Friday 29 January 2010

Looking Smart In Tweed

Nifty Knick Knacks are back!

It has been a very long hiatus from sifting through all things nifty and from blogging in general - but that's life - it happens when you least expect it.

While the updates have dried up, the collecting hasn't. While Nifty Knick Knack postings will be a little less frequent than before, there will be at least two updates a week.

One thing which has been lovely is discovering that we have no where near exhausted the supply of Gold Coast souvenirs. There's at least another four in the collection and they'll be profiled over the next few weeks.

This one is the most recent in our collection thanks to a last minute eBay bid.
Looking East down Wharf Street Tweed HeadsIt's a candy dish with what seems to be a 1930s view looking north-east along Wharf Street across the New South Wales border town of Tweed Heads to its adjoining 'twin', Coolangatta in Queensland.

From the Gold Coast City Council's local studies library is the photograph on which this transfer print is based.

Here's the photograph of the same view

Of course, none of the buildings found in this picture exist any more but that's just par for the course on the Coast.

Here is a Google map reference for that street.

There used to be a Myer store on that street, just on the New South Wales side of the border but that closed down in the late 1970s when Tweed Mall, now Centro Tweed was opened.

That Myer was the only one for 120km and in the days before Pacific Fair Brisbane or Tweed were your only choices for upmarket furniture and household items not quite as upmarket or as old money as David Jones mind, but very flash for a working class family all the same.

My mother bought this in the mid 1970s from that very Myer. Here's some info on it from one of our links, Retro Select.

1970s Johnson Brothers Stoneware dinner set

I don't recall the occasion, except as a child a trip aaalllll the way into NSW was a day-long adventure.

I do remember is being fascinated by fabulous coin operated carousel dappled horse that sat outside the store.

According to the pillar box red coin box was sixpence a ride, even though pounds, shilling and pence had gone a decade earlier.

What a bargain I thought, it used to be sixpence now it's five cents!

1 comment:

MikeFitz said...

Could be wrong, but I'm tempted the believe that photo is taken from near the Point Danger lookout looking west along Boundary Street, which runs along the NSW/Qld border.

Next time I'm up there I'll be looking at the shape of the hills on the horizon. (That's if I could see then through all the high-rises.)

If I were looking north-east along Wharf Street, I might expect to see the Pacific Ocean on the horizon, and not some significant mountains.