The Flynn and Smith business in Barraba

30th July 2024

History Notes

During the last four or five weeks I have found time to sort through the old newspapers that have been cluttering several rooms over the last few years - hopefully the history will be removed from them before they go into the recycling bin.

This week I have been going through 1984 - a most interesting time even in our home town. I wonder how much is remembered by our more senior citizens. Can you remember Flynn and Smith? Mr Flynn and Mrs Smith were brother and sister, Jenny Flynn grew up at Blue Nobby and Gordon Smith was from England. As most people would say three of them had lived in Barraba for most of their lives.

In 1964 they opened a store at 92 Queen Street as a base for their electrician's business. The store was opened for two days before the 1964 flood arrived and then it was closed again while all four owners gave their time to assist with the flood and clean up afterwards. Several houses had been flooded and the electricity had to be checked and repaired before residents could move back in. Sometimes the house had to be demolished and rebuilt as was the case in southern Queen Street.

Flynn and Smith returned to their commercial business later in the year and in 1965 they bought part of the Lynch couples' business in the Goldmans building and Don Flynn's father, well known Walter Flynn, managed the business. Soon after this, Flynn and Smith bought the whole of the Lynch couples' business while Don and Gordon continued to do the electrical business around the town and district.

In 1970, just a year after Bill and Fay Flynn joined the group, they decided to build a new shop on the Royal Hotel's vacant block next door- it would be much easier to clean and work in, and allowed room for more stock to be sold beside the electric goods. Barraba's local tradesmen built the whole building and the new shop opened on 28/11/1970 complete with a special children's attraction - the model horse was named Silver and gave rides to the children for six pence and later with the disappearance of six pence coins there was an exchange six pence for five cents until the shop finally closed on 31/3/1984.

The new shop was almost a year old when it was burnt again in October 1971. This time repairs were soon made and the shop was open for Christmas. Don and Gordon worked on building Richardson House, being Electrical Subcontractors, while Marie and Jenny ran the shop. Marie had a lot to do with local events in town, writing and launching the Richardson House book of Barraba. She also organized the Queen competition and Opening Day to raise funds for Richardson house. Finally, Flynn and Smith closed their shop at the end of March 1984 and it was only three years later that Don Flynn suddenly died. Jenny, Marie and Gordon moved to the coast soon afterwards taking four of Barraba's busiest people out of the district.

News for July 2024