Our History

Arnold Clement Whalan established A.C. Whalan & Co Pty Ltd and commenced trading in 1939. The business traded as a stock & station agent with business involvement primarily in agricultural activities such as the supply of rural produce, fencing & feed. The nature of the business lead to the supply & delivery of grain and dry feeds to both the local farming community & mining industry. At the time Pit Ponies were used to supply the transport muscle to haul the hand dug coal in dolly cars to the surface of the underground mines in the area. This is where A.C. Whalan & Co Pty Ltd commenced it association with the mining industry.

The involvement in the mining industry grew steadily, with the resurgence of the recourses industry in 1970’s and 1980’s the company took advantage of its location & known customer service. A.C. Whalan & Co Pty Ltd’s original site located at Lidsdale in the Lithgow area was ideally situated to service the Western coalfields and during this period mining & industrial supplies became the core business of the company as manufactures approached A.C Whalan & Co to be their distributors & representative. Pipes, valves and fittings, soon became the major focus, and customers were established in Wollongong, Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, and the emerging Queensland Bowen Basin.

With service and locally held stocks being considered a priority to be able to meet customer needs, the Singleton branch was opened in 1985. A similar philosophy was applied to the expanding mining business in the Bowen Basin, and in 1992 the Mackay branch of A.C. Whalan & Co opened.