retail

Fortitude Valley Developed to the north-east of Brisbane city, the Valley began life as a separate European settlement. Easily accessible by tram by the 1890s, the Valley, which was not flood-prone, had the largest department stores. These did not survive the rise of the car-based shopping centres, whereas the city proper managed to retain some of its department stores. The Valley experienced an urban renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s, when young people flocked to new night clubs, some in place of the brothels and illegal gambling joints of an earlier era. The first known evidence of civic life was the opening of a church house at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets in 1856-57. By the early 1860s there were a Primitive Methodist church, a primary school (1861), a free reading room and a locally-supported Alderman on the Brisbane town council. Alderman Warren soon organised a petition for municipal separation which, although refused, led to the creation of a separate Valley Ward (1864). The Valley, as it was becoming known, achieved a measure of commercial importance in 1864 when Thomas Finney bought a drapery business in Ann Street, the beginning of the Finney, Isles and Co department store (later in Queen Street, where David Jones took over the firm). Trams offered the main means of access to the Valley. Horse-drawn services from North Quay to the Exhibition grounds and to Breakfast Creek Road were opened in 1885. Fortitude Valley's rising commercial importance was best signified by the Renaissance style post office built in Ann Street in 1887. Thomas Finney's drapery store had grown and several significant retail establishments congregated around Brunswick and Wickham Streets: Overells in Ann Street (1883), which moved to Brunswick Street in 1899; T.C. Beirne in Brunswick Street (1891); and McWhirter's at the corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets (1898), crowning the site with a new art deco building in 1930. Completing the group was Foy and Gibsons in Wickham Street (1903). All became department stores. The new shopping area was above the 1890 flood level, in contrast to central and South Brisbane. Source: queenslandplaces.com.au/fortitude-valley

T.C. Beirne & Co. has a proud history of contribution both culturally and economically to Brisbane. Beirne’s as it was often referred to, held a position of prominence as a retailer of choice for decades during the early 1900’s to the 1960’s. T.C. Beirne (known as ‘T.C. Beirnes’ or just ‘Beirnes’) was a long-running department store that stablished Fortitude Valley as the place to shop for fashion in Brisbane. They catered to the middle of the market, offering a comprehensive range of women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing and footwear, as well as fabric, haberdashery, and other household goods. The early success and growth of Thomas Beirne’s drapery business demonstrates the opportunities Queensland held for immigrant fashion retailers Beirne’s retained its independence until David Jones bought it out in 1961. The Valley store continued to trade as T. C. Beirne until being rebadged as David Jones in 1966. The Fortitude Valley store was closed in 1973, in a widespread move by David Jones to cut costs. Thomas Charles Beirne (1860–1949), an Irishman, was the founder and director of the T.C. Beirne department stores, remaining active in the business right up until his death. What started as a modest drapery business made him one of Queensland’s most successful businessmen, and among the first Australian millionaires. Source: tcbandco.com.au/history/

MESSRS. ALEXANDER AND MUNRO. The business establishment par excellence of Toowoomba is that of Messrs. Alexander and Munro, whose large operations are conducted in the most elegant premises on the Darling Downs—in point of fact, the beat appointed and largest soft goods stores in any provincial town in the colony. The building is two stories In height, with a frontage of 114 ft. to Ruthven-street, the central thoroughfare of Toowoomba, and with a depth of 125 ft. The proprietors believe in an abundance of light and air, and they have carried their idea into practical effect, special provision having been made for this in the construction of the premises. Handsome plate-glass fronts run the whole length of the building, and the interior of the store is brilliantly lit. The upstairs portion of establishment 1b is also replete with every convenience for the sections located in this part of the establishment. The departments are many and varied, and each is in charge of an expert. They comprise drapery, millinery. Manchester goods, dressmaking, tailoring, clothing, mantles, boots, glassware, crockery, floorcloths, linoleums, furnishings, fancy goods, hollowware. It is therefore abundantly evident that Messrs. Alexander and Munro are in a position to supply the modest wants of the farmer, or the more pretentious requirements of the householder and to a man of unlimited means. The business conducted by this firm covers a great extent of the country—not only the Darling Downs district, of which Toowoomba is the chief commercial center, but away out among the cattle runs of the distant North and the sheep stations of the remote West; indeed, it Is a well-known fact that no retail house in Southern Queensland can boast of more extensive ramifications. Businessmen from all parts of the world who have visited Toowoomba have found their way into Messrs. Alexander and Munro's extensive repository and expressed their astonishment at seeing everything so complete. The cash railway, for instance, is fitted up all through the establishment, and the comfort of the employees, coupled with the rapid and economical despatch of business,- has received the best consideration. 'As a thoroughly complete -emporium, Messrs. Alexander and Munro's establishment Is certainly on \ par with the best-known houses of the metropolis, while they have the reputation of selling at prices such as many of the leading city houses even can not touch. The business was started in a small way in 1871, and some years after Mr. Alexander retired, and Mr. Munro took the burden of affairs on his own shoulders. He steadily forged ahead and kept pace with all the modern methods that competition had compelled commercial men to adopt. A big staff of assistants is of course employed, and Messrs. Alexander and Munro are now doing one of the largest businesses outside Brisbane. Mr. Munro, the managing partner, is a Scotchman, a shrewd, far-seeing businessman, and a very hard worker. He stands high in the estimation of his fellow townsmen and has on several occasions been asked to allow himself to be nominated for public honors, but his business is too exacting to allow him to do so just yet. Source: "The Queenslander" 20Nov. 1897 trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/24471944