadowbank station. This property had plenty of timber, building stone and sand to construct the factory buildings, with enough left to sell to offset costs.

Original products included the manufacture of stump-jump implements, strippers, windmills, pumps, horse-rakes, wheat separators, ploughs, harrows, scarifiers and other agricultural and general implements. The firm later produced tramcars and railway rolling stock, assembled Ford Model Ts, and manufactured a range of stationary engines.

Land at Meadowbank adjacent to the Main North line was cleared, a railway siding built and a tram road made to the wharf. The house built by the manager, originally called Bartonville (now The Laurels) survives. This industry resulted in a growing number of houses occupied by company employees.

The Meadowbank Manufacturing Company was closed due to the Great Depression. In 1929, there were large lay-offs of men and, by September 1930, the company had closed. Ryde Council acquired the land for a planned sandstone quarry but the State Government took it over and built Meadowbank TAFE, and the balance was subdivided for housing.