AustLit

The firm McCarron, Stewart and Co. was a Sydney branch of the Melbourne publishing company McCarron Bird, operating from around 1882. Following a disastrous fire at the Pitt Street, Sydney premises of the publishing and lithographic printing company Gibbs, Shallard and Co., in 1892 McCarron, Bird took over the remains of that business. After two years of trading in Pitt Street, George Andrew Stewart, son of one of the partners at McCarron, Bird, took over the business under a new arrangement as McCarron, Stewart. As sole proprietor in 1910, Stewart moved the business to Goulburn Street, Sydney, and in 1915 formed the business into a limited liability company. Three generations of Stewarts managed the company up to the 1980s.

McCarron, Stuart was a prolific printer and publisher of Australian material, covering histrory, agriculture, business, mining, music and art. From the 1930s, the company evolved into a commercial printer and paper manufacturer, which developed processes for the manufacture and printing of waxed paper, initially for confectionery, and then for a broad range of food products.