Whitby’s Garage. Photo courtesy of G&R Whitby.
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The original building on this site – an 1890s weatherboard structure – was burnt to the ground in the 1936 street fire. It was reportedly pine-lined and burnt like paper.
Four months later Bill Whitby purchased the block and had a brick fronted garage and two shops erected here. Flanked on either side by Mrs. Gordon’s frock shop and Mrs. Dyall’s newsagents, Bill Whitby operated Whitby’s Service Station from this spot for many years.
In January 1938, it was reported of Whitby’s that “The latest thing in electrically operated petrol bowsers will be installed in a few days. On this pump, which is very neat in design and gay in colour, pumping is automatic and a bell rings for each gallon pumped.” Installed on the footpath adjacent to the kerb, the bowsers remained in use until at least the 1980s. The garage with its iconic kerbside petrol bowsers played a starring role in the Australian movie High Tide. Directed by Gillian Armstrong and featuring a cast of Australian screen stars including Judy Davis, Claudia Karvan, Colin Friels and Frankie J. Holden, it was filmed throughout the local area in 1987.
It is a good example of late 1930s architecture with its decorative parapet, tiled façade and suspended awning reinforcing the rural, village streetscape so important to the town’s overall appeal.
On the northern wall of this building in the gap beside the post office you will find Full Moon in the Village another mural by Simon Thomas, this time depicting the sleepy village of Pambula from its early days, nestled into the surrounding hills.
CONTINUE NORTH
An advertisement for Whitby's Service Station, C. 1938, soon after the building was constructed in the wake of the 1936 street fire. Courtesy of the George Family Collection.