About us
About Macquarie Joinery
Macquarie Joinery Pty Ltd was established in 1979 by business partners Graham Austin and Bob Rowe. Graham had previously been with The Western Timber Company from the start of his apprenticeship in about 1949-1950. The Western Timber Mill was established in Petersham in the 1920s. In the 1930s the mill was relocated to Dulwich Hill. “The Western Timber Mill was purchase by the Department of School Education and demolished (in the 1970s) for Dulwich Hill Public School, which opened in 1979. It was the first new school to be established in the inner city for a decade.” (State Library, NSW. Dictionary of Sydney. Dulwich Hill by Chris Meader, 2008.)
The Western Timber Company procured and developed 53-55 Governor Macquarie Drive at some stage prior to 1979. The site at Chipping Norton now known as “The Old Mill” was then developed as a building with three levels. On the ground floor, logs brought down from Northern NSW were milled and stripped out to dry, and on the two levels above joinery and cabinetry and furniture making was undertaken. A number of stiffleg derricks were located externally on the building landings and vertical material transport was made possible this way.
When Austin and Rowe established the joinery for the purpose of manufacturing timber windows and doors, they did so with the machines they retained from The Western Timber Company, and still we have the odd saw engraved “Western Timber”. Some of our oldest and still working machines date back to the 1940’s.
Sam Wayland needed a replica window manufactured for a small residential alteration project in late 2004 and approached Macquarie Joinery then for that purpose. After a lengthy conversation with Graham Austin, Graham said, “Listen I’m thinking of selling my business. You might be interested.” On 1 July 2005 Graham and Bob handed over the reins to Sam.
We are proud to be part of a continuing industrial history spanning a century in Sydney.
Our focus is on manufacturing to the highest standard we can achieve regardless of the design or period of the window or door. For buildings of noted historical importance we will undertake heritage repair work, but for all other buildings we offer only manufacturing new.
We allow to take site measurements once we are awarded an order, and we will deliver the finished products ourselves within the Sydney basin and south to Wollongong, west to The Blue Mountains, and north to the Central Coast.
Not all timbers are created equal, and some are less suited to joinery than others. Regardless of that, we are confined to what is commercially available and that which will satisfy PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) www.pefc.org
Rough sawn stock
Primarily our choice of timber focuses on the timber’s stability.
We start with rough sawn dry timber, select out all visible defects, we straighten them, we dress them, we give them profiles and rebates and tenons and mortices. Then we assemble sashes, doors, doorframes, and window frames, and we glaze them, and fit operational hardware.
The timbers we use, include:
- Western Red Cedar
- Merbau
- Tasmanian Oak and Victorian Ash
- New Guinea Rosewood
- American White Oak
- Meranti (South Pacific Maple)
- European Beech
- Accoya
- Clear finger jointed pine (Internal use only)
We also use marine grade plywood, and concealed chipboard when appropriate.
The timbers we don’t use include:
- Ironbark, Blackbutt & Spotted Gum
- CCA treated pine,
- Pre-primed timbers, recycled timbers and medium density fibreboard.
Compliance, and Australian Standards.
Our manufacturing minimum standards comply with the provisions of the following Australian Standards.
AS1288-2021 Glass in buildings – Selection and installation
AS1428.1-2021 Design for access and mobility, Part1: General requirements for access
AS2047-2014 Windows and external glazed doors in buildings
AS4055-2021 Wind loads for housing
AS5604-2022 Timber – Natural durability ratings
AS3959-2018 Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas
