Our History

1966 Max Sell advises Ross Parker that he intends getting out of the scrap metal business. Max agrees to sell the trucks for £2000, and also agrees to stay for 6 months to show Ross the business and introduce him to some customers. Max also agrees to lend Ross the money to buy the trucks! The trading name of Sell & Parker is adopted.

1967 Max Sell retires and Ross Parker takes full control of Sell & Parker. As Max had a very good reputation in the business, Ross decides to keep the name as it is. At this time, the assets of Sell & Parker consist of just two trucks. Scrap is sorted between trucks in back lanes.

1967 Sell & Parker rents its first property in Dodie Street, Alexandria. The property is used to store, process and grade scrap.

1969 Sell & Parker hires its first employee.

1971 Sell & Parker purchase its first mobile scrap crane.

1972 Ross Parker realises he can cut steel plate to prescribed shapes electronically without requiring an engineer to make a template. With access to a supply of plate, Ross starts a business called “Oxy Profile Cutting”, which is eventually rebranded as “Oxycut”.

1977 Sell & Parker buys a site in Amelia Street, Waterloo, where both the scrap recycling and profile cutting are co-located.

1979 250 tonne Iron Shark shear is installed at Waterloo.

1980 Purchased minority shareholding in Oliver and Downing, a Sydney based fabricator. In time, business is rebranded as Profab and greenfield factory in Chipping Norton acquired and developed.

1980 All States Waste Pty Limited founded and commenced collecting and disposing waste in all Australian states (except Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Territories).

1985 All States Waste sold

1989 Oxycut moves to a property owned in Yerrick Road, Lakemba.

1990 800 tonne Lindemann Shear commissioned at Waterloo yard.

1993 Shareholding in Profab sold to majority holder.

1995 Ross’s son Luke Parker joins the business as Managing Director after having obtained Bachelor degrees in Law and Commerce (UNSW) and an MBA from Northwestern University in Chicago and having worked in management consulting for 5 years.

1995 Sell & Parker purchase second property in Amelia Street, Waterloo and commences trading in non-ferrous metals.

1995 Oxycut moves to a 5000 square metre factory on property bought and redeveloped in Long Street, Smithfield.

1996 Sell & Parker purchase a 7.5 acre property at 45 Tattersall Road, Blacktown.

1997 Blacktown recycling facility opened with an 800 tonne Lindemann Shear being commissioned soon after.

2000 Ross’s son Morgan Parker joins the business as Group General Manager after earning a Bachelor of Economics (Actuarial Studies) at Macquarie University and having worked in the finance industry for 10 years.

2001 Development Approval won for a metal shredder to be installed at the Blacktown site.

2002 Sell & Parker’s Oxycut buys steel profile cutting business Precision Profiling. The businesses are merged to form Precision Oxycut.

2002 Blacktown Shredder commissioned.

2003 Metal for Miracles program for Sydney Children’s Hospital established.

2003 Sell & Parker acquire a property at 11 Meadow Way, Banksmeadow.

2004 Commenced buying properties adjacent to the Tattersall Road site. Eventually landholding in the street grows to over 6.9 hectares.

2004 Coffs Harbour site bought and collection yard opened – Sell & Parker’s first Regional Yard.

2004 Ross’s son-in-law Craig Ley joins the business to manage Northern & Regional NSW after running his own business for 15 years.

2005 Sell & Parker open Ingleburn yard at site purchased in Bosci Road.

2005 Sell & Parker acquire a brownfield property in Newcastle and immediately expands Precision Oxycut to this site.

2005 Head Office relocated from Waterloo to current location at Banksmeadow and a 1250 tonne shear and a high speed IPS non-ferrous baler installed.

2006 Sell & Parker acquire property in Brisbane.

2008 Sell & Parker buys a site at Nowra and opens a new yard to service Southern Regional NSW.

2008 Franc Obal, Sell & Parker’s first employee, officially retires after 40 years of wonderful service. Retired but not forgotten, Franc still comes in to help out from time to time.

2009 Sell & Parker team up with the owners of Commercial Metal Traders to establish the joint-venture Commercial Metal Recycling Services in Queensland.

2009 Sell & Parker builds and opens a new yard in Carrington to service Newcastle and the Greater Hunter regions.

2011 Sell & Parker sells shareholding in Commercial Metal Recycling Services.

2012 Sell & Parker’s maiden Bulk Scrap Export.

2012 Sell & Parker donations to the Sydney Children’s Hospital reach $2,000,000 milestone  through Metal for Miracles.

2012 Purchases adjoining 3.882 hectare site in Carrington.

2012 Sell & Parker Secure Destruction constructs and commissions Australia’s first dedicated coffee pod recycling plant in Nowra.

2013 Port Hedland and Darwin sites acquired and established to service the top end of Australia.

2013  Australian Frontline Machinery established to resell ex-military equipment.

2014 Aiming for the Sky Program initiated in Northern Territory and Western Australia to support the Royal Flying Doctor Service in those regions.

2014 New 1400 tonne Danieli Henschel shear commissioned in Darwin. It is Australia’s largest, and the Northern Territory’s only static shear.

2015 New 1400 tonne Danieli Henschel shear commissioned in Port Hedland. It is an identical twin to Darwin’s and the only static shear in the Pilbara.

2016 Blacktown premises expanded to 60,000 square metres including a new warehouse for non-ferrous buying and processing. New 1400 tonne Danieli Henschel shear commissioned. With a slightly bigger bed than our other shears, this is now the largest shear in Australia. It replaces an 800 tonne shear commissioned in 1996.

2016 Sell & Parker celebrates 50 years in business.

2018 Coffs Container Return and Blacktown Container Return opened as large depots for public redemption of  drink container deposits.

2018 Sell & Parker donations to the Sydney Children’s Hospital reach $4,000,000 milestone through Metal for Miracles.

2019 Coffs Container Return and Blacktown Container Return redeem over 25 million containers in the first 12 months.

2019 Precision Oxycut commissions its first laser cutter.

2019 Sell & Parker acquires Allthread Industries and First Forge Australia. These two acquisitions combine with Precision Oxycut to form our Plates and Bolts Division.

2019 Newcastle Container Return opened at Carrington for public redemption of  drink container deposits.

2020 Sell and Parker commence process of obtaining approval to increase throughput at its Blacktown site.

2020 Precision Oxycut installs a large machining centre capable of drilling machining plates up to 8 metres long. A 2nd identical machine will be commissioned in 2022.

2021 Allthreads delivers 38 preassembled windtower anchor cages to Murra Warra wind farm. 98% of the content is Australian made, 51% from recycled materials.

2021 Preston Container Return becomes our 4th automated drink container redemption depot as part of the NSW Return and Earn scheme.

2021 Sell & Parker installs our first X-ray sorting machine to recover non-ferrous scrap suitable for direct charging in its customer’s furnaces.

2021 Sell & Parker acquire 30,000 square metre site adjacent to its Blacktown operation and commences planning process for establishment of the Western Sydney Renewable Energy Manufacturing Hub, which will incorporate the Sydney operations of the Plates and Bolts division.

2022 Precision Oxycut commissions our first robotic welder, primarily to manufacture plates for windtower anchor cages.

2022 Sell & Parker’s Plate and Bolts division acquires Plate and Steel Industries in Victoria.

We have over 400 employees and yards in Banksmeadow, Blacktown, Coffs Harbour, Ingleburn, Newcastle, Nowra, Darwin and Port Hedland. Our 6 branches service the east coast from the Victorian border to the tip of NSW! Our growth has been built on our fine and enduring relationships with our suppliers and customers. We are the dominant buyer of demolition scrap in Sydney, and we also service a large number of manufacturers throughout Sydney.