Spanning the centuries: A history of AE Smith and Son Pty Ltd

"Spanning the Centuries" written by Juliet Flesch & Rosemary Francis in 2008, is the story of a family-owned firm and its part in the construction of Australia over more than a hundred years. Beginning as a one-man plumbing business in 1898, AE Smith & Son Pty Ltd has grown to become one of the largest privately-owned building and mechanical services contractors in Australia, with construction, maintenance and engineering facilities across Australia and New Zealand. Spanning the Centuries is the story of the AE Smith family, including, as well as the three men who owned the company from the end of the last century, some of the many men and women who worked with them for up to thirty years. Through the history of one firm, we glimpse the changing built environment of Australia as AE Smith & Son put their mark on stately homes and gardens, modest suburban houses, towering City apartment blocks, prisons, shopping centres, hospitals, hotels and many other buildings across the country.