Of riding her bike down the aisles with her two younger sisters. Of playing with the cash registers that went “ka-ching!” Of operating the switchboard, plugging in calls around the shop. As long as they stayed away from the china and crystal departments, their father and grandfather didn’t mind what their “little angels” got up to.

Brisbane jeweller Margot McKinney’s eyes light up remembering her childhood adventures in the Toowoomba department store, McKinney’s, where her family’s legacy began.

“They’re incredible memories,” she says. “We had such fun.”

McKinney is sitting on a small blue sofa in the middle of her jewellery boutique at the 1000 Ann shopping precinct, formerly known as Emporium, in Fortitude Valley.

A bright green door marked with the letter M welcomes customers into the colourful, inviting and exotic space. Think leopard print carpets, vivid green cabinetry, bubble chandeliers, armchairs in bold floral prints, blue and white pottery, African lamps and other treasures found on her global travels. And then there are the jewels.

Behind the display cabinets are huge glittering gems, mesmerising opals and lustrous pearls bigger than marbles.

Breathtaking and eye-popping, they cover every colour of the rainbow. From blue tanzanite and lilac amethyst to mandarin garnets and pink tourmalines, the precious stones are sourced from all corners of the globe.

Set in extravagant necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings befitting a royal ball, some pieces take up to 10 years to create as McKinney waits for just the right combination of gemstones to put together.

She won’t tell you in person, for it would be breaking the jewellers’ Hippocratic oath, but McKinney’s masterpieces have been worn by the likes of US burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, Gina Rinehart, American singer Paula Abdul and Julie Bishop. They range anywhere in price from $30,000 to a staggering $3.8m.

McKinney’s might not have started out as a jewellery store, but it seemed destined to become one.

It was 140 years ago, in 1884, that Margot’s great-grandfather, John McKinney, travelled from Northern Ireland to Australia in the hope of finding his fortune in the goldfields in Far North Queensland.

“I like to joke that it didn’t pan out,” McKinney quips.

Pockets empty, John McKinney got on the train to head back to Brisbane to figure out his next move.

When the steam locomotive was held up in Toowoomba, legend has it he disembarked to get a haircut. He didn’t find a barbershop, but he did find an empty shop and with it, his next big idea.

“He signed the lease there and then, got back on the train to Brisbane, bought everything he needed to start a barbershop and went back to Toowoomba. That’s how the business started,” McKinney says.

As well as haircuts and beard trims, John was soon selling goods his customers might need on their way to the goldfields.

“He was very entrepreneurial and brave, and then he married, and his wife Sarah was rather entrepreneurial as well,” she says.

His framed photo is on the wall in her boutique next to one of her grandfather, Ken McKinney, who took over the family business and expanded it to include goods sourced from his travels including pearls from Japan.

And when her father, also named John and also on the wall, took charge it grew into a department store offering furniture, toys, boats, sporting gear and electrical goods.

In 1976, John opened a new McKinney’s store in Indooroopilly Shoppingtown in Brisbane and by 1987 they were exclusively selling jewellery. It was here that Margot started working for the family business.

“It was all I ever thought about doing. I never wanted to do anything else,” she says.

As McKinney reaches forward for her cup of tea, an exquisite gold cuff beset with diamonds catches the light. It was made by a seventh generation goldsmithing workroom just outside Verona.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she says, pulling it off and offering it to me to try on. It wraps around my wrist like a loving hand about to lead me somewhere. For a moment, I am hypnotised.

“Cuffs are a beautiful piece of jewellery because you get to look down and admire them as well,” she says.

McKinney is also wearing natural peridot earrings surrounded by baguette diamonds and a string of perfectly round, luxuriously large and exceptionally rare Australian South Sea pearls.

A beacon of style, McKinney wears pearls every day. Sometimes the round ones, sometimes a double row of baroque ones.

As for what she wears on special occasions?

“Pearls,” she grins.

“Or a diamond necklace, or opal. But I just think pearls are the most beautiful accessory. They’re very flattering for women to wear. They go with everything and I just think that to have a beautiful strand of pearls in your jewellery wardrobe is really important.”

It was 2007 when McKinney started her own label and five years ago when she opened her own shop.

It’s a few doors down from the pink door to McKinney’s Jewellers which opened in Emporium in 2007, a few years after her father closed the Toowoomba store.

Even after the Museum of Brisbane celebrated her illustrious career and the miracles of nature that make up her designs with the World of Wonders exhibition in 2022, McKinney still thinks of herself as a shopkeeper more than a jewellery designer or artist.

“I think it’s very important to remember that we are shopkeepers. We design and create pieces but, in the end, it’s the personal relationships that we have with people that create the magic. It’s those people walking in the door. We’re always so grateful for that and we remain humbly at people’s service,” she says.

While McKinney loves nothing more than being home in Brisbane, “the most wonderful city to live in,” or on summer holidays at the beach in their apartment on the Gold Coast, she spends much of the year travelling the globe.

A typical year involves visiting their artisans and gem-cutters in Italy, Germany and Thailand, their suppliers in northern Australia, Africa and beyond, their exclusive retailer Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in the United States, and their clients globally.

After sponsoring the glamorous G’Day LA/USA event for several years, McKinney became an associate sponsor of The Prince’s Trust Global Gala, now The King’s Trust Global Gala, in New York last year. In Australia, she sponsors the Australian Open Polo.

Far from slowing down, exciting things are on the horizon.

In January, McKinney will open their first stand-alone international store in the iconic Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Then two months later she will take part in the prestigious The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht, Netherlands.

“It is a really big deal, even if I say so myself. There are only nine jewellers from around the world who have exhibits there and you have to be the best in your field,” she says.

The McKinney business is still very much a family affair with Margot and her sisters Jane and Sally, and Jane’s sons Andrew, Hugh and Harry all working together to keep evolving and continue what her great-grandfather started.

“The legacy of the family business is something that is very, very important to me. When I’m in America I might say 15 times a day, ‘I’m fourth generation in my family’s business and this year we’re 140 years old.’ It’s just incredibly important to me to nurture the business and make sure it thrives for the fifth generation and, who knows, hopefully a sixth generation.

“It’s the reason I get up in the morning. I have such deep, deep affection for my parents and all that they did for us, so it’s about honouring that legacy.”

Guess things panned out after all.