Summary

In 1889 John Cummins and Aylmer Campbell established this firm as a wine and spirits and general merchants with the head office situated in Flinders Street, Townsville. The business grew rapidly and its activities extended throughout the sugar districts and the western pastoral and mining areas.

Cummins and Campbell Ltd. filled the gap left in the north after Burns Philp diversified and relocated their headquarters to Sydney. Cummins and Campbell's prosperity waxed initially through its dealings with the revived Charters Towers goldfield — Aylmer Campbell managed the first branch there but died before 1909. Branches were established at Cairns, Bowen, Innisfail and Ingham with agencies at Ayr, Hughenden, Yungaburra and Cloncurry and a depot at Mount Isa. Cummins became one of a triumvirate of local merchants, along with James Burns and Samuel Allen of Samuel Allen & Sons, who dominated the commerce of Townsville and North Queensland from first settlement.

For many years the firm's house journal, Cummins & Campbell's Monthly Magazine, was almost the sole repository of writing on North Queensland. In the late 1970s, Cummins and Campbell came under the control of Carlton and United Breweries.

Reference:
Ian N. Moles, “Cummins, John. (1857–1934),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cummins-john-5845