Sepia Saturday: Business trucks

The theme photo this week features Finnish radio engineers on top of a broadcast van. So what have I got in my collection that might match? I found a few photos of trucks used by several generations of the Phelan family in various businesses over the years. Unfortunately this exercise has made me realise that there are a few gaps so I have some homework to do.

Firstly I should say that while the photos of the trucks are interesting the background is equally important for family history. We see images of buildings and landscapes not usually seen in 'posed' photos.

The first three photos are of a truck used by the Sims Bros general store in the small town of Mitiamo in central Victoria in the 1930s. The business was called Sims Bros but when these photos were taken it was owned by Roy Phelan who married Annie Sims. She was the daughter of C W Sims who bought the business from a Mr Dyke. (As an aside, I like the phone number - Mitiamo 2. Annie's brother, Charlie, set up the first phone connections in the Mitiamo area, a private line between several businesses and a farm at Pine Grove that the family owned. Mitiamo 1 was their home number in Mitiamo. Both numbers were probably applied when the official PMG lines were installed.) 

The truck used by Sims Bros general store to deliver goods throughout the Mitiamo district.

Neil Phelan and the Sims Bros delivery truck.

Doug Phelan and Pluto, Mitiamo.

Charlie Sims started making ice cream in Mitiamo and he had a nice little business going where he sold icecream at the Mitiamo railway station. After WW2 he moved north to Swan Hill and established an icecream factory. His nephew, Neil Phelan (my husband's father), worked for him for a while in the 1950s. This delivery van, a Chevrolet, was used in the business at Swan Hill. The sign on the van reads 'Sims Ice Cream. The cream of the north.'

Philip and Alan Phelan beside the Sims Ice Cream van, Swan Hill.

Neil Phelan at the Sims Ice Cream factory, Swan Hill.

The sale notice for Sims Ice Cream business
The Argus 20 November 1954

After operating a Post Office and Telephone Exchange at Toolamba in the mid-1950s Neil Phelan's next business venture was a fuel depot in Kerang. He delivered fuel around the town and out to the farmers in the district. Neil was already familiar with the fuel industry because of his father's and grandfather's involvement in the general store. He purchased this new 1957 Chevrolet truck, made in the USA, from Wattie Corrie, Bendigo. It was originally red with white trims on the grill, wheel hubs and grill but Mobil decreed that the truck had to be repainted Mobil red. The truck was used to carry bulk fuel and drums.

Mobil Depot, Kerang. Neil Phelan with his Aunt Ina and family, Philip, Alan and Shelley.

Philip and Alan Phelan on dad's truck at the depot.

The business needed a second truck so Neil bought a Chevrolet Maple Leaf, made in Canada. It was secondhand.

The Mobil fuel depot's second truck. Neil Phelan with Shelley and Kay.

Neil moved from Mobil over to the Amoco fuel depot in Kerang and used the truck in the next photo to deliver heating oil. It's a 1948 Morris Commercial truck. He purchased it off a local farmer. This truck has recently been donated to the Kerang Museum where it is being restored. The Amoco depot also had a bigger truck, a 7 ton Bedford, but I don't have a photo of that one so I'll have to search some more family albums and slides to see if I can find one.

Neil retired from the fuel business after about 30 years and no longer owns any trucks.

The Morris Commercial truck - still in the family but long after it had finished its working life.

I suggest you travel on over to Sepia Saturday to see what others have made of the theme photo.

Sepia Saturday: Neil the fuel agent

Open theme for Sepia Saturday this week had me more indecisive than usual. I think I prefer a theme photo. The family albums hold quite a few intriguing photos so I've selected one from my father-in-law's album that I scanned just a few weeks ago.

Neil understands fuel. When he was growing up in Mitiamo his father had a country store that included fuel pumps and supplied oils and fuel to the local farming community. After his war service, in the 1950s, Neil took over the management of the Vacuum Oil fuel depot in Kerang (and later the Amoco depot). He stayed in the business until he retired.

In the fifties the fuel was delivered from Melbourne to Kerang by train, the steam train shunting the tanker-laden carriages back onto a siding at the depot. The fuel then had to be decanted into tanks at the depot. The fuel and oils were then further decanted into 44-gallon drums so they could be loaded onto a truck for delivery around Kerang and the farms. In later years the fuel was delivered to Kerang by road tanker. This is one of the three trucks Neil and Tom had. It was used to deliver heating fuel. (It still exists - we have it in one of our sheds. It's never been restored but Phil gives the motor a run every now and again.)

N K Phelan and T Henderson, Kerang. The 1948 Morris Commercial
 truck that was used to deliver Amoco heating oil around the town.

It was all a lot of physical work and at each stage the fuel had to be dipped to measure quantities, drums had to be cleaned and painted and labelled, paperwork had to be filled in, accounts prepared, cheques banked. Neil is a very meticulous person by nature so everything was done properly. Neil and his partner delivered fuel out to the cereal farmers - on roads that were unsealed so it was often a slow, bumpy, muddy, slippery, hot or dusty process. They also delivered heating oil to homes in Kerang, they delivered fuel oil to the local power station (in the 1950s before the power came through), they sold fuel at the depot and they refuelled light planes and helicopters at the Kerang Airport.

We don't appear to have any photos of the depots and I checked online to see if there are any other photos of small-town fuel depots, and failed, so this photo probably has historical merit. Neil is the tall bloke in the centre and  he is preparing to load avgas into the helicopter. He had a storage shed at the airport where he kept the hose reel and trolley, several drums of avgas, signs and other equipment. The trolley had four wheels, the front ones on a swivel and the back ones fixed, and had a hand pump attached. The handle that you can see on the ground was used to pull the trolley.

Neil Phelan refuelling a helicopter at Kerang Airport c1960

We have this metal sign (below) from those days - we mounted it on the wood. It was on the wall of the shed at the airport to remind Neil and others of the correct safety procedures when they were fuelling the aircraft. They probably didn't need to read it as they knew the procedures backwards, but... 

...I notice that the sign doesn't mention other OHS (Occupation Heath and Safety) issues such as refuelling when there is a whole class of children clustered around! There are children in the helicopter (who knows what switches they're touching), the trolley handle is in a dangerous position and they are in an extremely volatile work environment.

Aircraft Fuelling Drill. Vacuum Oil metal sign

In the 1960s Neil had the contract to refuel the SEC (State Electricity Commission) helicopters. They were used to check the powerlines. Neil's daughter, Kay, remembers occasionally riding in the helicopter from the airport to the local motel where the pilot and the SEC employee were staying the night - and the helicopter being landed in the grounds of the motel!! It wouldn't happen today. We don't know whether the helicopter in the photo is one used by the SEC.

Now it is all much easier. The roads are in much better condition and the big fuel tankers deliver directly to the farm storage tanks. But Neil is 90 years old and in good health so the physical work doesn't appear to have been damaging.

Click on any image to view larger. You can see other significant photos over at Sepia Saturday.

Trove Tuesday: A brief business venture

The late Mr Sims was a pushing, energetic man, and one of the luckiest pioneers of the district. He owned a lot of land at Pine Grove, also at Kerang, where he resided for some years until recently. His was a well-known name amongst auctioneers and business men all over Victoria and he always did his utmost to push the interests of his district ahead. He also took a keen interest in the Mallee, and by his energetic advocacy did much towards the development of a considerable part of that country.  [Rochester Express, Friday 6 April 1906]

The obituary above describes Samuel Sims as an energetic business man. Today's blog for Trove Tuesday details just one of his business ventures, one I didn't know about before 'reading all about it' at Trove.

In 1889 he was farming near Kerang and at Pine Grove in northern Victoria and, as well, had established a store, butter factory and butchery at Pine Grove. The eldest son, Sidney (aged 23), was also at Kerang and was a player with his father in their brief venture into the butchering business there.

The first evidence I found was this newspaper notice from May 1889.

Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette, Friday 24 May 1889, page 3

In the same newspaper there is an article (too long to reproduce here) about a court case involving the prior owner, Mr Moorhead. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about who actually owned the debts associated with the business when Moorhead was the butcher. It appears to me that Samuel Sims, the canny businessman, had all his bases legally covered. The article provided me with interesting details about how much he paid and how he organised his business affairs.

Then there is a newspaper advertisement I found, dated 27 September 1889.

The Kerang Times, Friday 27 September 1889, page 4

Then, a month later, this notice appeared. They've closed the business.

The Kerang Times, Tuesday 22 October 1889, page 3

Samuel Sims and his son Sidney continued to farm in the district. There's more to their stories, there always is, but that will have to wait for another day.

Samuel SIMS, son of William SIMS and Mary LEATHERLAND was born on 14 Apr 1831 in Uppingham, Rutland, England. He died on 31 Mar 1906 in Pine Grove, Victoria, Australia. He married Elizabeth CARTER, daughter of Joseph CARTER and Ann TURNER on 29 May 1865 in Lauriston, Victoria, Australia (In the home of Elizabeth's mother, Ann CARTER.). She was born in 1842 in Billingshurst, Sussex, England. She died on 03 Sep 1891 in Pine Grove, Victoria, Australia. Issue: Sidney, Ann (married Edwin Chappel), Charles and Albert.