CORDIAL AND SOFT DRINKS MANUFACTURERS                                                                    BY THE LATE CLEM GILLEPSPIE Shelly's Drinks were started here in 1893 by J.A.M. Shelley, my grandfather, who had arrived in Broken Hill from South Australia a couple of years earlier. He worked for a while at Ryan's cordial factory in Williams Street, Burton's brewery on the corner of Bromide and Blende Streets, and for about three months on the mines before starting on his own to manufacture drinks.                                                             Shelley's first factory was on the corner of Williams Lane and the Silverton Road 9Brookefield Avenue) then was moved to the corner of O'Farrel  and Morgan Streets. The old factory there was pulled down in the 1950's and rebuilt by British Tobacco Co. who then owned it.                                          In the early days the main lines manufactured were hop beer and ginger beer and later a few other soft drinks were added.                                       About 1907 Shelley expanded and bought new machinery.                          At first the machinery was all run by steam but later a gas engine was installed.  This was still working in 1939 when I went to work in the plant. The machines were driven by belts off line shafting along the back wall of the building. Steam was used to make the syrup which was boiled and I think that this probably saved a lot of fermentation later.                                       Water was a problem and I can still remember the tanks, about twenty of them, square and lined with concrete, holding about one thousand gallons each.    These tanks were filled with water and a bucket of slaked lime solution stirred in then left to stand over - night. In the morning the water was crystal clear with a pleasant taste unlike any Broken Hill water.                       In the early days horse drawn trolleys were used for delivery of drinks to customers.  At the back of the block were eight or ten stables and a big paddock for the horses.  The drinks were packed into crates or boxes on the trolleys and the driver carried a wicker basket that held about a dozen bottles to carry the orders into the shops.                                                          In summer about twenty-five men were employed altogether.                      J.A.M. Shelley ran the plant until his death in 1927, with his son Herb and Matt helping in the business. After J.A.M.'S death Herb and Matt ran the business together until Matt went to Sydney in 1929. He built a factory there and ran it for many years.                                                      It is now owned and operated by Amatil, the bottlers of Coco Cola.                Herb Shelley died in 1935 and then another brother Fred managed the plant.      In the late 1940's Fred built a small factory behind his house in Morgan Street and worked that while the Shelley plant continued to work with Clarrie Holmes, from  Sydney, as manager, but that did not last long due to hard times.          Fred Shelley and his son bought the plant back and Jack Shelley from Sydney, managed it.                                                                     The business was then made into a company and   taken over by the British Tobacco Company who built a new plant and operated it until about 1980 when I took it over.                                                             My brother Bob came in with me and managed that factory while I continued to run the factory I had established as "Clem's  Drinks" at South Broken Hill. Bob Gillespie retired about 1986.  The West End Brewing Co. then purchased the property and converted it to be their distribution centre for Broken Hill.      I started on my own in 1952 in a factory at 155 Wilson Street. I had been running a tuck shop at the High School selling ice blocks and other lines when my mother (nee Shelley) urged me to start making drinks. I started with most of the work being done by hand including the bottle washing: the only plant I had being a small bottler and a carbonator.                                                                                          I worked that plant for about three years and then wanted to expand. Coco Cola had been using the old South bus company shed but decided to sell it and move to other more suitable premises, so I bought their building together with an adjoining house and that was how I came to South Broken Hill to live.                                                CONTINUE