Inside a tea factory from the 50s
When Richard Hall, 69, from Adelaide, Australia, stumbled onto a packet of old negatives in a box from decades ago, he wasn’t sure what to expect. What he found was never-before-seen photos of his father Brian Hall’s tea factory at Athol Park, South Australia. Here Richard shares those 1950s pictures as well as fond memories of his father and a childhood spent playing at the factory.
“If my dad was alive today, he would be 99. He grew up in Tea Tree Gully in South Australia and moved to Adelaide for school. His first job was as a tea taster with a chap called Mr Bolin. My father eventually purchased Mr Bolin’s business and move into his own tea factory [the pictures above] about 10 kilometres from the city, to a suburb called Athol Park. It was a very old and rundown area, with open paddocks and vacant land.
My dad was good at his job. He would become a very successful tea and coffee merchant, with his business E W Bolin. He was by far the largest coffee merchant in South Australia for many years, selling to all coffee lounges, Myer, David Jones, John Martins, every supermarket in South Australia, the Supply and Tender Board and many more. His skilled factory staff roasted the coffee, packed and delivered to the customers in the morning. The coffee was often drunk the very same day!
In the late 1960s he was also the Lipton Tea agent for South Australia and the Northern Territory. He merged with Robert Timms around 1968 and was then ‘bought out’ by Tetley Tea. My father worked with the Tetley Tea Group for about four years and then retired to ‘go fishing on Kangaroo Island’!
I’m not sure how he fell into tea, he just loved talking tea. Our whole family loved tea. Tea, fishing, family and his children were my father’s life. He was a very likeable person and all his grandchildren and children loved him to bits. He was very generous and had many good friends.
The overseas exporters regarded Australia as the place that would purchase second-grade tea, with the majority of the good quality tea going to England. However, my father would often purchase expensive high quality tea from Ceylon for our family and friends to consume.
I remember he would throw big parties for all of his customers who purchased his tea and coffee. He was very well respected by both his tea and coffee peers and customers.
As a young lad, I often worked in the factory during the school holidays. I was paid around five shillings per day. I remember we opened tea chests, chased mice and packed the tea and coffee. When I obtained my driver’s licence, my father allowed me to deliver tea and coffee throughout the Adelaide metropolitan area. I have great memories of those wonderful years.”
Richard Hall as a youngster and now.
Scroll through the gallery of Richard's cherished photogrpahs above
Related links:
Why you should write your parent’s biography
15 things kids of today are missing out on
Why it’s imperative to share your memories with grandchildren