A. Noble & Son Limited was founded in Adelaide in 1911, importing supplies for the foundry industry. After a trip to Broken Hill by the founder, George Adie Noble, an interest in supplying mining equipment was soon developed. Wire rope was imported from the United Kingdom, which was a basis for Nobles' growth. The company opened in Victoria in 1935, selling foundry equipment. In 1957 Nobles in Adelaide became the first Australian Wire Rope distributor to manufacture Talurit mechanically spliced slings. In 1961 this business was developed in Melbourne, while tensile testing of wire rope, slings and other lifting gear became established. In 1968 with the developing offshore industry in Bass Strait, Nobles commissioned the then-largest swaging machine and tensile tester in Australia. The offshore construction engineers wanted products thoroughly tested, and if necessary destruction-tested. To provide for this need Nobles built a 3500kN test machine for its Victorian operation. In 1969 Nobles purchased an engineering business and concentrated on items for the offshore and mining industries. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the company established operations in Perth and Karratha in Western Australia. Nobles took over the lifting gear operations of Spear & Jackson in Brisbane and Sydney in May 1983. In 1987 a branch was established in Rockhampton, followed by a move to Darwin in 1992. In recent times branches have also been established in Newcastle (2002), Port Hedland (2004), Mackay (2007) and Derrimut (2010). Nobles now have 15 branches throughout Australia. The mining industry has played a large part in Nobles' progress. The company has supplied wire ropes, Reliance Hexham suspension gear and other shaft equipment to all major areas of underground mining. In general industry, Nobles' sheave blocks have become widely used. Blocks up to 300-tonne capacity have been manufactured and proof-load tested. The company has also supplied hooks to 250 tonne capacity. With the increased requirement for larger lifting gear, Nobles, in 1978-80, built a 2500-tonne swaging press to manufacture heavy-lift slings. A 1,000-tonne capacity test machine was also built and commissioned for the testing of heavy-lift slings and associated equipment. Nobles have developed electronic load-measuring products for cranes, conveyer-belt tensioning and production monitoring in the mining industry, and they stock and support a range of standard load cells. An increased range of services have been pivotal in Nobles' growth with lifting equipment inspection, and testing services expanded to include mobile test machines under our NATA-accredited laboratories. The company has also invested heavily in new equipment providing the latest technology for conducting Non-Destructive Tests on wire ropes. Nobles also has associations with overseas manufacturers, who produce the latest technology in fibre ropes from UHMWPE to high-tenacity Polypropylene and Polyethylene ropes in a variety of constructions to suit the commercial fishing, marine and towage industries.