04/09/2026
🎢🎡 It’s Show time! 🎡🎢
Today we are taking a step back in time and reminiscing about the fond memories we made at the show.
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Below a few words written by Phillip Hohl:-
From the 1950s on Hohl Plumbing would have up to 3 different displays at the Beaudesert Show. In the 1960s, the main display had 1 or 2 slow combustion wood burning stoves and wood heaters. The stoves were usually “Rayburn or Crown”, and “Wonder Heat” wood heaters. Flue pipes were installed so the stoves or heaters could be seen burning wood. The motto of Crown Stoves was “They made their way by the way they’re made”. Displays also included LP Gas stoves, smaller impellor or displacement pumps and “Naco” washing machines.
Setting up displays required a huge amount of work, as forklifts were either not invented or businesses did not have one. The wood stoves were heavy requiring up to 4 men to load each one onto the Commer tip truck. The same amount of labour was needed to reload and return them on the Sunday after the show. It was quite an extensive exercise.
The other displays had diesel powered Kelly & Lewis or Fores, irrigation displacement or impellor pumps on sleds and tanks, all loaded by hand. The No.1 pump man then, was Bob Downes. Submersible pumps had not been invented, and solar powered pumps were decades away. Before submersible and solar, farmers and pastoralists relied on windmills to raise underground water.
Security was essential and all stands at the Beaudesert Show, were fitted with mesh security screens, draped with hessian, on concrete floors. The nights were invariably freezing and one or more staff members usually Lloyd Carlile and or Jim Stratford, had to sleep on site, for the 2 nights of the show.
From the 1970s on the greater volume of work became increasingly focused on large commercial projects, mostly in the greater Brisbane area. These included schools, hospitals, Expo’ 88, shopping centres, multiple dwellings, and a pipeline to Bishop Island. These were ably administered by Neal Smith. A more recent project was installing a water main right around Ayres Rock.
With the change in focus of the business, when Les Hohl retired Bruce and Peter decided to discontinue the show displays, but these are fondly recalled by photos and memories.
📸 Pictured far too right is Neil Smith
