Delivering the Motor Spirit

The photo for Sepia Saturday 207 is wide open for choice so I have zoomed in on the furniture van to match with one of my photos.  I don’t have a furniture van photo but I have another kind of delivery vehicle, which might not look out of place in the same photo, in this case a truck delivering Plume Motor Spirit.

The Telford General Store  receiving a delivery of Plume Motor Spirit

Notice how the delivery man is nicely dressed in a company uniform and you can just see the feathers or plumes which were the symbol for Plume Motor Spirit  on the truck’s tank. The driver is in  the main street of Apollo Bay  on the south coast of Victoria   delivering to  the Telford General Store  which has an attached  building where Motor Spirit was sold.  Now was it a garage, was it a repair shop – I don’t know what they called it but they did supply the necessary to keep the motor vehicles running.

I can’t date the picture but I think it is a 1920s car.  If it is before 1930 then the store belongs to my great grandfather Walter Edward Telford, but after his death in 1930 then it would have been my great uncle Walter Edward Telford Junior.  It is just a hop, step and jump across the road and onto the beach.

Here is another photo of the shop which had been labelled 1930.  The garage/repair shop in the above photo is seen behind the electricity pole in this new photo.  And to the right is another store belonging to Watler Edward Telford, this time a draper’s shop.

A second view of the shop in 1930 with another W.E.Telford store, a draper’s shop, to the right.

The two Walters have a long history of running General Stores.  The earliest I found was  in 1885 but it burnt down in 1887. He perservered.  Burnt down again in 1913.  He perservered !  Stubborn blokes these Telfords.  But what an asset to a very small communityand its outlying farms, What a place to supply some of the necessities of life and for the exchange of news and gossip..

Walter Edward Telford Snr (1863-1930)

This is Apollo Bay in 1925, curved around the sea front with a background of bare hills which had once been fully forested but were cleared for farmland and timber.

The main street of Apollo Bay in 1925 – Image from the State Library of Victoria

Here is the Sepia Saturday image of Liverpool which influenced my choice of photo for this week.  Can’t you just see my Plume Motor Spirit truck chugging across this large open space ? Other people’s choices can be seen by going to the links on Sepia Saturday.