The first Stayput® Fasteners were invented by Roy Vaughan, who also happened to be the man behind another Australian household name – Defender, the snail bait. Roy created Defender in 1937. During this time Roy was also heavily into the boating lifestyle, purchasing a timber riverboat called Berenice in 1952, and was an early member and later Commodore of the KMYC (Ku-ring-gai Motor Yacht Club) at Cottage Point, a short distance from the Halvorsen Fleet home at Bobbin Head on the northern fringe of Sydney, Australia.

1954

Roy, unhappy with the fastening options available at the time for new covers on Berenice, decided to design his own fasteners, and in this year the first Stayput® Fasteners were made, just for Roy’s boat. It wasn’t too long before Carl Halvorsen heard of these new fasteners and asked Roy to supply these innovative fittings for his entire fleet of hire vessels. Halvorsen Boats became Roy’s first commercial customer.

1960

Stayput production ramped up in 1960 with the birth of the XK Ford Falcon Ute on which Ford decided to attach 26 Stayput® Fasteners to each vehicle to secure the tonneau cover. A start up order of 250,000 fasteners was received, and it was all hands on deck as production at the time was very labour intensive with all assembly work done by hand, and all fasteners made entirely of nickel plated brass.

1969

Roy enlisted the expertise of Vincent Waite and his sons Richard & Warren to build a mould so that Horizontal and Vertical Single Fasteners could be injection moulded using nylon. Richard's son Andrew continues the third generation of involvement with Stayput®.

1971

Roy and Jennie’s son Bruce joined them full time to help keep up with demand for Stayput® Fasteners.

1973

New improved moulds for some models were made, and to coincide with this Roy and his friend Roy Johnston designed and built the first semi automated assembly machine, using vibratory feeders and solenoid activation to assemble each fastener. This machine remained in operation until 1987.

1978

Roy Vaughan passed away at the age of 69, leaving a creative and innovative legacy including some well known inventions. His widow Jennie and son Bruce continued to produce Stayput® Fasteners up until 1987.

1987

Roy and Jennie’s daughter Jeanette, and her husband Keith Hollingworth take over & rename the business ‘Stayput® Fasteners Australia’. 1987 also saw the design & construction a new automated assembly machine. This machine remained in operation until early 2021, after 33 years of assembling millions of Stayput® Fasteners. During this time a new export market was developed, with Harvey Halvorsen distributing Stayput® Fasteners in North America.

2001

A second automated assembly machine was built, allowing more time to be spent developing new Stayput® products to enhance the range and cater for changing trends. 2001 also saw Keith and Jeanette’s son Stuart come on board full time. With extra hands on deck and more efficient production, new products and other export markets have been developed. Well established distribution throughout Australia, New Zealand and North America is now supplemented by newer export markets including France, United Kingdom, South Africa, Netherlands, Turkey, Maldives, and the Pacific to name a few.

2015

After 14 years with Stayput® Fasteners, 3rd generation Stuart and wife Carolyn purchase the business.

2021

The old assembly machine, built in 1987, is retired after 34 years assembling millions of Stayput Fasteners and is replaced by a new, modern, and much more efficient machine built right here in Adelaide, Australia.

We at Stayput® are proud to say that after 60 years Roy’s innovative legacy lives on, and rather than simply copy existing products, we continue to identify potential for new products and make improvements to old ones.