SH Tait & Co Chartered Accountants celebrates 100 years in Mackay

A Qld accounting business will mark its centenary this year, with a partner saying they were “as excited as accountants can get”.

A Qld accounting business will mark its centenary this year, with a partner saying they were “as excited as accountants can get”.

A Queensland accounting business founded in 1924 has seen a hundred years of change and is now celebrating its centenary.

SH Tait & Co Chartered Accountants was established by Stanley Howard Tait, on the first day of the new financial year — July 1, 1924 — his son and grandson later becoming partners in the Mackay firm.

Company partner Monica McKendry quipped the staff were “as excited as accountants can get” about celebrating 100 years.

She started at SH Tait & Co as a teen trainee and, while at the firm for 28 years, said there were other employees who had stayed for 40.

SH Tait & Co Chartered Accountants directors Adam Parrish, Monica McKendry, Stephen Amos, Kristelle Lamb, and John Philps. Photo: Contributed

She said they were proud to continue the Tait family’s efforts to give back to Mackay, doing pro bono work for charities and sponsoring sports teams like Lions Football Club and Mackay Brothers.

Peter Tait said his grandfather had been an exceptionally community-minded business owner, having helped found the Mackay Rotary Club in 1926 and being appointed the Chief Air Raid Warden during World War II.

SH Tait & Co Accountants: A young Stanley Howard Tait in ‘Prominent Queenslanders’ printed in 1936. Photo: Contributed

“My memories are of going to visit my grandfather and grandmother and in the backyard was a bomb shelter — this is 1970,” Mr Tait said.

“They were worried that the invasion was going to happen in Mackay.”

Mr Tait’s father John followed his father into the business as well as into public work: chairing the advisory committee that secured the land for the Central Queensland University Ooralea campus and, later, receiving an OAM for his contribution.

A photo of SH Tait & Co founder Stanley Howard Tait held by his grandson Peter Tait. Photo: Contributed

“Dad was very aware that lots of people in Mackay might have had smart children, but they couldn’t afford the cost of travel to Brisbane for university,” Mr Tait said.

“CQU also awarded him an honorary doctorate.”

Peter Tait (Chairperson, Mackay Hospital Foundation) and Rochelle Macdonald (North Queensland Bulk Ports Acting CEO)

Now retired, Mr Tait also ended up becoming a partner at SH Tait & Co in 1995 and continuing his family’s philanthropy as Chairperson of the Mackay Hospital Foundation until late 2023.

He said he was happily surprised the firm had reached its centenary and put its success down to “very loyal” partners.

“Lots of businesses at some stage it might be merged or taken over or fail, but it’s a testament to SH Tait & Co that the business kept on growing and expanding,” he said.

The firm will celebrate the centenary with an event on Wednesday, with about 300 current and former clients expected to attend.