This family firm is synonymous with the early days of Brisbane. The founder, Andrew Petrie (1798 - 1872) arrived in Moreton Bay in 1837 to take up the position of Superintendent of Works. In 1842 he began his own building company, with monumental masonry and undertaking as a sideline. Under the tenure of his son, John (1822 - 1892), the building business collapsed and the family continued in the monumental masonry business. Andrew Lang Petrie (1854 - 1928), in partnership with his son John George (1879 - 1934), operated in a small way from an office and workshop at the Cemetery Gates, Toowong. The Petrie business has always passed to the first son. At different times, there have been branch offices in Warwick, Bundaberg and Townsville. Some examples of the firm's work, apart from headstones, are the Column-and-ball memorial at Graceville (1920) and the Fluted Obelisk placed at Memorial Park, Toowong (1922).

Together with the Burns family, the Philp family established Burns Philp (properly Burns, Philp & Co, Limited), a major Australian shipping line and merchant that operated in the South Pacific. The family included Sir Robert Philp (1851-1922) and his first wife Jessie Bannister (nee Campbell). They had two sons and five daughters. After the death of Jessie Philp, Robert Philp married Wilhelmina Fraser (nee Munro).