Historical information
Mr Arthur Dunstan established a sawmill at Glen Wills in 1931 which operated for about 16 years. A larger and more modern sawmill with drying kilns was erected at Eskdale in 1947. He was contracted to build Wodonga’s municipal saleyards in 1935, followed by the Wangaratta saleyards which created so many forward orders that he bought a large block of land on the corner of Beechworth and Tallangatta Roads and opened a timber mill and hardware store.
In 1974 other sawmills opened in Tallangatta Road near Chapple Street to cope with the expanding business. A large proportion of the company’s timber output was processed at the Wodonga yards into flooring, weatherboards, mouldings, and practically the whole output was distributed locally and throughout the Riverina and eastern freeboard of New South Wales, and Canberra.
At its peak Dunstan’s was one of the biggest sawmilling businesses in Victoria and in Wodonga employed 150 people and milled 16,000,000 super feet of timber annually.
Arthur Dunstan died in 1963 and the business was carried on by his sons Arthur Jr, Jack and Les, together with Reg McDermott and Neil Carr.
Dunstan’s timber yards in Wodonga were sold to Ezard Industries in 1987 with the retail section being bought by BBC Hardware. Hardy’s took over the timber yard in 1989 and staff was gradually reduced to 51 by 1991. Processing fell to 1000-1200 tonnes of pine a month by 1992 and Hardy’s, by then part of Pacific Dunlop, finally closed operations in that year with the loss of the remaining 27 jobs.
The area where Dunstan’s was located is now known as Southside.
Physical description
A black and white photo of a retail buildinga and workshop
Inscriptions & markings
On shopfront: DUNSTAN A & SONS HARDWARE JOINERY & TIMBER MERCHANTS
RICKSHAW MAGICOLOR
We stock and recommend HARDIES FIBROLITE
SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT FINISHES
