AustLit

In 1872 John F. McCarron, John Henry Bird, Hermann W. Puttmann and Andrew Stewart, all printers with the Melbourne printer and publisher Fergusson and Moore, formed a partnership to establish their own printing and publishing company, named McCarron, Bird. Established initially at 37 Flinders Lane West, the business founded the successful journal The Australian Insurance and Banking Record in 1876. It moved to a purpose-built building, 'Record Chambers' at 112 Collins Street in 1887, and expanded into lithography, engraving, bookbinding and stationery. The company published all manner of Australian material, but was notable for its production of high-profile journals such as The Pastoralist's Review, Australian Hardware and Machinery, The Victorian Racing Calendar, and The Temperance News. It also published some large illustrated single works; for example, the landmark 2-volume work, Victoria and Its Metropolis (1888).

John Bird retired in 1887. In 1892 McCarron, Bird took over what remained of the Sydney publishing company Gibbs, Shallard and Co., and the business was conducted in Sydney by George Andrew Stewart under the name McCarron, Stewart. McCarron, Bird continued in Melbourne.