Rigby

Australian publisher that started as a bookshop in Adelaide in the 1859. By 1977 Rigby was the country's largest Australian-owned book publisher, representing 35% of the sales of Australian-owned publishing. In 1979, Rigby Limited was acquired by asbestos manufacturer James Hardie Ltd and in 1984 publisher and manager Frank Thompson and all Rigby staff were dismissed; it survived for a number of years as a subdivision of the Reed Elsevier group.