About Us

Early History

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F & D Normoyle Engineering Pty Ltd was founded in 1890 by Dave Normoyle, an Irish Coach builder and Blacksmith newly arrived from Adare in County Limerick with his wife, three sons, Frank, Dave, and Jim and Daughters.

Old Dave, a keen gambling man with never less than 1,000 Pounds Sterling in his wallet, would regularly catch the train from Young to Sydney for the Wednesday race meetings. Once in the ring he would stand on a box and take book, calling out to the punters "from the bush, from the bush". Old Dave eventually retired permanently to Sydney, where he owned several houses. He lived close to the Randwick racecourse in Kensington.

Frank and Dave stayed to run the Blacksmiths shop whilst the flamboyant brother Jim went to Sydney and eventually become one of Sydney's leading Milliners.
 Frank subsequently left the Smithy and joined his brother in the Millenary business, opening and running a successful factory, employing over 300 staff in Brisbane, Queensland.

Dave stayed behind in Young and introduced the first electric welding machines and gas cutting to the town. Dave, a staunch Catholic married a Methodist girl, Marcella Penson. In the days, when the church did not approve of mixed marriages, the ceremony was conducted behind the altar.

Dave and Marcella gave Birth to John (Jack) Normoyle and Marie. Marie passed away at the tender age of seven.

Dave, the quintessential Catholic would finish playing cards (Canaster) at 6.00 AM on a Sunday morning, walk past his house, collect his son Jack and proceed on to the 7:00 AM service at St Mary's.

Regularly after mass Dave would go down to the shop and perform the daring feat of holding a live electrical cable in his hand as he writhed and jolted in the middle of the road embellishing the performance by striking the cables together creating cascades of sparks to the raucous applause of his audience, his saviour plank of wood a pair of rubber soled boots and DC current.

Dad and Dave

Meanwhile Jack would be on his way home so that Marcella could prepare him for further spiritual enlightenment by attending the Methodist service. And so it went for several years.

Marcella, was racked with guilt by the death of her only daughter. Convinced that the lord was punishing her for not being Catholic she eventually converted to Catholicism and used to play the organ at Mass on Sundays. She remained so until her death at 94.

F & D Normoyle Young was well established to take advantage of the growing crop and pastoral expansion in NSW. According to Bob Hadlow, author of a soon to be released book on horse drawn Commercial Wagons, Normoyle were the second largest maker of vehicles in NSW. Bennett of St Mary's being the largest.

According to Hadlow there are two features that separate Normoyle from the other makers. One was that the sheer variety of wagons and vehicles produced by Normoyle was unequalled in the State and secondly the linkage mechanism was of such a unique design that it is possible to tell these wagons apart from all others by looking at this feature alone.

The coach building and Blacksmithing business receded with the advent of the motor lorry. Dave passed away at the age of 47 and young Jack now 19 took over the business now employing 10 -20 men.

Jack Normoyle moved the business to new premises on 5 acres allowing room for future expansion. Normoyle needed to undertake new types of work and it was in the area of on farm storage that Jack started to direct the Company. Sturdy fabricated on farm storage sheds were fabricated and erected in the surrounding district of Young in the 1940s and 1950s and remain today. Together with this, a range of prefabricated transportable on farm grain storage silos established the company as one of the leaders in this field Nationally.

Large contracts for bulk storage, grain handling facilities followed as the grain Elevator Board and NSW Rice Board carried out major storage expansion programs throughout the State. This work established Normoyle as a major structural fabricator. The infrastructure development of Canberra also played an important role in the Growth of the Company in this period.

Jack Normoyle

On the 23 September 1970 at the age of 47 Years, Jack Normoyle the husband of Marie Normoyle nee Breen and father of 6 children Died. See Obituary Jack Normoyle As a young boy Dave Normoyle, eldest son of Jack used to travel with his father from the town of Young on Saturday mornings to visit the many construction sites in remote locations the Company was servicing. Koorawatha, Cowra, Dubbo, Leeton, Temora, Junee, Bogabri, Mikibri, etc.

After Jacks death when David was 13 years old, he and his brothers Jim and John did their time in the family business David and John as apprentice Boilermakers and Jim in Sales.



Various managers helped the family maintain the business over the preceding years with the present managing Director, Ken Wilson being the most successful.

In 1984 the family sponsored a management buyout of the business and allowed Ken Wilson an equity stake together with the Normoyle family and a venture capital wing of Westpac.

This arrangement existed for another 5 years until the Normoyle family now all living in Sydney dissolved all interest in the business and the name was changed to National Engineering.