What\’s in a Name
What’s In a Name delves into the fascinating stories and personalities behind some of the city’s best-known street names. This week the Journal looks at central Dandenong’s Boyd Lane, named for the Gippsland Hardware Company’s owners.
Boyd Lane was named after the Boyd family, which owned and operated Gippsland Hardware Company.
Reg Boyd, along with his son Jim and his two daughters Mrs Cunningham and Mrs Storer, opened the Gippsland Hardware Company in 1945.
Under Reg’s shrewd guidance, he and his family built the business up to be the biggest of its kind in Dandenong.
To cope with the growth, the Boyds erected a modern new building at 236 Lonsdale Street.
It stood where the Dandenong Arcade is located today, and ran all the way through to McCrae Street, now home to Palm Plaza.
In April 1954, the Argus newspaper reported that the Gippsland Hardware Company was “rebuilding at a cost of 50,000 pounds”.
Soon after, Reg opened the newly-restored shop which was considered at the time to be a thoroughly modern enterprise.
The Age newspaper on 21 April, 1954, said Reg that day opened “what must be the most up-to-date newsagency in Australia” in the building, which also had a crockery department and a library.
The report said that Reg and his staff “worked throughout Easter to have the premises ready for trading yesterday”.
“Features of the news agency are pastel colours, movable stands, display shelves right around the area, and room for customers to move where they like: in other words, the floor space is occupied by islands.”
The article also said that Reg served as a stoker in the Royal Australian Navy during World War I, on the AE2 submarine and the original cruiser Australia.
The Gippsland Hardware Company business continued to grow and eventually employed 34 staff, all of whom continued to work for the business after its sale to GN Raymond Ltd in 1962.
The sale of the business was reported locally as being “the biggest take-over deal yet on the Golden Mile involving an undisclosed cash sum”.
Reg died in June 1963, the year after he sold the business and retired.
The Boyd business was a hallmark of the remarkable growth that Dandenong witnessed following the end of the World War II and Reg was praised as “marching with the times”.
The City of Greater Dandenong last year installed signage in Boyds Lane to share the family story.
This sign is on the side wall of the original Boyds building. Part of the original brick facade is still visible on the Lonsdale Street building.
Want to know the history behind a street name in Greater Dandenong? Let us know and we’ll find out! Email casey.neill@starnewsgroup.com.au
