Mephan Ferguson

Around 1874 Ferguson established a business in Melbourne as an iron foundry and rail construction contractor.

After successfully building a bridge over the Yarra River he was awarded many other government contracts.

His company built twenty bridges along the north-eastern railway and another eight for the Clifton Hill line.

To enable this expansion he bought the Glasgow Iron works in West Melbourne.

To manufacture the pipe, Ferguson imported sheet steel from England[contradictory] and the United States then rolled these into the sections at foundries in Midland Junction and another he built in Maylands.