Open Writing

Both Jan and I found ourselves in a dilemma after our hot and humid nine months in Madang. With Jennifer now in her final year of primary school, we had to decide to either send her to boarding school in Australia, or leave Madang. Apart from losing our darling daughter, boarding school fees would have taken all of Jan's earnings.

I telephoned my parents to find out about job prospects in Vancouver, as I strongly resisted returning to Australia. Once again they advised me against doing so, as employment prospects had not improved in British Columbia. I was angry, frustrated with the intense feeling of once again being powerless in choosing my own future. My depressed state made me difficult to live with.

During our stay in Madang my brother and sister in law, Grahame and Susanne, had been to Australia on leave and, as an investment, had purchased a set of three shops in Woolgoolga in the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Other friends of Grahame’s had also bought property in the town.
The thought of going back to Sydney or to Brisbane was not an option as far as I was concerned. After more deliberation and discussion we decided that I should resign from Steamships Trading Company. We sold our car and our few pieces of furniture, packed up and left with the express purpose of living in Woolgoolga.

In June of 1971 Jan left Madang on her own to see about leasing Grahame and Susanne's grocery store in Woolgoolga. After she inspected the shop and examined the books, she decided, rightly, that it was not a viable proposition and walked around Woolgoolga searching for an alternative. Fortunately, she found a freehold grocery business at 2 Beach Street for sale for $14,000. The owner, Noel Hall, had bought what was once a set of three shops for his wife a few years earlier. As she had no interest in the project, she employed Irene Whitton to run the business. Neither party, in my opinion, realized its full potential.

I left Madang with the children to join Jan in Brisbane where we bought a second-hand Ford Falcon station wagon and a fifteen-foot caravan. We towed the van to Woolgoolga and booked into the Beach Caravan Park. We truly believed that we were the forerunners of the others from Moresby whom we honestly believed would follow us.

They never did.

After our negotiations were concluded, Noel Hall agreed with our deposit of $5,000, virtually the cost of the stock and fittings. This took almost all our remaining capital after paying for the car and the caravan. Even in 1971 this was not a lot of money. Noel Hall then staked us for the balance, which we undertook to pay off within ten years, if my memory serves me right, at the mutually agreed rate of ten percent per annum. We were undertaking a huge risk. For us it was an all or nothing venture. I dared not think of my friend Kismet. We both refused to believe that this time we would not succeed. We finally had our own business.

Before taking possession of the shop, we decided to tour the southwest of New South Wales for a week towing the caravan. All our family needed a holiday and the women running the shop needed to be given notice before the business changed hands.

When we returned to Woolgoolga from our short holiday, until we could finalize the purchase of our business, I took a part-time job looking after the liquor section in Cox Brothers large supermarket in Coffs Harbour.

We took out an overdraft from the local National Bank as working capital and started operation on the first of September 1971. For the first time in our lives Jan and I were paying for our very own piece of freehold property of any kind.
We decided to keep the previous employees, Irene Whitton and Pat Haynes, on the payroll. They knew the customers personally, were familiar with the sources of supply, and we needed their valuable help.

Before we began operation, Jan and I sat down and set out guidelines on how we were would manage the shop together. We decided to each have very clearly marked responsibilities. Jan would look after the books, organize the fruit and vegetables section and supervise the back room duties; (to save costs a number of bulk items such as bran, raw sugar, nuts and fruit and vegetables were packaged on the premises). I would manage the shop, control the ordering of the stock and look after the refrigeration section.

The shop operated on a five and a half-day week rather than a seven-day week that is the lot of most small grocery stores. This suited us very well.

Being locals themselves, our small staff of Irene and Pat maintained good public relations with the customers.

© Clement 2006