Clarkson Australia Pty Ltd and Clarkson New Zealand Limited

Clarkson Australia Pty Ltd is Australia's oldest established and leading shipbroking company, with its origins dating back to the 1840's following the founding and commencement of shipping and trading activities, in Adelaide, by Alexander Elder and T.E. Barr Smith, a partnership which was to become the well known firm of Elder Smith & Co. From the commencement of these traditional business activities, Elder Smith & Co. grew and acquired a number of well-known Australian companies to become known as Elders IXL Limited and subsequently the Fosters Brewing Group.

Charter Party dated 26th January 1939 for Captain Gustav Eriksen's barque "Pamir", a cargo of wheat from Port Victoria, South Australia for Falmouth. This was the last cargo carried in a sailing ship before the outbreak of the Second World War. Fixed by Elder-Smith & Co. and H.Clarkson & Co.

The pastoral activities of Elder Smith & Co. expanded as a result of the development of the Australian economy in the early part of the twentieth century, and the shipbroking business followed as a natural progression. A number of Australian companies commenced export related activities as a result of this economic development, and a ready made market within the British Commonwealth. To this day we still represent some of these companies, and in particular have proudly acted on behalf of the Colonial Sugar Refinery Co. (now known as CSR Limited) since the early 1920's.

Gladstone, Queensland, 21st December, 1925 At jetty: SS "Mahia" loading sugar, wool and general cargo SS "Querimba" loading horses. In the Stream H.M.A. Survey ship "Moresby"

In the post war period, large mineral deposits were discovered in Australia and in 1964 Austral Chartering Pty. Limited was founded by British and Norwegian shipbroking and Ship owning interests to develop this newly discovered export potential. In 1971, there was a further logical development, the combining of Elder Smith & Co.'s pastoral based shipbroking business with that of Austral Chartering to form the joint venture company Elder-Austral Chartering. This company continued its shipbroking activities for some years during which developments occurred that resulted in H. Clarkson & Co. and Elders becoming the only two remaining shareholders, each holding fifty per cent of the company. In 1991, Elders IXL disposed of most of its non-brewing interests, and as a result of this, H. Clarkson & Co. acquired the balance of the shareholding, thereby becoming the sole shareholder. H. Clarkson & Company Limited is part of Horace Clarkson PLC, a group of companies publicly listed on the United Kingdom stock market, primarily involved in shipbroking and related activities.

In September 2002, Austral Chartering purchased Auckland based company Beacon Shipping and Chartering in order to expand the Clarkson Group activities in the region. Beacon had been founded over 20 years previously by the two Owner Principals and specialised in Reefer Shipping as well as the full range of conventional broking services.

On January 1st 2005, both Austral and Beacon changed their names to Clarkson Australia Pty Ltd and Clarkson New Zealand Limited in order to emphasise the Group association, in line with the Mission Statement of the Clarkson Group.

In August 2006 Clarkson acquired the Melbourne based broking company Anchor Cross Shipbrokers Pty Ltd. Anchor Cross was formed by Michael Davies, Evan Panayi and Max Langham in 1997 as a breakaway from Universal Charterers. The Melbourne team has been boosted by this acquisition and have further strengthened the Clarksons name in Australia.

Clarkson Australia has its Head Office in Sydney with other offices in Melbourne and representation in London. The Melbourne office specialises in Dry Cargo Broking, whilst Sydney handles Sugar and other Dry Cargo, Liner and Specialised cargoes, as well as Sale and Purchase, Bunker Broking and consultancy services.

The company today handles the chartering work for many of the largest multi-national companies in Australia and New Zealand, and also attends to the more specialised needs of clients in Pacific Islands such as Fiji (including Fiji Sugar), the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Clarkson Australia Pty Ltd and Clarkson New Zealand Limited are proud to be part of the worldwide shipbroking network of the Clarksons, and are well placed to attend to the shipping requirements of all industrial and commercial clients.