Hello ODK History Lovers

The main photograph I would like to share appears in Part Two of the topic post.
However, as is typical, the backstory is also of some interest, so I have devoted
this first part to the story of a small (big for the town) ironmonger that became
a hardware and general store for the Ipswich community. Ipswich is now a large
urban city, located about 40 kilometers west of Brisbane, Queensland.

McKenzie and Jackson were Victa agents in Ipswich and I believe this established
hardware store had been operating since the early 1920s, but was originally a
general store established by G.H. Wilson & Co. They sold pretty much everything
and would have been a well-know and key business in Ipswich. Their slogan was,
The Cheapest House in Town. They advertised mostly American lawnmowers in the
1920s, but were certainly selling Australian-made push mowers from the 1930s
onward.

The premises were located at the corner of East and Limestone Streets, Ipswich.
These photos, published by the Ipswich Libraries, show how the business looked
in 1956.

[Linked Image]
Image: c1956 - Ipswich Libraries, copyright holder Whitehead Studios, Ipswich.

[Linked Image]
Image: c1956 - Ipswich Libraries, copyright holder Whitehead Studios, Ipswich.

The most exciting photo, though, was one taken in 1957, at the Ipswich Show
for that year. It was a display stand devoted to just one product: the Victa
Rotomo Model 2!

TO BE CONTINUED ...