The company was initially formed in 1878 as Hughes, Pye & Rigby manufacturing mining plant, steam engines, elevators, wool & other hydraulic presses.
[6] With the development of multi-storeyed iron and steel framed buildings during the skyscraper boom in the 1880s, there was created a demand for fast and reliable passenger lifts such as those of the Otis Elevator Company in the US and Richard Waygood & Co of Britain.
The company also made steam engines for the Melbourne cable tramway system, for gold mines and sluicing plant, and the Ballarat Woollen Mills.
While these were based largely on the successful Hathorn Davey design, Austral Otis was able to demonstrate its substantial expertise in steam engineering.
[12] The Queenscliff lifeboat shed included a slipway with roller, channel, keelway and cradle supplied by the Austral Otis Engineering Co.[13] An unusual piece of large machinery constructed by the Austral Otis company was Big Lizzie, built for the Mount Gunson copper mine around 1912 when they needed a super heavy truck to handle swamps and to ford small rivers.
[17] The Food Machinery & Chemical Corporation of USA acquired a controlling interest in the business on 30 July 1948 and Austral Otis became a subsidiary of the American company.
[20] A two-storey brick building originally constructed in 1888 as the headquarters for Austral Otis Elevator and Engineering Company Limited survives at the corner of Kavanagh Street and Kingsway, Southbank, Melbourne.