Tempe Tip/Penfolds Wines/Ateco/IKEA – Tempe, NSW
IKEA has caused quite a stir in the suburb of Tempe over the last couple of years. Bordered by the Princes Highway and the appealingly named Swamp Road, Australia’s largest IKEA has replaced an itself-enormous Kennards (formerly Millers) Self Storage site, Tempe tip, and a manufacturing facility run by Ateco Automotive. Can I just say, who even knew Millers Storage had been taken over? I’m sorry if this is common knowledge, but I openly admit to not being up on the goings-on within the self storage industry: apparently Kennards acquired Millers’ distinctive orange storage empire in 2004. Wow. Anyway, part of the site IKEA sits upon today was owned by a widow between 1926 and 1940, when it was acquired by the Perpetual Trustee Company. In 1947, the PTC offloaded the site onto now-defunct British tobacco manufacturer W.D. & H.O. Wills.
SMH, 4 Apr 1953
With 2014’s “Grangegate” claiming the NSW premiership of Barry O’Farrell, what better time to take a closer look at the history of Penfolds Wine Cellars at Tempe?
Penfolds bought the site from Wills in 1953, but it wasn’t until 1959 (a good year, apparently) that the steadily growing company opened its new centre, planned as the most modern of its kind. Forward thinking wasn’t exactly in vogue that year, as in 1970 the site received a major update.
The fatty o’barrel greets motorists and other passers-by, 1975.
The large wine barrel out the front of this art-deco building was a familiar sight to passers-by during Penfolds’ time at Tempe, which came to a close in 1994.
Penfolds trucks prepare to deliver several delicious drops to premier locations around NSW, 1975.
The handsome Penfolds administration buildings, no doubt filled with furniture as far from the IKEA template as possible, 1975.
Ateco Automotive moved in in 1995 and had the good taste to leave the art-deco facade alone, but for a few years prior to 2009 the building sat derelict and abandoned.
Image courtesy, as you can see, Decoworks Pty Ltd
Meanwhile, on another part of IKEA’s huge site, a landfill site known as Tempe Tip was doing its part to pollute the area. Much of the tip’s runoff ended up in Alexandra Canal. The tip was closed as a landfill in 1975 and in 1988, it caught fire. Remediation attempts were made in 2005 to turn Tempe Tip into ‘Tempe Lands’ – a wetland paradise adjacent to an existing golf driving range and duck-filled ponds. But the former tip site was found to be too unstable, and the project was put into the ‘too hard’ basket until IKEA came along – then it was their problem.
And what a problem it was; in 2010, construction of the furniture megastore screeched to a halt when tonnes of asbestos from the tip were discovered on the site. Hundreds of workers were exposed and had to be quarantined. In a surprising move, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change investigation found no supporting evidence of related claims that run-off from the site was laced with asbestos, since the existence of such evidence would mean IKEA would pack up and go home, taking their money with them.
Magically, the asbestos problems went away, and IKEA was able to open in 2011, much to the detriment of traffic along the Princes Highway. Especially on weekends, it’s a madhouse (appropriately enough, too, given the history of the neighbouring site…but that’s another story). Above all the chaos stands the art-deco clock tower, which for years bore the Ateco name. IKEA has appropriated the building, returning the clock to working order and affixing the IKEA name beneath it.
It’s a fitting image, really: in IKEA’s world of 9pm weekday closing times, rushed construction efforts and frenzied seizure of unsuitable land, time is money.
Mrs N. Prior Clothing/A1 Cut Price Flowers/Nothing – Kogarah, NSW
They don’t make ’em like this anymore. Once upon a time, a Mrs N. Prior saw an opening in Kogarah’s manchester, childrenswear and babywear market. The enterprising Prior secured this corner location, bought out Berger Paints’ supply of aqua and got to work.
But that was a long time ago, and the babies clothed in N. (Nellie? Nora? Noelene? Nancy?) Prior’s stretch nylon babywear are all grown up, or possibly dead.
Who was N. Prior? How and why did her little shop come to an end?
The building itself, slowly rotting on the corner of Rocky Point Road and Austral Street, offers few clues as to its post-Prior life.
At some point, the cut price flower community, long jealous of Mrs. Prior’s prime corner location, swooped in and established A1. Banking largely on customers looking up flower shops in the phone book and being too lazy to scroll past ‘A1’, the shop doesn’t appear to have lasted very long. Business mistake number one: they left all of Mrs. Prior’s decor up on the building. Nobody likes a lazy florist, A1.
A. S. Cruse & Co General Drapers/Bomboniere Glamour/Get It Computer – Arncliffe, NSW
A pioneer of shameless self-promotion, A. S. Cruse and his company of drapers made etcetera a reality for shoppers at this Arncliffe location. The recent removal of a large tree has made it once again possible to see this old signage, the likes of which I can’t really see the confusingly named Get It Computer ever putting up.
Before getting it (computer), this location was home to Bomboniere Glamour, a decoration shop that won Rockdale Local Council’s Local Business Christmas Decorations Competition in 2009. Obviously the $1500 prize wasn’t enough to keep the landlord at bay. Perhaps the guy on the roof of Get It Computer is getting his decorations ready for this Xmas. If he’s starting this early, they’re bound to be winners.
If we look back even further into the history of this building, we find a word that needs to come back, stat: EXECUTRIX
SMH, 14 Aug 1951
Tom’s Butcher/Residential – Botany, NSW
Butchers are kind of like morgues for livestock. Why don’t we think of them as being as grisly as human morgues? Back when Tom’s Butcher on Botany Road was still around, anyone who dared to proclaim they didn’t eat meat would have been subject to ridicule, abuse and worse. The side of this former butcher provides us with a perfect example:
GREG. CONMAN YOU. HAE. NO. BALLS COME BACK. I WILL. FIX. YOU. UP. Image courtesy Google Street View
I think vegetarians should feel proud that society’s now at a point where old butcheries are now units, old abattoirs are now Olympic stadiums, and old rib joints are now selling coverings for the floor of your unit or stadium. I’d like to think the animals feel pretty good about that too.
Curtain Fabric Factory Outlet/For Sale – Homebush, NSW
Curtain shops are faced with a tough promotional challenge: on one hand, you need the windows clear so that people can see inside, but on the other, you’re a curtain shop without curtains. It’s a high stakes gamble, and these guys lost everything. Let’s hope the new owner is a spray paint factory outlet, eh?
Past/Lives of the Near Future 