Competition for the town and outback trade was growing keener, for Adelaide grocery and softgoods houses had established branches in the town itself, and the Wilcannia firm of Donaldson, Coburn and Knox was making a drive for the station business.
In the course of it, it made a spectacular bid in Broken Hill itself, but fulfillment fell short of expectation, and, in a few years, it liquidated.
Its buildings, on which nearly 14,000 pounds had been spent, were bought by G.Wood, Son & Co. for about half that.
The Adelaide firm also acquired another asset in the addition to the staff of Mr W.E. Heywood, a former outback traveller for the Wilcannia firm.
So typical was Heywood of that era, when competing firms sent their reprentatives by buggy on rounds of hundreds of miles in a land of mirage :back of Burke - and so big a part did he play in the G. Wood, Son & Co. in the Hill.
He got them by way of jobs as station bookkeeper, overseer, storehand, on the opalfields, driver, camel - driver and a hand on a Paddle - Steamer.
That lot gave him his fill, and he settled down to the prosaic - by comparison - life of country travelling for Donaldson, Coburn and Knox. For that firm, Heywood built up a wonderful outback connection, which he brought into the G. Wood, Son, & Co. fold when he joined it in 1911.
Davison continued as manager until 1917, when he was replaced by Heywood.
Davison went over to the Wilcannia firm of Knox & Downs, and, with his appointment as manager of the branch that firm opened at Menindee in 1920 -notwithstanding an arrangement with G. Wood, Son & Co.- there opened a period of keen competition.
Both firms lost money before rivalry was ended by Knox & Downs selling the Menindee branch to G. Wood, Son & Co. in 1924, and making a new territorial agreement.
Further competition in the area was threatened by negotiation between Davison and the Klemm family, which had a retail store at Menindee, but G.Wood, Son & Co. forestalled the move in 1925 by buying the Klemm interests, and forming Klemms Ltd on a preference share and guaranteed dividend basic.
However, it was a bad venture, and, after two or three years, the business was wound up, the Klemms paid off, and the premises sold.
First manager at Menindee for the company was Mr Martin Hehir, an old resident of Menindee who knew the district well, and who had a valuable connection with surrounding pastoralists.
The carriage of goods by river had been supplanted some time before by motor transport, and, when the NSW Government completed the standard gauge line through to Broken Hill, the Menindee branch drew its needs by rail from Broken Hill or Sydney.
With the aid of the Broken Hill office, the Menindee branch showed steady progress, with business up and down the river.
A good account was that of Cuthero Station, owned by the Croziers, and, at their request, the company opened a depot there on the banks of the Darling, whence the surrounding area was supplied.
An important factor in both the Menindee branch and Cuthero depot was the supplying of petrol and oil from the big stocks that were carried by arrangement with the Shell and Vacuum companies.
Later, the Cuthero depot was closed, and the stock transferred to Menindee. In Broken Hill in October 1936, G.Wood, & Son Co. negotiated with A. A. Brice and Co. which owned the premises next door to the Woodson's warehouse, for it property, as it intended liquidating its Broken Hill produce business.
The premises, which were bought for 850 pounds, gave the company room to expand its growing hardware business, and Brice's old building was incorporated into the main warehouse, making the front a balanced structure. A small private right of way between the two properties was eventually built over. In 1959, Mr D. W. Griffiths took over from Mr Jenkins, as the firms manager.
Today the building is occupied by beumont tiles Dimmeys
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