Coachbuilding and Related Crafts in Tasmania

Citation

Coachbuilding and related crafts in Tasmania. Peter Macfie. Papers and Proceedings, Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Vol 43, No. 2, June 1996, pp 77-88

Also presented at the Tasmanian Local History Conference, Bellerive, 1995.

Outline

A history of coachbuilding in Tasmania, along with related crafts. Includes a survey of coach builders across urban and rural Tasmania. The paper was edited for THRA, so the excerpt does not match the PDF. The index does match the THRA copy.

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Coachbuilding and related crafts in Tasmania.pdf

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Coachbuilding index only (2018-06-29).pdf

Excerpt of document prior to THRA editing

Changes in technology are unkind to the outdated, the superseded. Equipment and people of the old technology are discarded with headlong narcissism of the new. The change from horse power to motor power was arguably the greatest change in technology in history. Before WW1, the combustion engine was intruding into the ancient world and trade skills with a history thousands of years old. By 1930, all coach or carriage builders were no longer operating. Those surviving had adapted to motor body building. Within 25 years trades and skills accepted an unchallenged for four to five thousand years were redundant.

The popularity of the ubiquitous ‘T’ Model Ford was as great in Tasmania as elsewhere. The final coup -de- grace came after WW11 when the tractor replaced the work horse; the gentle ‘draughts’ faced extinction at the slaughterhouse at worst, at best, a quiet retirement. Horse-drawn vehicles of town and country suffered the same destruction, fired among blackberries, resting, rotting quietly under gum and pine tree. Rarely kept under cover. The final ignominy came via American TV’s Bonanza. Wheels were pulled off vehicles  to adorn drive- ways of innumerable ‘Ponderosas’, while the bodies of the vehicles -that’s what they were called- rotted on the ground. Those few that survive are rare antiques, especially those with original paint work. The old trades and skills are followed by a few fanatics; mostly self-taught, if at all.

Today, few examples of the coachbuilders craft have survived the ridicule of progress.

A glimpse of those days comes from the following description.

“…. The coaches proper, old four in hand ‘Royal Mail’ style, with a big coat of arms emblazoned on the sides left night and morning from the coach offices in Collins Street, and in the evening a crowd used to gather at the Ship Hotel corner…. wagering on the arrival of the opposition coaches from Launceston….”

The Races, Regattas and all had a more varied aspect. It was good to see the meet of the ‘four-in hands’, private coaches, usually about 10 or 12 leave Lord’s Corner for Elwick. Wilson’s, the two Lords (John and James), Pages, Grubbs, and others, some of whom used to drive right through the North to the races, and brilliant equipages they were. The pubic conveyances were all different from today.

They were then two wheeled cars with fore and aft seats and one horse. Another kind like waggonettes called’ jingles’ also ‘curricles.

Coach builders of the horse drawn era were also known as carriage makers and coach makers. In smaller centres, wheelwrights like Richmond’s Jimmy Anderson made smaller vehicles and repaired all sizes. The largest of the coach building firms were based in Hobart or Launceston. In these firms, four trades were practised to complete the finished vehicle. “The four great trade of coach making; wood- working, blacksmithing, painting and trimming.”[1] The woodworker was both a wheelwright and builder of the timber body. Allan Abbott told Denis Hodgkinson that he worked for coach makers Payne and Son, Launceston, in Paterson Street (now Repco’s), established in 1864. They had 40 men working for them in all the trades.[2]

In rural towns, the equivalent business was based around the wheelwright, who had to be very versatile, able to manufacture vehicles for town and farm use. Most wheelwrights worked with a blacksmith, and such firms also produced ploughs and other farm implements. In smaller towns the wheelwright also had other roles. Jimmy Anderson at Richmond, John Mylan at Burnie, A. N. Wright at Wynyard, and Parsons at Ulverstone all acted as local undertakers. In slack periods, Anderson was also house builder and cabinet maker. Before World War 1, Tas Jones was apprenticed for six years as a coach painter for Bird and Hopkins, Burnie. In slow periods, the young apprentice painted one of six houses owned by Mr Bird.[3]

In town and village, the coach builder/ wheelwright were prominent members of the community. Alexander Fraser’ who operated in Hobart in the before 1850, and Walter Lee, co -owner of Lee Brothers Longford, largest farm vehicle manufacturer around 1900, were both active members of the Methodist church. Fraser moved to Victoria and became a St Kilda councillor and member of the Legislative Council. Walter Lee moved into Tasmanian politics, holding his seat from 1908 to 1946. During that time he was premier and knighted. By the late 1920s the firm folded with the coming of the motor vehicle.

The first vehicles were imported carts, drawn by bullocks or men. G. P. Harris was shocked to see a disgraced former horse trooper ‘who now works in drawing the timber carriage.’[4] Parramore family paid £30 for a cart and the woodwork of a plough.[5] A convoy of 6 carts drawn by 32 bullocks returned to Ross from Hobart Town in 1823.[6] In 1823 a carrier’s wagon was imported on the Skelton for service between Hobart and Launceston.[7] This is one of the first references to four wheeled horse drawn vehicles in the colony. Imported vehicles continued to compete with local manufacturers, especially in the prestigious end of the market. Capt. Cooling imported 5 ‘elegant’ chaises of different designs suitable for the colony[8]. In November 1823, Thomas Scott of Liverpool Street, Hobart, advertised a ‘saddlery and Harness Warehouse’ in Liverpool Street where he had ‘commenced trimming and covering gigs in the best London style’.[9]

In 1832 Charles Bush of the Bush Inn New Norfolk operated one of two London coaches imported by Captain M. C. Friend. Naming his coach Fair Play, Bush competed with Mills Tally Ho, who added the Eclipse in 1832.[10] Despite the growth of local firms, imported vehicles were still sought after. In 1840 James Strong imported 2 spring vans to carry goods and passengers.[11]

In 1824 Matthew McMahon of Bagdad, advertised that he;

“… begs leave to inform the inhabitants of Hobart Town, Launceston and the settlers in the interior of the colony, that he has built a capital four wheel WAGGON which will be drawn by eight bullocks to start of Friday the 30th instant for the sole purpose of conveying goods throughout the colony.[12]”

Although working bullocks were £50 a pair, and the island was ‘infested with bushrangers’ in a petition for a land grant, McMahon claimed his aim was accomplished. He had carted wool and goods for Thomas Archer of Woolmers and received Archer’s endorsement for his zealousness in pursuing and guarding three captured bushrangers in the stock hut where he lived. A similar letter of support came from George Clark, Roderick Connor William Pike and John Bisdee who had ‘employed Matthew McMahon’s waggons and carts time after time to convey our goods to ’our Estates’ in the “Interior.’[13]

…..

End of Excerpt

To read more, download the appropriate PDF from above.

References from the excerpt

[1] Hodder, p16

[2] LHR

[3] pers comm, 1995

[4] Hamilton- Arnold, p60

[5] Shelton, p22

[6] ibid, p29

[7] HTG 4/1/23

[8] HTG 24/2/27, p5

[9] HTG 15/11/23 p4

[10] Steiglitz, p72

[11] Col Times, 5/5/40, p8

[12] HTG 23/4/1824. Bagdad April 1824.

[13] OD 22/12/1837, p1221

Indexed subjects

Abbott, Alfred

Abbott, Allan

Adamson, William

Anderson, Jimmy

apprentices

apprenticeships

Archer, Thomas

Arnol, William

assigned servants

Atkinson, John

Backwell, Sam

Bagdad

Barrett, Peter

Belbin. Mr ?

Bird & Hopkins

Bird, Mr.?

Bisdee, John

blacksmith technology

blacksmiths

Bonanza (tv show)

Bothwell

Bothwell-Melton Mowbray run

Brown, W.A.

bullock carts

bullocks

Burdon, James

Burdon, William

Burgess, Henry

Burgess, Mary

Burnie

Burrows, E.

bushrangers

Butler, Gamiel

Byard’s Bakery

Bye, Benjamin

C & P Naylor

Carriage & Agricultural Implement Manufactory

chaise carts

Chiplin, Howard

Chisholm, John

churches

Catholic church

Methodist church

St Francis Xavier

Star of the Sea, Burnie

Wesleyan church

Clarence Plains

Clark, George

coach painters

coach spring makers

coach trimmers

coachbuilders

Colebrook

Commonwealth Carriage Works

convicts

Cooling, Capt. ?

Cox, John Edward

Cox, May Ann (Mrs John

Cramp Bros

Cramp, R.J.

Cramp, W.T.

Cripps, Henry

Crisp’s timber yard

Crocker, ?

Crocker, Henry

Crocker, Joshua

Cummings, Raymond & co

Curran, Owen

Darey, Henry

Dargaville, Mr ?

Davies, J.G. (mayor)

Davis, Thomas

Dawson, C.

Denton, James

Devonport

Devonport West

Don

draught horses

E.A. Fawkner Ltd

Easther, George Thomas

Easther, W.

emancipists

Eureka jump seat buggies

farm implements

Fawkner, E.A.

Feutrill, Samuel

Flight & Evans

Flight, Peter

Flood, D.

Ford assembly

Fraser, Alexander

Frost, B

Frost, B.

General Smith of Sheffield

George Thomas Easther’s Coach Factory

George’s Bay

Gormanston mines

Gould, T.

Gould, W.B.

Gould, William Beulow

Grubb family

Gunton, William

Hagley

Halls, Mary Ann

Harris, G.P.

harrows

Henry Crocker & Son

Hobart

Hobart to Launceston run

Hobart Town

Hodgkinson, Denis

house painting

Howard, ?

Howard, Davis

inns

Ship Hotel

James Burdon & Son

James, W.R.

Jericho

Jones, Tas

Latrobe

Launceston

Lee Bros.

Lee Robert

Lee, James E.

Lee, Sir Walter

Lee, Walter E.

Lehman, Jacob

Leven Carriage Works

light single buggies

Little Swanport

Locket, John

Longford

Longford Steam Dray, Waggon & Plough Works

Lord, David

Lord, James

Lord, John

MacLean, George

Marshall, A.

Mason & Feutrill

Mason, William Mummery

Matthews & Johnson

Matthews, Charles

Matthews, James

McGuire, Charles E.

McKenzie, John

McMahon, Matthew

McPherson’s Coach Establishment

McPhersons of Hobart

Mead, Herbert

Melton Mowbray

Millar Bros, Melbourne

Mitchelmore, Peter

model coach

Moir, Joseph

Mylan, John

National Exhibition

Naylor P.

Naylor, C.

Neilson, N.P.

Neilson, Peter

Nettlefolds, Hobart

Nevin, ?

Nichols brothers

Nichols family

Nichols, E.C.A.

Norfolk Islanders

O’Connor, Roderic

Page family

Paine & Wadham

Paine, George

Palmer, ?

Palmer, Henry

panel beaters

Parker, J.

Parramore family

Parson& Gilmour

Parson’s Carriage Works

Parsons & Gilmour

Parsons at Ulverstone

Parsons, R.K.

Parsons, R.L.

Paul, Thomas

Payne & Son, Launceston

Phoenix Carriage Works

Pike, William

ploughs

Point Puer boys

properties

Connorville

Durham House

Ellinthorpe

Entally

Hutton Park

Killymoon

Narryna

Quorn Hall

Woolmers

Richmond

Root, Joseph

Ross

Royal Show

Said Pasha

Sarven steel axle

Sassafras

Schwann, William

Scott, Thomas

Shadbolt, George

Shadbolt, L.G.

Shadbolt, Linden

Sheffield

ships

Curler

Duckfield

Montmorency

Skelton

Westminster

Simcoe, W.

Smith, ?

Snelling, William

springs

St Helens

Stewart, Robert

Sturt, George

Swansea

Tasmanian Carriage Works

Tasmanian Government Railway

technological change

Terry, S.

Titmus, L.

Trail, ?

Tuckwell & Fraser

Tuckwell, ?

Tuckwell, Mr ?

Turner, Rev. Nathaniel

Ulverstone

undertakers

upholsterers

vehicles

basket phaetons

broughams

buggies

bullock waggons

business wagons

butcher delivery carts

carriages

carts

chaise carts

chaises

coaches

American style

Cobb & Co style

four in hand

light post style

mail coach

Royal Mail style

stage coach

The Tasman

curricles

delivery carts

drays

floats

gigs

hansom cabs

hay waggons

jingles

landaus

landoulets

lorries

motor ambulance

motor vehicles

pagnals

parcel carts

phaetons

railway carriages

spring drays

waggonettes

waggons

water carts

Von Stieglitz, Frederick Lewis

Vout, Chisholm & co.

Vout, John

Waddington, ?

Wadham, Thomas

wagering on coach arrivals

waggon wheels

Wakeham, ?

Webb & Corbett

Webb, John

Westbury

wheelwrights

Wiggins, W.

Williams, James

Wilson, William

World War II

Wright & Waddington

Wright, ?

Wright, A.N.

Wyatt, John

Wynyard

Yeoman, David

 

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