Quintessential small town Australian automotive workshop circa 1915…
Cowell is a village 240 Km north-west of Adelaide on the shore of the Spencer Gulf. The front of the ‘shop proclaims allegiance to a swag of brands no doubt necessary in a small seaside community. The ‘Head Garage’ in Pirie Street, Adelaide was a long way away. I wonder what make and model the car out front is?
There is no story- the photograph, evocative as it is of a time so long ago and foreign to me is the story.
Photo Credit…
State Library of South Australia
Tailpiece…
(SLSA)
The 75 Pirie Street, Adelaide Eyes & Crowle HQ is a good deal more posh than the offshoot in Cowell, this photograph was taken in December 1922- the building was demolished in 1923. These days an office building occupies the site.
Finito…
primotipo... 
I love looking at these old streetscapes from days gone past. It’s a shame the Eyes & Crowle HQ is gone, but their neighbour building, Barnet Glass Rubber Co. Ltd. is still there. Barnet Glass was famous at the time for their Boomerang pattern anti-skid tread tyres. It’s sad to see how local manufacturing has slipped over the decades. I’m digressing a bit here but Barnett Glass moved up Pirie Street to the corner of Hyde Street in 1928 and from Google maps (2018) that building is also still standing. I wonder how many new building will still be standing nearly a century later like the Barnet Glass one. The same could be said of the “disposable” cars we now drive and of the cars we now race.
As a side story John Burton crossed Australia, west to east, in February 1918 in 7 days. With his mechanic, T. Smith, he used Barnet Glass Boomerang Tyres (a sponsor I believe) to drive from Fremantle via Norseman, Eucla, Port Augusta, Broken Hill and Cobar, to Sydney in a Hupmobile. I wonder if he called in at Cowell or kept to the desert?