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West Burleigh Store is a heritage-listed general store at 33 Tallebudgera Creek Road, Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1935 to 1935. It is also known as Flectcher's Store. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 December 2005. == History == The West Burleigh Store, constructed in 1935 during a property boom on the south coast stimulated by infrastructure development, is a substantial, timber two-storey shop house situated in a commercial precinct close to Tallebudgera Creek about 2.8km southwest of Burleigh Heads. Many of the original features of the store remain intact and it continues to be used as a retail outlet.〔 Timber getting, agriculture and tourism stimulated the development of the Gold Coast region. Timber getters were among the earliest European inhabitants of the south coast and as late as the 1930s, Dennis' and Woods' sawmills were the stimulus for much of the development of West Burleigh. Closer settlement began in the 1860s, initially in the form of cotton plantations. The Crown Lands Alienation Act (1868) gave further impetus to small scale agriculture and by 1869, farmers and their households, numbering in the hundreds, populated the Mudgeeraba and Tallebudgera districts. With the decline of the cotton industry after the 1860s, these farmers diversified into other crops and dairying. In the decades between the World Wars, bananas and dairying were the major farming industries in the area.〔 Campers and picnickers were attracted to the area as early as the 1870s by the natural beauty of the south coast beaches. Burleigh Heads was described in the Southern Queensland Bulletin in 1889 (2 March) as ''"a pretty place, a nice place for a gentleman's residence and a small seaside resort"''. Development of the coast as a destination for pleasure seekers was inhibited by poor access and inadequate infrastructure. This began to be remedied in 1889 with the opening of the railway to Southport and Nerang. Construction of an extension to Tweed Heads commenced in March 1901. A railway station was built at Booningba (renamed West Burleigh in 1914) about half an hour's buggy ride from Burleigh Heads. The Oyster Bed Hotel (1901) was built close to the station to service the wants and needs of the railway workers. The town's first store (still extant) located next to the hotel is believed to have been built in 1904 by Samuel Andrews. By 1907 the storekeeper, James Herbert, was delivering supplies to campers at Burleigh Heads.〔 With the greater ownership of motorcars in the 1920s, road access became a key factor facilitating growth. The opening of the Jubilee Bridge (1925) and the coastal road and its extension south in 1926 promoted residential and holiday development along the coast especially at Burleigh Heads. In the 1930s, the construction of bridges over the Coomera River (1930) and Logan (1932) Rivers improved car access to the coast from Brisbane and a building and property boom ensued. Development was further stimulated by the provision of basic infrastructure: electricity was connected to Burleigh Heads in 1930 and extended to West Burleigh in 1934, a reticulated water supply was provided the following year.〔 The West Burleigh Store and Post Office was completed in February 1935 during the boom period that followed these developments. Alf Fletcher had bought the town's existing general store business from J. Cuddihy in 1928. When the lease on the premises expired, Fletcher was required to move and the premises were taken over by another storekeeper. Fletcher built the new shop, West Burleigh's second general store, about 400m from the railway station. It was described in the South Coast Bulletin (15 February, 1935) as a ''"large and up to date store"'' that, with its ''"modern conveniences"'', would be a ''"prominent link in the progress of the area"''. For its time, the store was a modern example of its type.〔 Fletcher's new shop incorporated many features that were typical of general stores of the period. General stores were often large due to their profitableness and the increasingly diverse range of goods becoming available to consumers. The bi-coloured timber floor in the store was unusual and this, together with the conservative good quality of the building, reflected the prosperity of Fletcher's business and his expectation of commercial success. The large plate glass windows with a recessed entrance designed to maximize display space were a typical feature of interwar shops. The wooden box shelving (still extant) lining an inside wall was the recommended method for storing and displaying the increasing variety of packaged goods that were becoming available from the 1920s. These shelves are currently being used to display goods for sale. Counters (no longer extant) surrounded three walls and a large "U" shaped display area was located centrally between the counters. Petrol bowsers (no longer extant) were located under the verandah on the footpath. Many shops in the first half of the twentieth century also had on location the shop operator's residence; Fletcher's residence was located above the shop. Fletcher lived there with his parents and after they died, with his wife, Gussy, who he had employed in the shop.〔 Fletcher operated the shop until his death in 1963 and the store continued to be operated by his widowed wife until the early 1970s. It stocked a wide range of goods including foodstuffs, haberdashery, manchester, clothes, boots, hardware, and building material. A large shed at the rear (extant until the 1980s or early 1990s) held livestock feed. The West Burleigh post office and telephone exchange was also conducted from the store. The post office was a smaller building attached to the northern side of the shop. It is believed that it was removed when the shopping and office complex was built around the shop in the 1980s.〔 Alf Fletcher was a very well known local identity and his store was a focal point of West Burleigh's social and commercial life. Fletcher's customers were mainly the residents of Burleigh Heads and the farmlands of Tallebudgera, Nerang, Mudgeeraba, and Ingleside. The mailman or the cream and milk trucks that visited the surrounding dairies collected written orders and delivered boxes of goods on their return journeys. On Friday nights, local farm workers cashed their paychecks at Fletchers so they had cash to use at the local hotel. A former pupil of Ingleside State School recalls that Fletcher provided a bag of sweets for each child at the annual school break-up picnics.〔 The West Burleigh store continued to be operated as a general store until the 1980s when the shopping complex around the store was developed. The ground floor of the shop was divided into two, one side operating as a real estate agent's office and the other as a saddlery. The second floor continued to be used as a residence until 2001. The residence was recently converted to office space.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「West Burleigh Store」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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