Source: Between the Bougainvilleas. 2004. Page 7
Partners James Leyland and James Meacham began their business at Pine Hill in 1884, moving it to Barcaldine in 1886. The original glass with its 1884 date can still be seen over the store entrance. The owners had a brass bell mounted on a tall metal stand that could be heard all over town, rung to announce lunch hour. The bell has been re-erected at the town museum.
Horse drawn hearses were built at the back of the shop and the firm was also the town undertakers until the Council took on the role in 1946.
The partners built a second shop in Longreach in 1892.
On 29 October 1929, the Meacham & Leyland’s furniture store was totally destroyed along with the Railway and Exchange Hotels, Parnells’ general store. Mr. J. S. Jackson, a tenant in the Railway Hotel, lost all his stock in trade and fittings – for the second time. It was the second time that the eastern end of Oak Street had burnt, the first in 1927 when Meacham & Leyland were badly damaged. In 1927, the fire was stopped at Parnell’s, on the west side of the Railway Hotel, and at Meacham & Leyland’s, on the eastern side of the Exchange Hotel.
The Townsville Daily Bulletin reported that:
‘Mr. Meacham said Mrs Meacham hailed him and said: ‘The store’s on fire.’ . . . When he saw the
Exchange Hotel was well alight he lost no time with assistance in emptying the office of books and papers, which were conveyed to safety by the firm’s motor vehicles. At this time there was no chance of saving anything in the furniture department, adjoining which were double doors and a passage, they dividing off the main shop from the building which was in a way isolated, a large yard space being in the rear, on which fortunately no timber was stacked. The fire burnt vigorously and soon licked up the valuable furniture of which there was a large assortment, including
lino goods, just to hand, and ice chests. Mr. Meacham estimates his loss at between £1100 and £1200, and the total insurance on the furniture building, and stock was only £400. In the Norwich Union Fire Office, England, which did not cover Invoice cost of the lino, and other goods just installed. Nothing in the large retail premises was injured in any way’.
Despite the setbacks, business boomed and in 1953 the partnership became a public company listed on the Brisbane Stock Exchange. A third shop was purchased in Blackall in 1956 and a fourth in Aramac in 1959. In the early 1960s, after some problems, the Aramac business was sold.
In 1978 the company was taken over by another firm, after which all stores were sold privately in 1983. By 1997 Smith Bros. of Longreach had purchased all three stores, then called True Value Hardware.
In 2015, the store once again took on a new owner when Garry Bettiens purchased the Barcaldine business and it became the Capricorn Plumbing and Building Supplies store.
