Swap meet find 1942 Inter

[Mike K]

for your enjoyment

[Keith Webb]

Aaah yes, Bill Drew, his brother Les and sister whose name I can't recall but who used to be in the office most of the time. I think she died of lung cancer. Bill was always having trouble with Les as I recall.
For those who don't know, Bill and his siblings inherited the business from their father. By the time I knew them in the mid 70s they were truck wreckers and resellers of old surplus parts accumulated over decades.
They had several large yards in the Kensington, Ascot Vale and Moonee Ponds area full of truck wrecks including many CMPs and even a carrier.
I used to visit to collect parts when I worked for Hughes Auto Spares and was allowed to go through the yards when it suited them. I photographed them fairly comprehensively.
The yards are long gone, but last time I drove along Mt. Alexander Rd I noticed the shop was still there with it's collection of hubcaps in the window. This was quite some time ago, I wonder whether it's still there.

[Mike Cecil]

Ahh, yes, the 'Saturday Morning Circuit' with Peter G - we hit Billy Drew's first then Hughes Yard at Coburg (but not letting on we'd been to Bill Drews before hand, or a string of unrepeatable invective would be unleashed by the 'middle' Hughes whose name I cannot recall, and entry to the yard would be barred for the day. (Keith ... help me out with a name!)

Bill was always good humoured and even took us on a tour of the other premises on more than one occasion. I can remember being delighted when one treasure trove was opened up by Bill to reveal a stack of Boots, AB - only to find they were all size 5 and only the left foot!!

Dem woz the days, eh Keith, and I was a very late comer by comparison to you and Peter G.

Mike

[Mike K]

I recall the occasion I was at Bills main yard , I think A Browne was with me , anyway he drove us around to another shop somewhere in the back streets , he seemed to have yards all over the place . Anyway I mentioned I had a early C8 4x2 blitz and he said his father had one of those too , apparently they had a garage business and they used the C8 as a run around vehicle . He showed us a mezzanine floor and I climbed up and stacked up against the wall were 6 brand new cab 11 windscreens , all still wrapped up in paper , you can imagine, I was trying to hold back my look of wow ! Anyway the price was 15 bucks each ! I took three of the screens, these were complete windscreens in original paint .

Bill was telling me about the 1/2 ton Dodge Command car they sold after the war , he said a rural postman in NSW bought it .... this was the Command Car I tracked down in 1979 ....

back to the shop ..he had packets of NOS Chev wiring looms just sitting there . Another VMVC member bought heaps of stuff there , even qualifying for the free calender Drews' had printed.

There was a huge amount of NOS chorehorse spares too....

Poor Bill wanted to keep the business going but his siblings wanted to close it all .....

[Keith Webb]

I think it was Bill Hughes... but I can't recall the older bloke's name. Bill was the one who lived in the house on the property with the model railway setup.
Travis came along later and took on the mantle of keeping people out of the yard.
Funny how there was jealousy between the dealers, they all used to bid against each other at the government auctions, and sometimes in collusion to gang up on some unfortunate. There was clearly big money to be made given the number of property acquisitions by people like Drew and the Pearce brothers of Hudsons Stores fame.

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Ahh, yes, the 'Saturday Morning Circuit' with Peter G - we hit Billy Drew's first then Hughes Yard at Coburg (but not letting on we'd been to Bill Drews before hand, or a string of unrepeatable invective would be unleashed by the 'middle' Hughes whose name I cannot recall, and entry to the yard would be barred for the day. (Keith ... help me out with a name!)

Bill was always good humoured and even took us on a tour of the other premises on more than one occasion. I can remember being delighted when one treasure trove was opened up by Bill to reveal a stack of Boots, AB - only to find they were all size 5 and only the left foot!!

Dem woz the days, eh Keith, and I was a very late comer by comparison to you and Peter G.

Mike

[Mike K]

I did a TAFE course years ago and the guy sitting next to me had grown up in Coburg in the early 1950's - he said Bill Hughes was his best mate at school . He would visit Bill and be goggle eyed at the fantastic model train setup Bill had .

This chap said there was a council tip across the road from their yard and anything of low value , not worth selling, would be pushed into the tip . He used to scrounge the tip as Hughes had thrown out thousands of mortar bomb holders , the clips being made from gun metal , he would spend a few hours there and take the salvage to the scrap metal yard and make enough to go to the pictures .

He said the old man would buy a new Rover car each year !

I know one of them went to Europe on a buying trip as some German items were turning up in their yard .

They used to run full page adverts in the Weekly Times .

At one stage they were buying so much surplus , they ran out of space and they rented a paddock at Broadmeadows , trouble is the paddock owner was selling off the stuff on the side !

[motto]

Vic Drew was the proprietor of Vic Drew Used Trucks. He had three children that inherited the business when he passed away, they were Bill and Les and their sister Val.
Bill knew no other life except the business of buying and selling parts for trucks belonging to bygone times and his knowledge was (is) quite extensive. He has an alert manner and is happy to share his knowledge and memories. He still runs an offshoot of the business in an old shop across the road from the original yard in Mt Alexander Road, Ascot Vale.
Val died many years ago, she worked in the business until overcome by ill health.
Les wanted nothing to do with the business except to get his hands on his cut. He and Bill were always at war and it took years to liquidate the property held by the estate.
One of the yards was Rosamond Road, Maribyrnong where Highpoint West shopping centre now stands. A very large quantity of ex government trucks and parts was accumulated there behind a corrugated iron front fence but no side fence and no security. Kids got in and smashed what they could. I remember sets of Harley Davidson engine bearings scattered on the ground and NOS CCKW open cab windscreens pulled out of the crate and broken. All very sad.

David