Clifton and Aplin

Clifton had previously been the Bowen representative for the Australasian Steam Navigation Company.

[2] William Aplin had been the Bowen representative for the merchant business, Seaward, Marsh & Co.[3] They purchased a block of land at the corner of Flinders and Denham Streets, conveniently close to the Ross Creek wharves, but their building was destroyed in a cyclone in 1866.

By 1880 Aplin Brown one of the leading merchants firms in Townsville, servicing both the pastoral industry and the extensive gold mining centres of the inland.

W. Aplin is about to embark upon pastoral pursuits, having retired from the firm of which he was the popular chief."

They established branches at Burketown and Port Darwin and in 1887 Aplin and Brown commissioned Rooney Brothers to design a new head office for the company, now the heritage-listed Aplin Brown & Company Building.