PART EIGHT - Conclusion
This topic has discussed the first premises of the Scott Bonnar Company,
at Chapel Street, Thebarton, Adelaide. I also covered a secondary location -
at Divett Place ... more as a short- duration location, which I have annexed
to the first and primary location.
Both locations are a reflection of the first three years' activities of the
company. It is part of a bigger story ... The Scott Bonnar Story.
I have been critical of that story - with too many gaps, unknowns, and the
restrictive (read one-sided) account of these events told in older brother
Malcolm Bonnar's 1971 Memoir. The Chapel Street premises should be looked
upon - in my reality - as really the third part of the location story, and
I have uncovered the two pre-Scott Bonnar Company locations at Young Street
and Bloor Court, when Scott Bonnar was acting as a sole proprietor.
The surprises from these stories are, no doubt, complex. I have attempted
to explain the outer CBD location -in the choice of Chapel Street - as a
reflection of the original intention and scope of the business ... brassware
manufacture and wholesale. It was a surprise when I realised the company did
not exactly begin as a partnership at all!
Within a few months the scope and intention appears to have changed - with
the forming of a partnership between three people: Scott, older brother
Malcolm, and Leslie Gibbins. The catalyst may have been the new invention
of electric welding and its potential to grow the original company
beyond brassware. Who knows?
For most readers the question will be: 'what about lawnmowers?'
That answer will come in the next part - about the Scott Bonnar
Company's next location, when both previous locations could be made
to work at one inner-city location: the important Mill Street -
a short side-street off famous Gouger Street, and so close to one of
the great Department Stores of the Day, Charles Moore's. It's a
fascinating story.
The rest is history.
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Jack
