Who We Are
About Skilful Star
A Sydney mechanical services contractor delivering design and construct HVAC and ventilation packages for commercial and multi-residential construction — built on more than fifty years in the trade.
Our story
Skilful Star was founded in 2000 by Kevin Cheung. The company it grew from, and the standards it was built on, go back a good deal further.
The first office — Chinatown, Sydney, 1990.
1972 — 1990
From apprentice to a desk in Chinatown
Kevin Cheung began his air conditioning apprenticeship in Hong Kong in 1972. He brought the trade to Sydney, and in 1983 founded his first company here with his partner Joseph — J & K Action Air, for Joseph and Kevin — trading in Chinese as 北極冷氣, North Pole Air Conditioning. Kevin’s brother Kenneth joined them a year or two later.
By 1990 the business had its own office in Chinatown — a desk, a telephone and a growing book of work.
1992
Four partners, and a shopfront
A fourth partner joined, and the business opened an electrical appliance and air conditioning store. Above the counter hung the two names it had carried since the beginning — 北極冷氣 and J & K Action Air.
Opening day, 1 March 1992.
北極冷氣 on the wall in 1992 — the same name on our Chinese-language page today.
2000 — 2016
Skilful Star, and the next generation
Around 2000 the partners went their separate ways, and Kevin founded Skilful Star Air Conditioning — carrying 北極冷氣 across with him, as it remains today. Over the following two decades it grew into one of NSW’s most experienced mechanical contractors for medium and large-scale developments.
Kinson Cheung joined the business in December 2016 and leads it today as Operations Director. The standards his father set — quality workmanship, straight dealing, and finishing what you start — remain the foundation of how Skilful Star operates.
Kinson and his sister on the store steps, early 1990s.
Kevin and Kinson Cheung in Hong Kong — where the story began.
The team on site — Woollahra, 2026.
Today
Fifty years of trade, in a modern D&C contractor
Skilful Star delivers full design and construct mechanical packages from $1M to $8M+ — hotels and co-living, student accommodation, residential towers, aged care and retail — plus the distressed and remediation work few contractors will take on.
Delivery runs through a core team of direct technicians who oversee quality on every project, supported by an established subcontractor network. Design and NCC 2022 compliance are managed through our established consulting engineers, and every project runs under a dedicated project manager.
A team built to deliver — and leadership you can reach
Every Skilful Star project runs under a dedicated project manager, backed by senior technical leadership and our established consulting engineers. And when a decision is needed, you get it fast — no call centres, no layers of account management.
Kinson Cheung
Operations Director
tenders@skilfulstar.com.au
(02) 9718 9738
Credentials: ABN 76 070 342 979 · Licence No. 156814C · ARC Tick No. AU05001 · Fully insured