OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum The Old Soap Box RESPONSE to Owen Cox & Company

This topic relates to a couple of photos of the 1960 Owen Cox premises
I posted in the History Forum.

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/78056/OWEN_COX_&_COMPANY_PREMISE.html

Valuable information has already been gained.
The responses start below:-

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G'day Jack, G'day Folks,

Jack, you normally put a link to the soapbox with you history articles. Sorry, I couldn't find it on the Owen cox photo page.

Just like to comment how quiet and idyllic Ipswich road looked in the sixties! You wouldn't attempt to cross it now during business hours. Like the rest of Brisbane, hell on wheels! We are truly missing out in this respect in modern cities, but can't be changed. Sigh.

Also, a quick look on the old interweb suggests that Owen cox was still operating out of that address until v recently still selling outdoor products, including victa products?! i.e. Still in retail. I just googled 61 Ipswich road.

Current google earth photo shows it up for redevelopment.

Cheers,

G'day prd

I'm glad that you raised this timely issue!
I'm sorry for this long reply - but we need help.

The link is not there yet because the article has 'issues' that I have
not resolved. I think this will take some time.

The brilliant Gadge has given me fantastic info that suggests the article
needs to be revised, if necessary. I feel it is necessary

Yes, a Google search does reveal as you describe.
Mate, you may be able to help. These are some points:-

[1] It would appear that Owen Cox designs and trademarks were
privately sold at some point late last century.

Cox Industries has no direct relationship with the Owen Cox family.
Owen Cox died in 1977. The following article is informative, but I feel
there is error of historical importance:-

http://www.couriermail.com.au/busin...s-story/dbd6657d4085ac0d7e1e5f73db7355f2

My quest is to find who made Australia's first ride-on.
I have argued that Cox was not making ride-ons in the 1950s,
but made their first ride-on, the Mowmobile in the early 1960s.

[2] The photos are not a model record - but they need to
give accurate historical information as to what Cox was doing
in 1960 - given the signage. I need to clarify exactly what
the Grass Master and Mow Master were!

By advertising Garden Master, Grass Master and Mow Master, the
easy conclusion is that there is some maker commonality. I have
said that I do not believe that is the case. That is un-resolved.

[3] The Google search reveals that Yellow pages and True Local
have records that suggest an Owen Cox & Co did survive at the old
address. The thing is that the True Local listing shows a linked
website. Here is a screen capture where I have inserted the linked
address (Kawasaki!!!):



So, I'm guessing that the retail store survived and remained in the family,
but had no connection to the new owners of the manufacturing arm.

So any help in this area to improve the record would be appreciated.
Gadge has located the patent for the "live Drive" transmission,
but I will only include that when I am confident in writing a
history record of a Cox model. I am no Cox expert.

p.s. the Google Maps search revels the new building that replaced
the old building in the photo record. That building housed the
Owen Cox showroom (downstairs) with offices upstairs. The factory
was behind this with access from the side street.

The 2016 image seems to show that the building is vacant.
My best guess is that Owen Cox and Company is now defunct, at least
at this address, but more investigation is needed.



All very interesting.
----------------------------
Jack

Jack, I think your right. It is unlikely that the first cox ride on was on the market when the photo was taken, given the lack of signage on the matter. Is the dating of the photo correct? I think it is. A quick google search informs me channel nine first broadcast in Brisbane in August 1959. ( I'm looking at the TV antenna and the TV sign on the shop.) The only other obvious 'dater' of the photo are the cars, and are unhelpful being all from the fifties.

Perhaps the Owen Cox & co name has lived on outside of family control as the cox industries business has.

Cheers,

Geeze there reviews look good lol

G'day prd and Kye

I do like to get it right, but that is not always the case...
I do feel, though, that ODK does have professional moderators
that help ensure the quality of information.

We do rely (heavily) on members to run this forum.
Yes prd, the dating comes from the BCC Library - as 1960.

Deejay, my co-administrator, phoned me today, and with his extensive knowledge
of horse-less carriages, confirmed that the date must be accurate.

This was also confirmed by your clever research of a clue I missed ... TV!
This must be a welcome lesson for all - look at everything!

Cheers
----------------
Jack

Owen Cox and Co Woolloongabba closed down in October 2014. I went there and bought lots of spare parts and blades for very cheap. Also picked up a Victa Trim a Lawn never used with instruction manual. They also had some other Vintage mowers, but wasn't into the collecting as much as I am now. It's sad to see them gone, as I pass the building regularly.

See this link for the closing down advertisement:
http://australia.defipedia.org/au11/closing-down-sale-47451/

I got great service when I was there, so the service must have improved since that review was posted.

G'day Vwmania

Many thanks!
We must be very lucky to get new, quality information so quickly!

It would appear that Owen Cox closed down and sold off assets
in October of 2014. The building was then refurbished.

Morning all,

It has been a constant source of irritation to me that no Queensland newspapers post 1954 have been digitised on Trove - especially the courier mail. Much light could be shed on this question (when did Cox first produce a ride on) and many others very quickly if they were. I realise permission is required before the nla can digitise past 1954 but the complete non existence of anything past that year from Queensland has me suspecting there is something in Queensland law preventing it. Sigh.
It'll happen one day.

Also, off topic, what was the idea behind the TV sign? I know TV retailers would allow folks to watch in store and had sets in the window so people could come and watch at night. This being just marketing - feeding the addiction thus building sales. Guessing the idea here was similar. Get people in the door to watch TV and maybe build sales on the back of it?

Cheers,

prd, that brings back memories, I was only 9 when tv arrived in Melb and I can remember the crowds 10 deep outside a shop with a tv going in the window at night. And then there was the clock on the screen for hours on end because they had no programs to show and we used to just sit and watch the seconds tick away. I remember earlier, I was probably 7 or 8 and a kid I was playing with up at the park, he told me that one day you would be able to watch pictures in your house, just like a radio but with pictures. I thought he was crazy

G'day prd ... tell me about it!

Copyright is Commonwealth legislation under the Constitution.
Restrictions post 1954 are based on media ownership and their withholding
of open access.

One can easily find post 1954 records on Trove, but only within current law.
Meaning ... a 'sample' selection is there. There are exceptions: like the
Canberra Times - who recognise the importance of history and public access.

It is as you describe though: many questions could be answered with free
access. All I can say is ... we need to support the A.N.L. and TROVE.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-...s-trove-online-database-in-doubt/7242182
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...-not-funded-to-add-to-collection/7377634

Cheers
----------------
Jack

G'day Norm and prd

Norm, that story you told was just magic. It nicely says just what
excitement there must have been post-WWII - when all sorts of appliance
were introduced to a public who could finally afford some of them.

TVs were jolly expensive when introduced, and my folks told me the
story that they could only afford a TV rental in the 1960s. I think
this was a popular option in those days.

Yes prd!
I have heard stories of parents who would turn up with kids in their
pajamas to watch a popular night show through the store window.

Clearly this was marketing catering to a new and exciting invention:
talkies in the lounge room! Who would have thought that possible!

-----------------------
Jack

........and there it is. I hadn't actually read anything about cuts to trove funding but in a climate where the venerable CSIRO, BOM and the public broadcasters are fighting to get enough money to survive, it's no surprise the nla is getting the axe put to it too.
I'm resigned to the fact that we'll see no more large scale digitisation for a little while- but it will come, it has to.
Interesting that once again we, 'stralia, were leaders in the area. And once more we don't know it, don't appreciate it and pull the pennies out from under it. Happened so often.

I went through a stage where I would get up in the morning and read the headlines from the courier mail for that day in 1939, or 1945, or whatever other year suited my fancy. More interesting than the crud on the front page of the local rag now.

Cheers,

Jack I seem to have this idea in my head that my grandmother bought a 14 or it might have been a 17 inch TV in 1956 and I seem to have this idea it cost her 50 pounds which was massive money at the time when I think the average wage was about 8 pounds a week. And at the same time the Victa toecutters were selling for about 54 pounds. Grandma couldn't afford one of those so it was an Ogden push mower for her, I remember many hours spent pushing it around, so I know it was an Ogden.