Their sole machine tool, when they commenced business, was a small slide rest lathe turned by foot In about 1865 they moved to the south side of the river, to the Yarra bank near the Spencer Street Bridge, (now occupied by the Robur Tea building), and then in about 1886 they moved to Grant Street, South Melbourne, (later occupied by a subsidiary of the British steel firm Dorman Long.
By the time of his retirement (shortly before his death), the foundry was one of the largest employers in the Victoria and was responsible for casting the first bell and lamp-posts in the colony.
It also cast the boiler of the first train to run in Australia on the Hobson's Bay Railway and successfully launched the first iron vessel, a river tug 109 feet (33 m) in length.
The company's products including stamper batteries and ore crushing mills, were distributed over Australasia from Charters Towers to the Thames goldfields of New Zealand.
Major facilities included a Bessemer converter (1887) to produce steel and a cast-iron pipe-making shop which produced water, sewerage and hydraulic pipes, and structural columns, including those for Princes Bridge.
[8] The firm also exported equipment and technology, such as its fitting out of the Nelson City Gas Works New Zealand.