Farmer and Company, commonly known as "Farmer's", was a retail store in Sydney, Australia.

History

Joseph Farmer and Caroline Farmer established a drapery business in Victoria House, 259

Pitt Street, Sydney Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sect ...

(opposite the Victoria Theatre) in September 1840. In 1847 Farmer retired from business, leasing the shop to Price and Favenc, becoming Price, Favenc and Gwyn with the admission of George Boyce Gwyn. In 1849 a nephew, William Farmer, joined the business and in 1854 was made a partner, the business becoming Farmer, Williams and Giles, drapers, mercers and haberdashers, whose principals were William Farmer, William Williams and Francis Giles. The company was dissolved March 1860, and taken over by William Farmer and Richard Painter and with the inclusion of John Pope, traded as Farmer, Painter and Pope. The company was dissolved in August 1869 and re-formed by Farmer and Pope as Farmer and Company. :John Pope (1 October 1827 – 13 January 1912) was for many years the driving force of the company, and was succeeded by his sons Parke W. Pope and Norman Pope. Parke's son Eric Pope was a director. In 1874 the business expanded, taking over the adjacent building to the south on Pitt Street. In 1906 the Pitt Street frontage, designed by Horbury Hunt, was demolished to be replaced with a continuous display window. A major rebuild of the Pitt Street complex in 1907 involved replacing and strengthening the floor of the central building to bring it to the same level as adjoining floors. In 1916 the company purchased the freehold of Roberts's Hotel at the corner of Market and George streets. Its proprietor was

Charles James Roberts Charles James Roberts , (29 March 1846 – 14 August 1925) was a publican and politician in colonial New South Wales and Postmaster-General of New South Wales. Roberts was the eldest son of Charles Warman Roberts, a publican of Sydney, New Sout ...

MLC.

2FC

In 1923 Farmer and Co. Ltd. completed arrangements with the ''

Evening News Evening News may refer to: Television news *''CBS Evening News'', an American news broadcast *''ITV Evening News'', a UK news broadcast *'' JNN Evening News'', a Japanese news broadcast *''Evening News'', an alternate name for '' News Hour'' in so ...

'', the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'', ''

J. C. Williamson's J. C. Williamson's, formerly Williamson, Garner, & Musgrove and Williamson and Musgrove, was an Australian theatrical management company and theatre owner. With its beginnings in the theatrical productions of J. C. Williamson and his p ...

'', J. and N. Tait and Dalgety and Co. for establishment of a privately owned radio broadcasting station. The transmitter began operation on a trial basis on 5 December 1923, from a studio in Pitt Street via land lines to the transmitter at Willoughby. The test transmitter had a rated power of 500 watts on a wavelength of 1100 metres (270 kHz) and an wire antenna strung between two masts. Receivers tuned that frequency went on sale shortly after. Under the "

sealed set In Australia, in 1924 Ernest Fisk (later Sir Ernest) of AWA - Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) suggested the introduction of a sealed set system (also known as a sealed receiver) where radio sets could only receive the transmitting service (or se ...

" system, subscribers to 2FC paid £3/3/ per annum for the service. With the repeal of "sealed set" legislation, 2FC in 1927 changed to a 5000 watt transmitter on 422 metres (665 kHz). In 1929, the station was acquired by the

Australian Broadcasting Company The Australian Broadcasting Company Pty. Ltd. was a company founded in Melbourne in 1924 with a capital of £A 100,000 by a consortium of entertainment interests, notably Farmer & Company, J. C. Williamson Limited and J. & N. Tait to fou ...

, Ltd. in 1932 nationalized to become part of the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

Industry consolidation, acquisition by Myer, and demise of the brand

The department store sector was undergoing consolidation and, in 1960, Farmers acquired the New South Wales regional retailer,

Western Stores Western Stores and Edgleys Ltd. was a group of department stores operating in Western and Central Western New South Wales in Australia. The companies were purchased by Farmers & Coy. of Sydney in the 1960s. Shortly after that, Farmers were pur ...

. In early 1961, Farmer's was acquired by Myer Emporium Limited., by an exchange of

ordinary shares Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Comm ...

. The New South Wales stores continued to trade as Farmers throughout the 1960s. Following the buy-out of Farmer & Co.

preference shares Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt inst ...

in 1969, all their stores were rebranded as Myer stores around 1974.

References

{{Reflist Australian companies established in 1869 Retail companies established in 1869 Defunct department stores of Australia History of Sydney Companies based in Sydney Radio broadcasting companies of Australia