Commerce - midcoaststories.com

Tinonee Broom Factories

Tinonee was once home to no less than four broom factories. Joseph Edward Chapman established the industry when he distributed free seeds to farmers to encourage them to grow millet crops. The experiment was so successful that he opened a broom factory in 1894 which employed 5 people and provided work to local sawmills making broom handles...

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Manning Steam Laundry

In the mid 1960s whilst undertaking work on the Chapman Place parking area, traces of brickwork were uncovered which were believed to be part of an underground well used by the Manning Steam Laundry. Henry W Alcorn was a local builder who, in 1915, saw the potential in developing a commercial laundry to service Taree…

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Sander’s Dairy

Christian Sander, his wife and three daughters, arrived in Brisbane aboard the Japanese steamer “Aki Maru” in December 1923. Sander, an Estonian national, told of colourful adventures in escaping from the Bolshevik regime in Russia. Circa 1926 Sander commenced the production and sale of ice-cream in a small premises in Victoria Street, Taree. The success…

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Australian Botanical Products Limited

In the early years of the 20th century, Eric McMaster arrived in the Nabiac area. In 1912 he married Catherine (Katie) McKinnon, the youngest daughter of the late Captain Donald McKinnon of Glen-Ora, Nabiac.

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The Australian Agricultural Company: Introduction

The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) is Australia’s oldest continuous company. It was established in 1824 through an Act of British Parliament for the purpose of improving flocks of Merino sheep...

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Victory Cafe Taree

In 1943 George Cassimaty moved his business from Manning Street to set up the Victory Café in the Beehive Building. It was here that George changed the face of the Taree café scene...

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Baheeg 'Bill' Saad: Manning Cafe, Taree

Baheeg ‘Bill’ Saad was born in Douma, Lebanon in 1907. He was a well-known business man who established...

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Purfleet Butter Factory

Most days I drive past the site where a magnificent butter factory once stood tall. The Purfleet Butter Factory was opened on 14 December 1897 by the Australian Dairying Company...

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Saxbys Soft Drinks

“Ahh Saxbys, taste it to believe it”. Recognise this famous catch phrase? Who doesn’t love the best-selling Saxbys classic stone ginger beer trickling down your throat on a hot summer’s day? Saxbys was first established in 1864...

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North Coast Steam Navigation Co Ltd

In August 1891 the North Coast Steam Navigation Company was formed by the merger of the Clarence, Richmond and Macleay Rivers Steam Navigation Company and John See and Company...

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H. Nelson & Sons

Herman Nelson, a carpenter was born in Kempsey. The family left their general store in St. Ives and travelled by horse and cart to Taree in 1923...

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Food Fair

Bill Nelson purchased the Blue Flag grocery store in Manning Street, Taree in 1937. It put me in mind of Ronnie Barker’s ‘Open All Hours’...

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George De Saxe and Amy Mackay, Dentists

George De Saxe was born in 1856 and worked most of his life as a dentist in Sydney and Parramatta. He often visited smaller towns providing dental services and in September 1900 visited Wingham for this purpose…

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Prickly Pear Cough Syrup – a local speciality?

Until the mid nineteenth century cochineal was highly sought after as the pre-eminent agent to produce a rich, vibrant red dye. It was the substance used to colour the British army ‘Red Coat’ uniforms…

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Channell's, 54 Church Street, Gloucester

Henry James Channell was a hairdresser in Sydney with two salons in Park and George Streets. In 1907 he and his brother Arthur bought land at the Waukivory Subdivision...

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Mrs M E Williams' Refreshments Room

Since 1908, Maud Elizabeth Williams had conducted a successful tea room in Church Street. She was a confectioner, fruiterer and pastry cook...

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White's Corner, Gloucester

Archibald Joseph White, prominent townsperson, Shire Councillor and District Coroner was found dead in a hut on his grazing property at Bundook in 1939. He had died of a heart attack soon after arriving there...

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61-65 Church Street, Gloucester

In December 1936, the finishing touches were being made to Mr Robert Kendall’s new business block. Designed and built by Mr E Patmore…

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Dan Bros, Gloucester

‘Dan Bros’ was an early business in Gloucester established in 1929. The brothers who emigrated from Lebanon were...

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The Owl Store, Gloucester

On 27 March 1929 ‘The Owl Store’ opened at 36 Church Street, Gloucester. It was a Self-Serve Grocery Store – a new method of shopping at the time…

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Former National Australia Bank, Taree

Hardly recognisable today (2019) in its Priceline Pharmacy livery, this building started life in 1935 as a branch of the National Australia Bank…

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Pindimar Shark Factory

“Every shark taken by us lessens the chance of your being taken by a shark.” This was the catchcry of Marine Industries Ltd who in 1929…

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Yarads Taree

“We are here to stay!” declared Callile Abraham Yarad and his son Michael Callile ‘Mick’ in this 1933 advertisement of their store’s opening...

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Dan Bros of Taree

‘Dan Bros’ was the first Lebanese family to set up business in Taree in 1932. Nicholas Dan arrived in Australia in 1927 with his brother Toufic ‘George’...

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The Steam Packet Hotel, Taree

It was here that he erected an hotel reputedly known as the “Ship Inn”, and later the “Steam Packet Hotel”…

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The Bridge Service Station, Cnr Victoria and Commerce Streets, Taree

In the early 1920s Russian born John Kusnetzoff and his family arrived in Queensland. He later moved to NSW and joined the staff at Sanders Dairy…

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The Columbian Café – a glimpse of Taree in the Great Depression

In 1931 John Foster opened a new business, the Columbian Café and Accommodation House, in Victoria Street, Taree…

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Hobson’s Store - 135 Victoria Street, Taree

Late in 1922 an imposing two storied commercial building was under construction in Victoria Street, near the intersection with Manning Street...

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Leslie Hopetoun Osmond-Dreyer (1901-1959)

Leslie Hopetoun Osmond was born in 1901 in Marrickville. At the age of 10 years he was orphaned and, with his sister, was taken in by Mr and Mrs Dreyer at Koribar (Dyer’s Crossing)…

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Do you remember the “Rawleigh Man”?

William Thomas Rawleigh, or W.T. as he was later known, was an American businessman who mastered the practice of door-to-door sales of medicated ointments both in the US and overseas...

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Cape Hawke Memorial Hospital

After WWII, the population of Forster-Tuncurry had almost doubled and there was a growing need for a local hospital…

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Hector Haden

Hector Haden was born in Liverpool, Sydney in 1894 and moved to Forster with his family when his father was appointed engineer of the Dredge Forster…

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Early Tourism in Forster Tuncurry

During the early years of tourism young people in station wagons loaded with surf boards arrived in Forster. They slept in their cars or on the beaches…

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Mayo Private Hospital

Doctors Frank Oliver Stokes and Allen Muscio opened the Mayo Private Hospital in Taree with the first patients being treated in January 1921...

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Daralea Nursery and Florist

In 1931 Minnie Elizabeth Lee started a nursery, confectionary, florist and seed shop at 134 Victoria Street, Taree called “Lee’s Nursery”...

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Mitchells Island Butter Factory

On Saturday 30 November 1918, hundreds of people gathered at Mitchells Island to witness the opening of the Manning River Cooperative Dairy Company’s butter factory...

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William Augustus Fay: journalist

Of the seven original shareholders of the Northern Champion Printing and Publishing Company Limited registered by David Cowan in 1912, one seems an odd fit...

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The Beehive Store: behind the scenes

A “beehive” implies a busy place with small compartments - an apt description for a department store “always humming with business”...

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The Beehive Store

Scottish born Andrew Thomson was a baker by trade but after arriving in Taree in the mid 1850s he was encouraged to become a school teacher. Having taught at The Bight, Woolla and Ghinni...

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