business

The main competitors in the world record market, The Gramophone Company, and the Columbia Graphophone Company, originally hesitated to enter the Australian market and it took several years before they established record pressing plants in Australia. Whereas the Columbia Graphophone also ran a recording studio from the beginning, the Gramophone Company could not bring itself to operate recording facilities in Australia in order to produce local acts. The Great Depression forced the rivals to amalgamate into EMI also in Australia in 1931. The Gramophone Company The 1898 established British major record company, the Gramophone Company, sent an agent and 25,000 recordings as well as a large number of gramophones to Australia in February 1900 to establish a distribution branch under the direct control of the London parent company. Since the sales figures of the first two years in business did not meet the expectations, the retail business was closed down and sold with the remaining stock to the independent Sydney record retailer Hoffnung & Co. Ltd. in 1905. After World War I, the Australian government enforced a protective economic policy including high tariff barriers and trade restrictions. Thus, when the distribution agreement with Hoffnung & Co. Ltd. expired in 1925, the Gramophone Co. management decided to take the record business again into its own hands and established a gramophone and record plant in Sydney with a capacity of 150,000 records monthly. To cover the whole pacific market two companies were formed. An Australian firm with a production site in Sydney and a distribution branch for New Zealand held by the new Australian company. In mid of 1925, a general manager of the new Australian and New Zealand branches, William Manson, was sent to Sydney and on January 18, 1926, he could ceremonially open the new factory, which immediately started to press the “His Master’s Voice records and the budget ‘Zonophone’ label recordings. The firm’s internal correspondence reveals that the business ran well. The orders could only be met by additional shifts and supplementary shipping from London. Due to a rapidly growing population, the demand for recordings in Australia and New Zealand was far from saturated – in contrast to the stagnating European and U.S. markets. Source: musicbusinessresearch.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/the-early-...

One hundred and twenty years ago Townsville's Flinders Street East was the bustling major gateway to Australia on the eastern coast. In 1888, exactly 120 years ago, three prominent buildings along Flinders Street East were opened. Local historian Dr Dorothy Gibson-Wilde says the double-story, coral-coloured Magnetic House was the most prominent of that year, originally built for the AMP society by Sir John Sulman. "He is one of Australia's most famous architects and is well known for his work in Sydney around the university," she explains. "To have him design a building at what was then a small coastal port, was a great indicator as to how a lot of people felt about the future of north Queensland." Along with the AMP society, Flinders Street East was home to several banks. The Australian Joint Stock Bank opened in 1888 and was designed by the architect F.D.G. Stanley. It now houses a nightclub aptly named, The Bank However, the street was most populated by agents for the great shipping companies. Burns Philp, Aplin Brown and Co and Samuel Allens and Sons were among the biggest. But Dorothy remembers one particular company, Carter and Co, that was where the Queensland Insurance Building is today next to the Museum of Tropical Queensland. "It was known as the concrete wharf," she says, "and even in my childhood I can remember sugar lighters unloading at that wharf." What would those who first built up Flinders Street East think now if they knew the bustling port had turned into an entertainment strip? ' I think they'd be a bit surprised to see that their city is still surviving," Dorothy says. A western sprawl had already begun in 1888, and by 1889 Victoria Bridge had opened to traffic, providing access from the city area over to the new wharves at South Townsville. AMP moved out of Magnetic House in 1929 into new premises on the other end of Flinders Mall, which now houses Connolly Suthers Lawyers. Then in 1927 AMP built what was a major state government office building at the opposite corner on Stanley Street. "We've got a wonderful set of buildings that tell the story of the city," Dorothy says. Source: www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/09/23/2371819.htm

Thomas Charles Beirne was born in Ballymacurly, Ireland in 1860. After completing his schooling in 1880 he was employed as a draper with the Gallagher Brothers until he was persuaded by a friend to migrate to Australia. So, in 1884 Beirne set off for Melbourne, Australia on the ‘Lusitania’, where he was promptly employed by draper Eyre and Sheppard. In 1886 T. C. Beirne took up a partnership with a Mr Piggot in Brisbane, coming together to form a drapery store in Stanley Street. However, after a fire ripped through the store in 1889 the partnership was dissolved and Beirne went on to bigger and better things. After establishing a small store in Fortitude Valley, Beirne was once again offered the opportunity to join in a partnership this time with a Scottish gentleman by the name of James McWirther. Together they operated a business in the Valley, a major shopping precinct in the 1890s. After three years, however, James McWirther decided to open a rival store prompting serious competition for Beirne, who at this point in time had just opened his first small T. C. Beirne’s store in the town of Ipswich. Source: www.ipswichlibraries.com.au/the-beirne-family-irish-retai...