The shop stood officially at the corner of Usher and Clarke Street, Catherine Hill Bay. It was a substantial residence, store and bakehouse.
Thomas Parton, the first mining manager of the Wallarah Coal Company, wrote in his report to the English Company in October 1889. ‘Talbot has built a large store and also a large Hotel is built on the other portion of his property’.
Henry Hawkes was a miner in Catherine Hill Bay and lost part of his arm in an accident. He was offered the shop in compensation. Henry was married to Alice (Cis) Payne. Her sister Clara Louise Payne married Alexander (Sandy) Gillon. Frederick Payne also had a share in the shop taken over by the Gillons in the early 1900’s. The Gillons and Paynes had originally been in Minmi.
Ownership of the store later passed to Alex Gillon’s son, Jim, who traded there until1932 when he moved to Swansea to create a larger business.
‘The presence of c. 1930s internal doors suggests that the residence may have been refurbished at about this time.
The Gillons lived in a much more pretentious and elegant manner than the vast majority of their customers, dining in style in the breakfast rooms and enjoying the service of maids who answered to the sound of a ringing bell.’
During this time there was a blacksmith’s near the back of the property, on the northern side.
Barney White then owned the shop for a short time, selling out to Roy and Rene Wilson. After WW2 Ron Flarty worked for his Uncle Roy, bought the business in 1947, and serviced Catherine Hill Bay until the shop closed down in 1959. The pattern of shopping was changing, with more people owning cars and chain stores opening in Swansea.
There is a wonderfully detailed account of ‘Ron Flarty’s Shop at Catherine Hill Bay’ by Mat Diver. In it he describes a local solution to wet weather road problems. ‘Two large petrol pumps, manually operated and pumped, stood on the edge of the road and footpath, vehicles stood on an extended railway line set of grilles, about 15 or so railway lines, about 25 foot long and spaced about 2 inches apart, obviously an early solution to wet weather road problems.’
In 1964 the Coal Company ‘Coal & Allied subdivided some of its land. This large block of land and brick and weatherboard house was determined to be worth 900 pounds by the Coal Company and was sold to Mr Ron Flarty. The land measured more than 65 feet at the front and over 60 feet at the rear. The length was 165 feet.
The house was bought by Grant and Sandy Bourke who live in Middle Camp.
They were keen to run a B&B with a small shop. However their plans stalled at Council as the desired viewing tower was not approved nor was a small shop.
The house was damaged in the bushfire of 2013, the roof exploded and the southern walls were damaged.
The house was onsold for land value only for $375.000.
It was bought and the fire damage was fixed.