Maritime Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd.  (Maritime Wireless Co.); Randwick, NSW.
4 Dutruc Street, Randwick, NSW

The Maritime Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd.  Was registered in November 1910 with first directors AJ Shaw, EH Kirby, MA Mulrony, FW Marks & GT Stone. [1]

Archibald John Shaw (1872-1916), was a Catholic priest and radio pioneer and worked as a missionary in New Guinea in the 1890’s. He moved to Randwick, NSW in 1908.

Hoping to raise funds for the missions, Fr Shaw had been studying and experimenting with wireless telegraphy for some years. In 1910 he began on a practical basis to design and manufacture receivers and transmitters, building a 240 ft (73 m) tower in his backyard that could transmit messages 2000 miles (3219 km). [3]

Edward Hope Kirkby (1853-1915) leased from the church some land and a workshop, in which he built instruments and was a pioneer of the introduction of radio telegraph services to Australia, and a major contributor to fire protection and X-Ray development in Australia.[2]

In July 1911 Shaw applied for provisional patents to cover his airblast 'Spark Gap' system, taking out full patents next year. In September 1911 Kirkby and some of his employees floated the Maritime Wireless Telegraph Co., with Shaw as its president. Earlier that year Shaw had installed wireless equipment in Papua to assist the search for Staniforth Smith, built a powerful wireless station at King Island for the Commonwealth government and supplied the radio equipment , built a powerful wireless station at King Island for the Commonwealth government and supplied the radio equipment for Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

When threatened with litigation by the Marconi and Telefunken companies for patent infringement, he was backed by the Commonwealth government. More serious was the accusation by J. G. Balsillie that Shaw had pirated and patented his invention, which was the basis of the Commonwealth's coastal maritime wireless telegraph system. In 1915 a proposed royal commission to investigate the contradictory claims lapsed when Shaw withdrew from the inquiry.[3][4]

[1]Evening News (NSW)  Nov  7, 1910  Page 4.
[2] https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473117
[3] Electronics Australia,  March 1990, page 38.
[4] Shaw, Archibald - Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988.