BUSINESSES IN BROKEN HILL
MURTON AND BUCK
Joseph Murton and J.R. Buck came to Broken Hill from South Australia in March 1885. They purchased a block of land that had been pegged out and camped on by Peter Horan, a prospector.
A store building of wood and iron, twenty-four feet wide by sixty feet deep, was erected for them by T.C. Tait, who later owned the Masonic Hotel in Beryl Street.
As Mr Goodwin proceeded with the survey of Broken Hill it was found that Murton and Buck's building extended over the proposed alignment of Argent Street so the partners obligingly agreed to cut fifteen feet off the front of the shop and extend the back to save changing the Street line.
Proper title to the land was not secured until 1887, and, when it was, plans were immediately made for a more substantial building. A two-storey brick and stone building was erected having a frontage to Argent Street of sixty-eight feet. The draper section was twenty-six feet by eighty feet in area and the upper floor was a large work- room. The new building was opened in April, 1889 and was built by W.Sara.
Joseph Murton died in Adelaide on March 28,1888 after contracting typhoid fever following which, by arrangement with Mrs Murton, J. R. Buck took over the whole of the business. In March, 1890 he sold the grocery and hardware sections to G.A.Grant, who had managed Brazill and Jones store. In June, 1890 the clothing and drapery sections were sold to Coronel. Mr Buck then retired to Adelaide. Their shop in Argent Street was on the site now occupied by the Department of Social Security building at 361 Argent Street. Like other pioneers streets have been named after Messrs Murton and Buck.
JOHN JOHN--came from Bourke and Wilcannia to Silverton then Broken Hill where he opened a boarding- house in 1885. In 1886 he held the License for the Daydream Hotel near the Daydream Mine.
NIELSON AND COMPANY,BUTCHERS--Peter Nielson came to Australia about 1859 and arrived in Broken Hill in 1885. In partnership with P. Christensen and W. Faulkner he opened the first butchery business here. Their slaughter yard was near Lane Street, of Bromide Street, close to where the Wesley Church now stands.
Peter Nielson died on September 21, 1915, at his residence on the corner of William and Oxide Streets, aged 76 years.
BRAZILL AND JONES--The partnership of Brazill and Jones opened a general store in what became Delamore Street in 1885 and according to their billhead supplied 'groceries, bran, chaff, oats, mining supplies, hardware, furniture, drapery, etc.' Like their neighbour, William Delamore, they were both honoured by having streets named after them, although something seems to have happen to the last 'L' of Brazill's name. The street name was spelt correctly until about 1920 or even later, but is now known as 'Brazil' Street.
Following the floatation of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, the start of work on the South, North and other mines, grew rapidly. Businesses of every description soon appeared and in 1886, five more hotels were built. These were the Broken Hill Hotel (later Freeman) built by Mathew Vaughan, who in partership with Bullock had opened the Silver King Hotel; The Commercial, William Cummins; Tattersall's Hotel with John Lees as licensee; and the exchange later renamed the Theatre Royal.
It was not long before several blocks of Argent Streets and the surrounding Streets were almost completed taken up by business establishments. These buildings were all of very flimsy construction as there were problems over titles to the land and it was not until these were overcome and proper titles issued in 1887 that more substantial buildings were erected. The Argent Street fire in November 1888 removed an entire block of the early flimsy structures and gave considerable impetus to the erection of a better standard of building.
In five years the population reach almost 20,000, but even after that time there were still one eight of the residences in the town recorded as tents.
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