Anthony Hordern's motto was "While I live I'll grow" and this was symbolised by a budding tree on the crest of their coat of arms. An oak tree at Razorback Ridge near Camden bore a striking resemblence to the tree and Anthony Hordern arranged with landowners in the 1920's to have the company motto plced at that location.
The 1960's was not kind to the Anthony Hordern's. It lost trade as rival department stores opened suburban stores along with the rise of shopping centres reducing the need for shoppers to trek to central Sydney to do their shopping.
In 1967, tree vandals tried to posion the tree but it was unsuccessful.
Source: Anon. 1974. "The tree vandals tried to kill". The Sun, May 10:31.
However, the "Sygna" storm of 1974 would finally claim the tree when it split in two. This came months after Horderns Mid City store was closed by its owner - Waltons (Click here to read more about their takeover from 1970) the previous year. It is believed that the demise of the tree was linked to the end of the Anthony Hordern's Department Store chain.
Source: Anon. 1974. "'While I live I'll grow' - no more". The Sydney Morning Herald, May 28: 2.
8 pm, Aug 27, Liverpool, NSW 2170, Australia
ReplyDeleteThank you for your write-up, taking readers down memory lane. I was watching the author of 'Once Upon A Hume' Stephen Gard, on YouTube. Couldn't help thinking of those days when the mainly European immigrants struggled so much with dirt roads and single-lane roads and turnpikes and toll gates. So many conflicting interests and attempts to dominate by the social elite notwithstanding, things progressed rapidly. Today, the Hume Highway on the side of which I live, is choked with relatively smooth, almost 24-hour vehicular traffic, and it seems to me that 90% of the drivers and their families using this state-of-the-art, 4-lane dual carriageway to infinity, with its scenic roadsides, are the lucky immigrants from all parts of Arabia! A wholesale population transformation brought about by the wonderfully open-legged immigration policies adopted by not only Australia, but all of the West, under the able tutelage of the 'awoken' UN, itself driven by mega corporate interests, I presume.