I03-year-old Qld company taken over by high-profile Sydney firm

A popular Queensland fishing company that has operated for over a century and developed a global reputation for its fishing reels has changed hands.

Glenn and Bruce Alvey, in the workshop where their famous Alvey fishing reels are made.

Australia may have given up on making cars, textiles and refrigerators, but nothing is going to stop the Alvey family making fishing reels.

The quintessential Queensland business has operated for over a century and developed a global reputation for making fishing reels that are so durable they get handed down across generations.

Founded in 1920, the company’s reels were originally wood and manufactured in a Brisbane shed at a rate of around 20 a week.

Alvey Reels are assembled by hand in their workshop at Carole Park.

By the time the Great Depression years rolled around 25,000 were being produced annually.

Listed as an icon of the state by the Queensland National Trust in 2004, the company was on the brink of closing recently due in no small part to Covid induced stress on the global economy as well as supply issues.

But another Australian company which has endured for more than a century - Sydney-based Gowings - has taken over the reins.

Bruce Alvey with the Reef Queen deep sea reel, which are usually fitted to the side of boats and used for fishing at depths of around 600ft.

The new owners will keep on members of the Alvey family in an advisory role and Bruce Alvey says that, much like R.M. Williams’ famous boots, the quality of the product won’t be compromised.

“The big selling point for us is that the reels outlast almost every other reel - get a bit of sand in them and you just dip them in the ocean, wash them off, keep on fishing,’’ he said.

Wood - Silky Oak or Queensland Red Cedar - has given away to carbon fibre but Bruce says limited editions of the old wooden reels will probably be hand crafted and offered for sale.

Bruce Alvey talks to Kim Jong, next to their Haas CNC lathe machine, which produces some of the special parts that make an Alvey reel.

Bruce believes Australia let go of its manufacturing industries too easily, and the Covid years and accompanying trade disruptions provided a sharp reminder of the need for all nations to maintain the skill to make things.

”I firmly believe our car industry should not have been allowed to close down,’’ he says.

“There are often many skills associated with the making of one product, and those skills are valuable to our country.’’