NEWS
NEWS
Of gems, gelignite and grand dreams
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I n 1989 I was fortunate to grasp a business that the fallen tycoon Christopher Skase was wanting to sell quickly: Hardy Bros Jewellery.
village people
- JOHN MCKINNEY
GARY BALKIN Don’t you just love the history of Brisbane and our south-east corner? I also enjoy following our history and heritage and can tell what was standing in a certain venue at times since the early 1950s. I am not alone in this. Remember when The Valley was still being declared “dead” just 25 years ago? Now Fortitude Valley is in the middle of a remarkable resurgence to the forefront of our city and the Emporium is a leading light. The Emporium has an array of good restaurants and shopping experiences that complement the
good feelings we have about the expanding capital city we call home. The famed McKinney family of Toowoomba origin has been firmly entrenched for its jewellery stores in Brisbane and interstate venues but the one-time jewellers and gem-stone merchants have long foregone their other bases and are ensconced here at The Emporium. In this up-market centre are McKinney Jewellers, and patriarch John’s daughter’s store “Margot”, specialising in high-end jewellery designs. Back in the patriarch’s store I met his grandson Andrew Welch, joining after securing his degree in business at the University of Queensland.
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So the generations continue. Some great Queensland families have grown in tandem with our great state and history is interspersed with events that have influenced our nation. Only older readers and students of our war years will know of the Brisbane Line – the demarcation declared by the Brisbane-based Allied Forces Commander MacArthur in 1943, where the American stated the Defence Forces would delineate where defence of Australia against expected Japanese forces would be planned, from Brisbane southward. Many of us lived north of the Brisbane Line and family memories related to me are of schoolkids in trenches exercises, much the same
as today’s fire alarm exercises, and of endless trainloads of allied troops heading back and forth from Cairns to Coolangatta. Some families sent their kids to be schooled over the border, from Armidale to Sydney and Melbourne. John McKinney, now 86, was first sent to St Hilda’s Southport. St Hilda’s had changed to a boys’ school while the girls went to Bowral in New South Wales. John recalls the trenches well, the sirens, and occasionally a plane overhead when schoolkids thought attack was reality. From St Hilda’s, John went to Kings School, Parramatta. After the war, John completed his education there and immediately began a job at Prouds jewellers in Sydney’s CBD. After working in every section of Prouds, he returned home to work in his father’s store, the premier specialty store on the Darling Downs. The famous store had started trading in 1884 when John’s grandfather, also John, opened as a barber and tobacconist, moved on to selling imported and fancy goods, china, dinner sets and silver cutlery, Winchester rifles, Parker pens, cigarette lighters and hair clippers. In later decades, good jewellery and gems were showcased and the
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famous store catered to most tastes. John’s father Ken followed as the boss and he was enthusiastic about the popularity of precious gems and jewellery. Christmas was big in Toowoomba, as it was in the capital and elsewhere, and the McKinneys had entrepreneurial ideas and promotions. For three weeks leading into Christmas Eve, John recalls driving his truck float, towing along a waving Santa Claus in a sleigh with his “cut-out” reindeer, and the massive crowds would cheer them along the whole street from the shopfront, up and down the road. John recalled the 1950s as an exciting time. “The Redex Reliability Trials run in that decade were front-page news. “As some (readers) may remember, they were annual car race rallys around Australia, in that era of many rough country roads which were part of the route. “Car makers like Holden, Ford, VW, Citroen and Peugeot were just some of the new and pumped-up cars that travelled the 9600-mile (15,450km) circuit that usually started and finished in Sydney. “Jack McCafferty, the bus fleet owner in Toowoomba, had an interest in a General Motors sub-dealership in Toowoomba, and I went with him as a second driver. “In the back was a Toowoomba Chronicle journalist busy writing his next day’s rally news. “There were some real characters also driving who were household names in the nation, like ‘Gelignite Jack’ Murray and Jack Davey, the radio great of the time, and being a comedian of stature, his and Murray’s cars took the daily limelight. “We had a new Holden and went well but our journo mate became car sick and had to leave us. “These were the days before 4WDs but the cars generally held up well. “That year 1954 the rally was won by Gelignite Jack in a 1948 Ford Deluxe V8.” The Holdens of the era were similar in looks to Brisbane icon Rock ‘n’ Roll George’s beloved car. In 1958 a Holden FE won the rally. We had some great characters in the 1950s and Jack Davey and Bob Dyer kept us all listening and laughing. John McKinney also enjoyed driving in speedway events in his twenties, including in the Australian Grand Prix at Lowood. John McKinney continued to where he stands today and there were other interesting times filling the 130 years of family business successes.
“We did have a setback in the 1970s when we took a lease at Indooroopilly Shoppingtown with a business selling furniture and electrical goods. “We were burning our fingers as that was also the era when cut-priced whitegoods cornered the market. “The rental was tied to CPI (the consumer price index) and we were in a dilemma. “The answer was to change back to what we did best in Toowoomba, so we remodelled on the old theme, plus Sydney dealers delivered us pearls and other precious gems to showcase. We were on our way again. “In 1989 I was fortunate to grasp a business that the fallen tycoon Christopher Skase was wanting to sell quickly: Hardy Bros Jewellery. “Hardy Bros was an Australian institution, a fantastic business, and among other leading products was the annual Melbourne Cup. “For about a decade we had Hardy Bros stores in Melbourne, Sydney City, Double Bay, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Port Douglas. “We closed the Indooroopilly business to focus on its growth. “We eventually sold to Wallace Bishop and reverted to just McKinneys Jewellers in Brisbane and our old Toowoomba store. I travelled from Toowoomba and stayed in Brisbane frequently. “I sold the Toowoomba store in 2004.” When I walked in to McKinneys at The Emporium, John was on the phone to daughter Margot in America. She was in Dallas, Texas, where she was selling her jewellery into the great American chain of Neiman Marcus. John and his wife Anne had three daughters and the other two are Jane and Sally. Sadly, his wife passed some years ago, and he now lives in Hamilton, coming in daily at 10am to the life he loves, and never far from his family. “Youngest daughter Jane is back at the business following her raising of her three sons. “My other daughter Sally is also part of the team at the store. Their growing up surrounded by precious jewellery instilled in them a respect for fine craftsmanship and high standards.” McKinneys Jewellers has a strong presence in 2016 and John has been selling fabulous pink diamonds now for many years. He does not play golf at Royal Queensland as regularly these days, nor for decades has he been a speedway car racer. But John delights in concentrating on furthering the family’s interests in gems and their business at The Emporium.
Out with the ‘old’, in with the Seniors senior voice TONY TOWNSEND National Seniors is looking to the future with new senior appointments: CEO Dagmar Parsons, who so impressed us when she spoke at our October Wine and Cheese Extravaganza, and chair Christopher Guille from South Australia. These two, aided by the existing management team, are responsible for steering the largest single grouping of over 50s in Australia in both the member support and advocacy roles. We seniors, with much of our wealth in superannuation and the family home, appear an easy target for those who have difficulty comprehending the sacrifice many
have made over our long lives and to discount the experience gained because of that struggle. New Farm branch also faces the future with optimism. Membership is growing with younger ones replacing the more senior as they move on, and our committee is putting together as diverse a range of activities as possible for that membership. January is a quiet month with the only scheduled activity a celebration of Australia Day in the Uniting Church Hall on Wednesday January 25. That intrepid and highly productive group of ladies called “Stitch & Bitch” will now meet twice a month at the New Farm library – the first Monday and third Friday. The year kicks off in earnest with our first general meeting at 9:30am for 10am on Wednesday February 1 at the Uniting Church Hall where guest speaker will be the new CEO, Dagmar Parsons, followed by lunch at Café 63. For further information about NSA or any of our activities call Val Murphy on 0403 713 040 or read the newsletter published on the website www.nsanewfarmbranch.com
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