For over a century, James Cumming & Sons has delivered filtration media trusted by utilities across Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.
The Australian family company James Cumming & Sons was established in Sydney in 1909. From humble beginnings, the company has pioneered new technologies to become a household name in the water filtration, iron and steel industries. A fourth generation of Cumming family members continues to run the industry-leading rock and ore milling plant supplying superior grade Australian Filter Coal to major Water Utilities both locally and within Asia and the Middle East, including Sydney Water, Melbourne Water and Singapore’s Public Utilities Board.
Our story began at the turn of the 20th century, when James Cumming left the family’s company, operating Blacking Mills in Scotland, seeking new opportunities in Australia. Keen to establish his own venture, the ambitious father of three founded James Cumming & Sons, manufacturing iron founders’ blacking using expertise acquired from his family’s plants in Scotland. The operation took place on a Western Sydney site that James bought from Auburn real estate agent Jack Lang, who would go on to become the NSW Premier. Today, the Cumming family still operates from this exact location.
The company passed into the hands of James Cumming’s sons, John (Jock) and William, and subsequently the children of John “Jock” and his wife Margaret – John, Margaret and Alan. These three siblings shared ownership of the company until they came to an agreement over family property, which saw John eventually become the sole director in the early 1980s.
By this time, James Cumming & Sons had risen to the forefront of the industry as one of the original suppliers to Australian Iron & Steel, having established a spun pipe plant at Port Kembla, now the location of the BlueScope Steelworks. Yet its fortunes came under threat by the emergence of continuous slab casting, which meant blacking was no longer required in such high volumes. With the viability of his company in jeopardy, Mr Cumming assembled a team to aid in the development of new products, turning his attention to another major industry in the throes of transformation – water treatment.
Australia’s water treatment plants were, at the time, importing the anthracite filter media required for filtration and purification of domestic and industrial water supplies from overseas producers in the United States for the simple reason that locally produced anthracite was too soft. However, in 1984, Mr Cumming’s deep knowledge of the properties and hardness of coal enabled him to identify a high-rank coal from NSW that possessed all the properties necessary to produce a high-performance anthracite coal-type filter. By 1986, the company was crushing coal for use in water filtration, its unique Australian Filter Coal still the preferred product used by virtually every Australian capital city water board, including Sydney Water, as well as those in key Asian cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and locations in the Middle East.
In the 1990s, James Cumming & Sons Pty Ltd began manufacturing and supplying high-quality granular and powdered Activated Carbons for industrial, municipal, and domestic water and wastewater purification, as well as soil remediation. The Activated Carbons can also be utilised in liquid and gas purification, precious metal recovery, personal protection, and a range of other environmental applications.
Now in the hands of the late John Cumming’s children, John, Jasmin, and James, James Cumming Pty Ltd continues its mission to contribute to the health and wellness of millions by producing the highest-grade products possible, required for both water filtration and purification, as well as environmental remediation.
For more information, visit jamescumming.com.au