When you visit Kitten Vintage Mackay, you’re doing more than browsing vintage treasures—you’re stepping inside a remarkable piece of Queensland’s industrial history.
Long before these rooms were filled with china, furniture, books and collectables, they echoed with the sounds of steam hammers, welding torches, overhead cranes and skilled tradesmen building some of Australia’s finest engineering projects.
Our building was once part of Walkers Limited, one of Australia’s most influential engineering companies. In fact our little shed at the front of the complex was the engineering and design building as well as the pay office. Yes we have a safe or two!
Its story begins more than 160 years ago.
From the Gold Rush to Queensland
The story of Walkers begins in 1863, when John Walker and three associates established the Union Foundry in Ballarat, Victoria, to supply equipment to the booming goldfields.
Only a few years later, another opportunity emerged hundreds of kilometres to the north.Queensland’s gold discoveries at Gympie and the rapid expansion of the sugar industry created an enormous demand for engineering expertise. In 1867, John Walker established a foundry in Maryborough to service these growing industries.
Business flourished. By 1888 the company had become Walkers Limited, a name that would become synonymous with Queensland engineering for more than a century.
Building Queensland’s Sugar Industry
Walkers didn’t simply manufacture machinery—they helped build an entire industry.
The company supplied:
- complete sugar mills
- boilers
- steam engines
- crushing machinery
- clarifiers
- locomotives
- railway equipment
- steel structures
Many of Queensland’s famous sugar districts relied on Walkers equipment, including:
- Marian
- Proserpine
- Plane Creek
- Gin Gin
- Bauple
- Maryborough
Walkers engineers continually improved sugar milling technology, helping Queensland become one of the world’s great sugar-producing regions.
It has even been said that there wasn’t a sugar mill in Australia, Fiji or Natal, South Africa, that didn’t use Walkers machinery in some form.
Engine room of a sugar mill Queensland 1895
Locomotives That Helped Build Australia
Although famous for sugar machinery, Walkers also became one of Australia’s greatest locomotive builders.
Their first locomotive, Mary Ann, was built to haul timber from the Gympie district.
Over almost one hundred years, Walkers constructed more than 700 locomotives, including:
- 587 steam locomotives
- 12 diesel-electric locomotives
- 132 diesel-hydraulic locomotives
Their locomotives worked throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, carrying passengers, freight and sugar cane across the country.
Generations of Queenslanders travelled behind locomotives built by Walkers.
Ships, Barges and Wartime Service
Walkers also became an important shipbuilder.
Beginning in the 1880s, they built dredges and barges for Queensland’s rivers and harbours before expanding into much larger vessels.
During the Second World War, Walkers built ships for the Royal Australian Navy, including frigates, corvettes and other military vessels that served Australia during one of the nation’s most challenging periods.
In total, the company built 52 ships over four major periods of shipbuilding.
Photo from Wikipedia
The Cameron Foundry
While Walkers was growing in Maryborough, Mackay already had its own respected engineering works.
Scottish immigrant George Cameron established the Cameron Foundry after arriving in Queensland during the late nineteenth century.
Operating from Peel Street, opposite the Austral Hotel, Cameron’s foundry became an important part of Mackay’s growing sugar industry.
The foundry manufactured machinery, repaired equipment and later supported Australia’s war effort during both World Wars.
For decades it played a vital role in the development of Mackay.
Why Walkers Came to Mackay
By the late 1940s, Mackay’s sugar industry was expanding rapidly.
Rather than simply transporting machinery from Maryborough, Walkers decided to establish a permanent engineering base in Mackay.
In 1949, Walkers acquired the Cameron Foundry and developed a new workshop complex on Harbour Road.
Construction began on the enormous engineering sheds whose steel frames still dominate the skyline today.
These buildings were designed for heavy engineering on an industrial scale, with soaring roof trusses, overhead cranes and wide workshop floors capable of assembling massive pieces of machinery.
Those are the same buildings visitors see today.
Inside the Workshops
Imagine standing at Walkers in the early 1950s.
Instead of vintage furniture, our building would have been filled with drawing boards and engineers, and in the shed that houses a mechanic the floors would have been lined with steel plate, castings, boilers and locomotive components.
The air would have been filled with the sound of riveting, welding, grinding and machining. There was even a whistle to start and stop shifts that could be heard for miles.
Tradesmen, apprentices, boilermakers, fitters, machinists and patternmakers worked together to produce equipment that would travel throughout Queensland and beyond.
Thousands of tonnes of steel passed through these workshops over the next three decades.
A New Chapter
In 1980, Walkers Limited became part of Evans Deakin Industries.
Although engineering work continued for several years, the Mackay foundry eventually closed in 1985, marking the end of an important chapter in the city’s industrial history.
The Maryborough works continued under later ownership and today remain part of Queensland’s railway manufacturing industry through Downer Rail.
Fortunately, the Mackay workshops survived, although the central shed was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it in 2014.
In November 2016, the little front shed began a new life when Kitten Vintage opened its doors.
The very building that once supported the foundry now welcomes visitors from across Queensland.
Within these walls were the engineering offices, where plans and technical drawings were prepared, and the pay office, where generations of Walkers employees collected their wages. The front section also supported the daily operation of the workshops beyond.
Today, those same spaces are filled with vintage furniture, books, china, artwork and collectables—preserving history in a different way.
Then and Now
The photographs throughout this article capture an extraordinary transformation.
This image shows the Harbour Road workshops under construction in the late 1940s.
This is the same shed today.
These photographs shows the inside of our little shop building today and back when it was the drawing office for the foundry.
The downstairs shed area at Kitten Vintage remains virtually the same as when it was built, with the timber walls, roof trusses and industrial proportions remain, making it one of Mackay’s most unusual heritage shopping experiences.
Look Around
As you explore Kitten Vintage, remember that you’re walking through part of Mackay’s engineering history.
Imagine draftsmen leaning over drawing boards preparing plans for sugar mill machinery.
Picture workers lining up at the pay office on payday after a week’s work in the foundry.
Today, instead of designing machinery, these rooms tell the stories of the people who owned and used the everyday objects now on display.
The purpose has changed, but the building continues to serve the community—just as it has for more than seventy-five years.
We can’t wait for you to visit!
Deb💚🍃