Our History

1962

Cliff McMaster commenced work in his garage making S/S exhaust manifolds as a hobby.

1964

Cliff & Margaret McMaster, at the age of 31, obtained a loan, purchased some machinery and formed a partnership – C & M McMaster.
Sardik Engineering & James Boyle plumbing being their first customers.
Moved to a dirt floored factory in Buffalo Rd, Gladesville.

1965

Moved to a factory in Devlin St, Ryde.
Making S/S sinks, drainers, special electrical cabinets as well as doing general sheetmetal jobbing work.

1966

30th November – Registered C & M McMaster Pty Ltd.

1970

Property at 72 Mandoon Rd, Girraween was purchased.
Aerolux Engineering became a major client in dust collector and rotary valve manufacture.

1976

Registered C-Mac Sheetmetal.

1978

Son Terry commenced work in office.

1979

Westacot Engineering at Rydalmere was purchased to enable manufacture of rotary valves.
Son Robert commenced employment.
Registered C-Mac Engineering in April.
Parramatta Tank Works was purchased at St Marys and modern manufacturing techniques were introduced.

1981

Registered C-Mac Industries (Aust) Pty Ltd.

1986

Parramatta Tank Works was relocated to the rear of 72 Mandoon Rd, Girraween.
Money from sale of St Marys land was used to purchase a C.N.C. Plasma Cutter.
Son Graham commenced working in the Sheetmetal shop.

1988

Obtained licence to manufacture T.S.A. Modular Liner Tanks – from Western Australia
Licence expired in 1993.
After several floods at Rydalmere, the property at 74 Mandoon Rd was purchased and Engineering was relocated next door to the Sheetmetal.
Son Kendall was engaged as accountant.

1989

October – purchased Lynfast Engineering.

1991

Lynfast Engineering was relocated to the rear of 74 Mandoon Rd.

1992

August – Terry had a fatal motor vehicle accident.
September – Daughter-in-law joined the company.
November – Graham left the company.
December – Cliff retired (What an upheval) and son Robert became General Manager. (Robert swept the dirt floor for pocket money in 1964).

1993

June – Margaret (Cliff's wife) retired.
September – consultants engaged for a company review and diagnostic.

1994

Registered C-Mac Engineering and Gearcutting combining Lynfast Engineering and C-Mac Engineering.

1995

Graham returned as P.T.W. Manager and the Company was restructured.
New computer system installed including bar-coded tracking of jobs.

1996

Celebrated 30 yrs in business.

1997

Quality Assurance Certification to AS/NZS ISO 9002.

1998

Website established.
Nursery Division set-up.
First salesman employed.
Rehabilitation procedures introduced.
Participated in the Western Sydney Metals Network.
Y2000, GST and the Olympics for a distraction.

2000

Undergraduate Uni Student employed for Market and R&D work with Nursery Products.
5year SES contract won for bagging machines.

2001

Moved into upstairs office extensions (plans drawn in 1986).
Marketing consultant engaged.
Daughter-in-law Suzanne joined the business.
CAD introduced & decision to upgrade Arrow and SMP software made.

2002

Focused on nursery equipment and Grants for R & D obtained.
Staff changes managers & bookeeper retiring.
OH & S cultural changes. Toolbox meetings & risk accessments.

2003

Office in Northern NSW established.

2005

Parramatta Tank Works sold to the Water Tank Team.

2006

After running the Tankworks for ten years, Graham McMaster left the business and moved to Queensland.
New computer server and 3D software was installed and Qualified Engineer employed (first person to have a degree at C-Mac).

2007

Senior staff reduced and management structure changed due to financial difficulties.
Extensive renovation to staff facilities with meal rooms, kitchens and change rooms updated.

2008

New MRP software, M1 introduced.
Purchased business A.D. Spring and started manufacturing nursery benches.

3rd August – Director and Founder of C-Mac Industries, Mr Cliff McMaster, passed away.

2010

Maintenance Service Division setup specializing in IOT equipment.

2011

Employee Share Buyout of family business commenced.
New website design and SEO implemented

2012

Lean Manufacturing Training and implementation
First ever Marketing person employed
Advisory Board set-up

2013

April - New Vision and Strategic Plan developed by staff
August - Staff Committee established
Inbound Marketing implemented with Hubspot software

2014

April - Aquistion of Accord Corporation from Terry Paterson and renamed "Accord Acoustics"

2015

March - Aquistion of Anderson Engineering who made the "Comet Potting Machine"

2016

November - 50 year celebrations - Family fun day at C-Mac

2017

April - Formation Meeting for C-Mac Industries (Aust) Co-operative Ltd. Decision to proceed.
May - company becomes totally debt free
July - Succession Plan implemented and C-Mac Industries (Aust) Co-operative operational with new ABN and structure with new Directors on the Board. The first "workers co-op" in Australia for 2 years
General Assembly, Board with external directors (2), Management Team, Staff Council structure implemented.
July - Sale Contract to Co-op and lease signed. C-Mac now 100% owned by 30 employees
Steve Grlyak became the new General Manager (20 yrs prior foreman of engineering workshop)
Robert McMaster (former GM and only family member) - semi-retires remaining as 1 of 5 Directors and working 1 day a week as a member of the co-operative.

2020 May - See news announcement here

C-Mac Industries (Aust) Co-operative Ltd accquired by new owner Matt and Jake and turn into a family run business.
C-Mac Industries is no longer an employee cooperative, changed company name to C-Mac Industries Pty Ltd
The new management plan is to expand while exceeding your previous customer service expectations
Our commitment to our new partnership with you through C-Mac Industries is to ensure you get what you ordered on time and fit-for-purpose. We are proudly Australian made, owned and look forward to developing new innovative solutions for your needs.

*[Owner]* An industrial laundry system service company needed repairs and redesign done to their tooling. C-Mac made changes to the tooling to make access and ease of use to decrease service down times.

*[Service Manager]* An industrial fan service company had a failure of a major shopping centre air conditioning fan/ blower. C-Mac repaired the unit within a 24hr turn around for minimum downtime.

*[Owner/Manager]* A major food manufacturer specializing in tomato sauce had a filling machine breakdown. The machine was brought to C-Mac and repaired in 24hrs for minimum downtime of the production line costing $5,000 per hour.

*[RAAF - Warrant Officer]* Airfield support staff required a portable sandbagging frame and requested a design, prototype and trials at no cost. There was nothing suitable on the market i.e. made in Australia. "Sandbagging Frames":materials-handling/1-bagging-equipment#silt-bagging-frame are now on the national procurement data base and some probably overseas at different war zones.

*[Mechanical Design Engineer]* An automotive transmission design customer needed help with designing an automatic transmission gear prototype. We suggested and engineered a more cost effective and practical way for the mass production stage.

*[Nursery Manager]* At an exhibition saw our self tracking nursery trailers and indicated he had a costly issue transporting large (heavy) pots containing advanced trees. Existing method was a bobcat. C-Mac designed and quoted for the manufacture of a Self Tracking “Low Loader”. His comment on the first day of using "Low Loader trailer":nursery-equipment/7-trailers/#low-loader-self-tracking-trailer “Can now move 100 litre pots with trees, 150 metres in 1 hr and not get a sore back”.

*[Purchasing Officer]* A mining design and machining company needed help with machining components urgently as they were too busy to keep up with the demand. C-Mac machined the components so the deadline could be met.

*[General Manager]* Customer had to submit a proposal and compete against other countries for the manufacturing facility. C-Mac submitted drawings to show there was space in existing plant to install the new process and to comply with all Australian OH&S Standards. Working together with customer to submit proposal to the Head Office overseas WON the contract. Project was a success meeting 6month lead time and budget.

*[Nursery Owner]* Needed a specific Potting & Mixing machine. for his yuccas nursery, but the problem was it was no longer manufactured. From his description and specifications our engineers designed and modelled in 3D software his requirements. "Potting Machine":nursery-equipment/3-potting-machines/ was manufactured and fully tested with potting media in our workshop, video was then sent to customer who was very pleased with the results. Machine disassembled and freighted interstate and installed.

*[Maintenance Engineer]* An industrial hydraulic fitting manufacturer had problems with gear and shaft breakages with their machinery. They also had problems repairing and maintaining. C-Mac offered to repair and maintain their machinery on-site instead of having to permanently employ fitters.