Davies-Shephard / Davies-Kent
Davies Shephard & Co. (Victoria & NSW Australia), a notable water meter manufacturer, has an intriguing history. The partnership of Davies, Shephard & Co. was founded in 1884 and dissolved in 1904. The first business site was established at 75 Russell Street Melbourne in 1884. They operated out of the site shared with a tailor. The business later moved around 1890 to 135 City Road South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Melbourne followed Sydney’s example to establish a water meter and manage meter distribution and to service them in 1891. By 1910 there were 123,227 water connections and 105,993 sewage connections in Melbourne. Inventions and patterns in the science and technology section of Melbourne Museum includes three Davies and Shephard water meters. One was patented on 26 Jan 1897. In 1896 the Sydney arm of the business was established at 72 Abercrombie St Redfern. Not long later this site moved to Clisdell Street Surry Hills (off 458 Elizabeth St Sydney). Their expertise lay in crafting water meters. One of their notable creations was an inferential class, reaction turbine-type water meter with three chambers or compartments, made from brass. This particular meter dates back to around 1881. In 1929, Davies, Shephard & Co. secured a contract to supply 20,000 meters to the Water Supply and Sewerage Department in Sydney, Australia. Their winning tender amounted to £44,6812. These water meters played a crucial role in measuring water consumption and ensuring efficient distribution. The legacy of Davies, Shephard & Co. lives on through their contributions to water infrastructure. Water meters as large as 10" were being manufactured.
In the early 1900's the NSW operation moved to 2-6 Bridge Street Stanmore NSW. Today, the site is now named “The meter apartments” in honor of the site being the origins of the Davies Shephard meter manufacture business and its contribution to the Sydney Water Board and the community in the early 20th century. It is a residential apartment site. The shot tower today, you can still just make out the business name on the side of this same tower on the brickwork. In 1933 the business in Australia was licensed by George Kent UK to manufacture rotary piston meters. This was the birth of the positive displacement meters in Australia. All Venturi meters used by Sydney Water around this time were all Kent designs, some as large as 48 inch. Sydney Water Board began replacing their smaller venturi meters with positive meters in appx 1937. By 1940 Davies Shephard was the principal supplier to the Sydney Water Board. In 1946 the Davies Kent Amalgamation Factory was established. The following war years saw a shortage of water meter supply due to the engagement of the business for military use. Production of munitions for the army, and gauge equipment for the air force. Food production instruments were also provided during the war years. Munitions were also supplied to the Australian army during the Vietnam war years in the 1970’s. As the business continued to grow the mid 1940’s saw more land acquired at 46 Gardners Road Mascot, for another manufacturing site, bought from the Commonwealth government as it was an ex-military site. The site grew and eventually became the main water meter production facility. New meter designs by the 1950’s were implemented with new machinery and processes to meet growing demand for the Sydney Water Board which was still located at 341 Pitt Street at this time. The depot was at Crown Street. Full meters plus spare parts were made available to the board. The parts list in the 1949 tender including many hundreds of individual parts. The term of the contract at the time extended for some 10 years with no ability to price increase from the original tender. Davies Shephard/Kent were known for their KG series rotary piston meters made in sizes 15, 20, 25, 40 and 50mm sizes. Also, later the Victorian KGG20 20mm meter, Helix-3000 turbine meters in sizes from 50mm to 150mm, Irrigation type propeller saddle meters, proportional bypass meters, mechanical lever resettable meters and finally the PSM (V100) inline wet-dial meters available in sizes 15, 20, 25, 32 and 40mm sizes.
.jpg@webp "SWB meter reader 1950's")
.jpg@webp "1960's water meter")
.jpg@webp "Stanmore NSW factory 1920's")
.jpg@webp "Early 1900's advert -noting 7\" water meter")
.png@webp "Clock face reset meter 50mm -Hanson Temora NSW")
Business expansions saw the Mascot site eventually move to 58-68 Box Road Caringbah NSW. There were more than 110 employees at this site. In 1983, Manu Electronics P/L (ManuFlo) adopted the Davies-Kent KG4 series water meter, installing it's proprietary high resolution optical signal output technology with 1000 pulses per litre. In 1987, ManuFlo began supplying custom made LCD Ni-cad & later lithium battery powered custom resettable modules for the complete KG-series Rotary piston-water meter ranges from 25 to 50mm. These LCD-modules replaced the manual resettable clock face water meters that were being produced from the early 1960's. This mutual business continued for the next 10 years until the demise of KG and KGG series meters which were replaced by the new PSM/V100 series "Grenade" meters that were a revolutionary Kent-UK design. The manufacturing site in NSW closed in 1999, where operations were then concentrated in the Melbourne plant at Reservoir VIC, which later moved in 2001 to 55 Northcorp Blvd Broadmeadows VIC. A sales and stores branch was established in Northumberland Road Caringbah NSW. This closed June 2020, with all manufacturing and stocking held at the Broadmeadows site. The family sold 50% of the business holdings to ABB in 1997, and later in 1999 all family holdings were sold to ABB. The business was then sold to Elster metering (member of the Rhur Group) and today is owned by Honeywell Inc. The H.W.M. Museum has one of the world's largest collection of rare water meters from this company.
.jpg@webp "KGG20 3/4 model -VIC")
.jpg@webp "3\" Helix Turbine meter")