Peter Johns

[1] He emigrated as a steerage passenger to Australia on the clipper Champion of the Seas,[2] arriving after a 87-day journey in Melbourne in June 1856.

[3] He set up a blacksmith's workshop in Flinders Lane,[4] where he fabricated straightforward iron components such as posts for houses and bridges, as well as undertaking a range of construction jobs.

With Pearce as an assistant, they greatly expanded their capabilities and specialised in fabricating hydraulic lifts, which were increasingly being installed in multi-storey buildings.

[5][6] In 1892 they formed a consortium as Johns & Waygood to supply and install passenger and goods lifts to the new Metropolitan Gas Company building.

[17] Johns married Charlotte Eliza Barrett (ca.1831 – 29 August 1918)[citation needed] in 1856, three months after arriving in Melbourne,[2] and lived in Lygon Street before purchasing a home in Hawthorn.