R.T. Boyd Limited was incorporated in 1965 and originally operated as Quality Opals of Australia unit. When the founding direct, Dr. Russell Thomas Boyd emigrated to Canada with his family from Australia in the mid 1950s there were exchange controls in place in post-war Australia. Having sold his dental practice and home he was advised by a close family friend to purchase and take opal rough to the USA and Canada for sale. This attempt to take their savings and financial resources out of Australia developed into a multi-generational business and career. Russell Boyd and his wife Jean Margaret Boyd climbed aboard a ship in Sydney Harbor with their infant children: Robert, Warren, and Jeanette. This decision by an immigrant dentist to Canada influenced his wife Jean all of their children. Robert and Warren became Geologists and Gemmologists and Jeanette went on to have a successful career in the dental business. Jean Boyd was the business manager for the gem trade business and all the other businesses created by Russell Boyd in those early years.