About Us
About Harold Vickery & Son
Australian made, built to last, since 1862.
Harold Vickery & Son makes heavy-duty leather belts, bags and pouches for the mining, construction, engineering and industrial sectors. Every product comes out of our factory in Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid North Coast. Some of the biggest mining and construction companies in the world rely on our gear, and we supply customers across Australia and overseas.
We’ve been doing this for more than 160 years. The business started with one man’s idea, and the standard he set still guides us.
Where it began
James Vickery Snr was an English migrant who founded the business in Sydney in 1862. He wanted to make the best leather goods available to Australian businesses and families. His shop at 375 George Street had fifteen men working on saddlery and harness.
He also built Glenrock, a large stone factory and tannery on the heights of Waverley. Glenrock tanned its own hides and ran a boot factory with 129 workers, about a third of them apprentices. Each worker had a specialised job, which was an early version of the production line. The factory used a steam engine and the newest machines of the day, including pegging machines brought in from America, and turned out around 1,200 pairs of boots a week.
Sydney’s leather trade was growing quickly then. Local makers like Glenrock helped the colony rely less on English imports. They supplied harness and saddles suited to the bush and sent their work to Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand. James Snr’s fine leather goods were also known at his premises in Saywell Street, Chatswood.
Passing it down
James Snr’s son Harold shared his father’s passion for the Australian leather trade. In 1917 he took over as head of the company, renamed it Harold Vickery & Son and moved to larger premises in Dunning Avenue, Rosebery.
Harold’s son Jim Vickery took over in 1948. Jim widened the company’s distribution and made it a specialist in large-scale production for government departments. Jim also kept making everyday products, and under him the company became well known for the Vixtan baby harness.
Harold Vickery & Son today
Today we work from our factory at Unit 1, 51a Jindalee Road, Port Macquarie. We still use the same kinds of tools that worked at Glenrock, such as clicker presses, a knife splitter, riveters and eyelet machines. We’ve added modern equipment alongside them, including a 2 x 3 metre CNC cutting machine.
Our catalogue has more than 480 products. They include the Miners Back Support belt, which is cut from a single length of leather. Every item is hand finished in Australia by Australians, with quality materials and the same pride in the work that James Vickery Snr brought to it in 1862.
What we can do for you
- Industrial and mining gear: belts, bags and pouches made for tough conditions
- Custom and bulk orders: products made to your specification, in any quantity
- Contract cutting: precision CNC cutting for jobs of any size
Visit or get in touch
For custom or bulk leather orders, call our team on 02 6585 3966. You’re welcome to visit the factory at Unit 1, 51a Jindalee Road, Port Macquarie. Stock on hand is limited, so please call ahead if you’re after something in particular.