John Lysaght's iron-working company started making corrugated iron in Bristol in 1857. The firm exported many of its products to Australia, including a type of corrugated iron called Redcliff Crown, named after a local area in Bristol.

Lysaght's also made and exported prefabricated buildings, which were erected for checking in the factory yard at Netham before dismantling and packing for export. Business was so good that they set up a sales agency in Melbourne in 1880 and a Australian manufacturing plant after the First World War.