Young Appliances.
By Eric Wake
Edited by Arthur Todd
The business “Robyn TS Young” was at 132 Clive Street and was owned by Terry Strangways Young and his wife Marjory.
The couple sold Victa mowers, Electrolux vacuums, Leonard refrigerators, HMV, EMI, Phillips, National, Panasonic, Kreisler, and AWA radios TVs, record players, radiograms, and 3-in-one radio-TV-gramophones.
Back in those days, television was televised into our homes in black and white from Perth then Mount Barker.
Hills industries supplied “American Channel Master” many element antennas which were stacked coupled together and mounted on 100 foot triangular three-section windup masts held up by guy-wires attached to star pickets driven into the ground, usually with three sets of three wires. Then came a new antenna by Hills, from its factory in South Australia, called CA16 were also stacked. In town these antennae were often attached to roof chimneys.
The largest installation was out at Moojebing; 120 feet high on top of nearest hill which was a 200 ft rise.
The signal travelled to the farmhouse one mile away by 300 ohms cable suspended on the lower side of fencing wire strung between poles from hill top to home.
Television was a miracle that not many farmers understood but they had the money so bought this new technology. The first television sets in Katanning were all valves running internal voltages of up to 400 to over 1000 volts on the big heavy TV screen/tube; then came the transistor which changed everything – weight, size, reliability, and prices.
Who remembers those early black and white television sets?
And those corny television shows?
Check out the history of television in Western Australia HERE
Young’s store was a service centre for all electrical and mechanical home-wares and guns. Terry, together with others like the Kowald’s, sponsored Katanning Gun Club with targets coming from ICI Albany. The targets were made in Melbourne, shipped to Albany, then road or railed to the store in Katanning, and farmers bought them by the carton. Cherry Tree Pool was a regular event over a weekend at Con Kowald’s property half way between Katanning and Kojonup on the river.
Young’s business covered an area from Lake King in the east to Manjimup in the west, to Narrogin in the north and Albany in the south. The store also sold records, then 8-track and cassettes. While it was a musical store, musical instrument sales were very few because there was no demand. Elna sewing machine, made at Tavares factory in Geneva, Switzerland, were very popular with the ladies’.
The Young’s had two children, Robyn and Brian, and lived in Park Street, retiring to Preston Point, at Point Walter in Perth.
Robyn TS Young was purchased by Laurie Kibblewhite and Greg Dutczak 1975 or 6, and renamed it Katanning Sound Centre. Their wives, Shirley and Glenda, were in the partnership however Ron Wake, who had worked for Terry, decided to open his own business.
YOUNG Appliances. Young Appliances.