The NHS Plasterboard & Timber story starts almost 100 years ago. From making fibrous plaster to selling Boral plasterboard, James Hardie Fibre Cement products and now timber building products - it's been quite a journey.

John Albert Crockett started a plastering business in Tighes Hill in 1911 called J A Crockett. Back in those days fibrous plaster was used and was hand-made on site in Hewison Street, Tighes Hill. The business did well but was hard hit during the great depression of the 1930s.

After John's death his sons, Arthur and Jack, took the reigns and together expanded the business to the point where the name J A Crockett was synonymous with plastering in Newcastle.

In the early 1970s the transition from fibrous plaster to plasterboard commenced. Jack, the character he was, wore a black arm band to the launch of plasterboard to mourn the death of fibrous plaster.

Northumberland Handyman Supplies Pty Ltd (NHS) was established in 1982 to supply plasterboard only to the other companies in the Crockett Group which was by then being managed by Arthur's sons, Phillip and Paul, and operated out of the Hewison Street, Tighes Hill premises.

In the later part of the 1980s NHS commenced selling plasterboard to third party customers and by 1991 had outgrown its premises at Tighes Hill and so moved to its current location in Wyong Road, Lambton.

In 2004 NHS, which had grown to be the region's largest independent distributor of Boral Plasterboard and James Hardie products, commenced selling timber building products. This expansion into timber has been a major success to date and NHS is now the preferred distributor of timber for many local builders.

Today Paul's sons, Matt & Jason, who are the great-grandsons of John Albert Crockett continue to make NHS Plasterboard & Timber a local family owned and operated business that remains 100% committed to the Hunter Region.