Going With A Bang

We have been examining this photograph from our collection (LMG 14-020) in some detail.  It shows a group of shops in Forest Road, Hurstville, across the road from Hurstville Public School, in the vicinity of present-day no 43-53 Forest Road.  A few of the school pupils have found their way into the photo, though some of them were moving too quickly for the photographer.  From left to right, four premises are shown: a chemist’s shop, proprietor Henry W Watt; the Post and Telegraph Office; a general store, proprietor Evan Morgan; and a draper’s, proprietor W G Allen.  This particular group of shops was listed in the Sands’ Directory of Sydney in 1896 and 1897, which helps to date the photo fairly closely.  A weatherboard outbuilding to the left of the photo is part of the old Blue Post Hotel.

Evan Morgan appears to have owned the whole group of shops, leasing out the chemist’s and draper’s premises, and he was listed as the postmaster who ran the post office and telegraph bureau, although this was soon to change. The postal bureau was inconveniently situated, because Forest Road’s development was happening closer to the railway station, and in due course the official Hurstville Post Office opened in 1904.  Mr Allen, too, moved his business closer to the station, and his premises were taken over by another draper, a Mr Hanson.

Morgan sailed close to the wind on occasion.  He was fined in November 1895 for using inaccurate avoirdupois weights.

Then, on the night of Saturday, 14 June 1902, the group of four shops was gutted by fire. The fire took hold in Hanson’s draper’s shop, which was full of flammable material.  Morgan’s premises were also damaged by smoke and water, which, for a grocer, would have been almost as bad as being burnt out.  Several firemen from the Kogarah and Rockdale brigades, standing on an outbuilding to hose down the flames, were injured when the outbuilding collapsed under their weight.  To add further excitement to the night, Mr Hanson had in his shop a number of curiosities from the Boer War, including loaded Mauser cartridges, which were continually exploding, but luckily no-one was hit.  The patrons of the Blue Post Hotel would have had a front-row seat to the action.  The cause of the fire was not discovered.  Morgan had the shops insured for £1,200, but evidently chose not to rebuild the draper’s shop, as a later photo in our collection shows the building in circa 1926, recognisable by the distinctive ornamentation on the roofline.  The draper’s half of the building appears to have been demolished. Note the Tooth’s truck, delivering supplies to the Blue Post Hotel.

---