"Cleary Bros."
Article by Sid Percival, 1981.
A Trucking Business, that I feel I know something of it's beginning, is that of the Cleary Bros. of Douglas Park. It was in the early twenties I first knew them. They were Anthony, Jack and Dan, and at that time they operated Firewood Sawmills, situated at several Railway Stations between Liverpool and Picton. Their coming to Douglas Park followed the buying of a Firewood Sawmill operated by Beggs Bros. at Talanga Siding, between Douglas Park and Maldon, that they had worked for some years, under great difficulty and expense, as all the firewood came from the Wilton side of the river, and the only way to get it across to the Mill was by a "Flying Fox", a method consisting of wire ropes and winding gear powered by the Mills Engine. However it was cumbersome and slow and always subject to breakage, which meant great expense as well as a loss of time. Cleary Bros. quickly scrapped the idea, shifted the Mill to Douglas Park Railway Station, where a Station was built; so the trucks could be shunted right up to the saw Bench, and the wood was thrown straight into the nearest one, as it was cut.
Nepean River, Douglas Park, 14 May 1925. photograph provided by Peter Monaghan
The wood for this new situation was still in the Wilton District, and had still to be brought across the Nepean River, there was of course a road down each side, but tremendously steep, as it still is, however they pinned their faith, you might say, on Draught Horses and Tip Drays, to bring this wood to the Mill. So they employed several drivers, each controlling five drays following one behind the other. A team of Cutters were employed to cut the wood, and the Dray Drivers did their own loading, and returned each afternoon with an average load of one ton per dray, and each Driver had to look after his own horses and drays. Before Cleary Bros. began this operation, they had to think out a way of getting these drays down the steep river hill loaded with a ton of wood, as it was far too much for a horse to hold back on such a grade. So they devised a method that was simple enough for any Driver to operate, each dray had a light chain attached to the axle, and using two saplings that he brought with on each dray, fitted them through special brackets, fitted at the rear end of the shafts, attach the chain to one end of it, and the other end was connected to the Trace Chain, so that as soon as the horse began to walk, one end of the sapling was pulled back against the Iron Tyre of the wheel; and so well did this system work, I never heard of any dray getting out of control. At the bottom of the hill, the saplings would be removed and thrown on top of the load and finished up as firewood. One Driver I knew very well, whose name was Lock Buggy, who died a few years ago, and who was recognised as one of the best Drivers, had amongst his team an exceptional mare he called "Rose", and who always pulled the leading dray. The Driver always rode in the last dray, so he could at all times view the full team, and a lot depended on the leading horse, for wherever it went the others would follow, it also knew the Drivers commands, and would stop or go, or alter course whenever it heard the right words. Now Rose was so good she didn't always need to be told. So on the sound of an occasional motor car coming from behind, she would instinctively move over to the left until she saw it go by, and then instantly would move back to the centre of the road, which was the usual part to travel, this piece of intelligence worked really smoothly, and naturally Lock was very proud of her, but then something happened that upset the system, those blessed Aeroplanes would sometimes fly over and poor Rose was baffled. She would move the team over and stay there, she couldn't understand why that car wouldn't go by, and she would have to hear a command from Lock to return to the centre of the road.
photo from Peter Monaghan, dated December 1923
what do you think? could that be the famous "Rose" leading the the team? no aeroplanes here.
In 1923 Cleary Bros brought from J.Byrne and Co.(they being the Ford Agents as previously mentioned) what was probably the first type of Semi-Trailer in the country, the outfit was the only one of its kind I ever did see. It was a Fordson Tractor, fitted to a four wheeled trailer in the following manner. The rear wheels of the Tractor, very securely, it also had sprockets fitted on the inside of its front wheels, then two huge roller chains transmitted the power from the Tractor. These "Driving wheels" of the Trailer had Arrow Type grooves cut into the steel tyres for a grip. All trailer wheels had steel or iron tyres. However in spite of all the salesman's talk, Cleary Bros. stated if it couldn't pull 6 tons of wood over the Nepean River at Douglas Park, there would be no sale. At that time all traffic (except pedestrians, who had a wooden footbridge to cross on) had to travel across the river bed, to my knowledge that part of the river never dried up, which meant that every time a vehicle crossed, it carried some water with it. As this was years before bitumen roads came in, it caused the first few yards of the hill on both sides to be wet and slippery, and one would think to be an impossible task for this newfangled contraption to accomplish. However the day was named, and the trailer was loaded to the hilt, and the trip to the sawmill began. I never heard of any undue incident on the way back, but the river was conquered, and Weighbridge at the railway station registered 6 tons 1 cwt. So the sale was made and for several years it continued to carry hundreds of tons of firewood from the Wilton side of the river. Later on it was traded back to the Agents, and some people might still remember it working around Campbelltown. I do know it went out to Appin sometimes, and brought the district's milk in to the Campbelltown Factory; just where it finished up I do not know, some old timer of the district may be able to answer that one.
Photograph provided by Peter Monaghan shows William Anthony Cleary (known usually as Anthony) in Railway Parade, Glenfield,
outside what was described on original photograph as "our home". November 1923.
During the time they were using this strange vehicle, Cleary Bros
bought a second Fordson Tractor, this one had solid rubber tyres fitted
on all wheels, and pulled a rubber tyred four wheeled Trailer, but
was unable to pull a load across the river, swing to the lack of grip
caused by the slippery conditions at the river, previously explained.
Anthony Cleary was the driver of this one, but he soon overcame this
problem by bringing the wood only as far as the top of the river,
where it was unloaded and stacked on the side of the road, and when
suitable(?), such as wet weather periods after the flood subsided,
but the bush still wet and boggy, the horses and drays could draw
off this handy supply, and also it was a short haul for the horses.
During this period Cleary Bros Sawmill turned out a tremendous quantity
of firewood, the average was four railway trucks a day, and at certain
emergency times as much as 8 trucks per day.
About this time Anthony separated from his brothers, and went into business on his own, and became quite a force in the Trucking Business, for many years after.
In 1927, Cleary Bros, otherwise Jack and Dan, secured the contract to move all the machinery and effects of the Public Works Department from Cordeaux Dam, to the site of Woronora Dam, the last of the small Sydney Water Supply Dams to be built. Cordeaux Dam was completed late in 1926. To cope with this mammoth, they purchased several new International 3 ton trucks. Being a teenager at this time, and working for my brother-in-law, Cyril Seagal on his orchard. I was able to see most of the loading, as it went by, as the Orchard was situated on the site of Cordeaux Dam Road.
removal of plant from Cordeaux Dam
photo provided by Peter Monaghan)
What I saw those trucks do was almost unbelievable, some of the trucks would be able to make direct trips to Woronora via Broughton's Pass, over the Cataract River, The others with some shocking overloads would go to Douglas Park Railway Station, where it be loaded onto goods trains. Now readers will wonder how they managed to get those loads over the river at Douglas Park, and also up the steep hill leading out of Cordeaux. This problem was overcome by going back to the horses for help. A team of six Draughts were kept at each hill, and were hooked to each of the very overloaded trucks to help it reach the top. When I say the very overloaded ones, the shocks were alround when the weighbridge recorded 12 tons for one load, this was the base of a Crane. Many times I saw a big truck load go by, with a string of Tip Drays, or Horse Jinkers tied on behind.
Following this contract they shifted the trucks, also adding more to the Fleet, to the new road being built over Razorback Mountain. From there on of course, would be another story of these very great men.
Before I leave the Cleary Bros I must mention another phenomenal truck they purchased in the early thirties, it was a 5 ton Federal, high speed truck, with pneumatic tyres alround, and fitted with a 10 speed gearbox. I think from memory the Tabletop size was 20' x 7'6", and could cruise at 60 miles an hour, fully loaded I think at times it carried 10 tons of mine props, over Broughton Pass, Anthony Cleary's eldest son, Bill was usually the driver of this wonderful truck, and it's outstanding performance was due to the young man's great skill.
When Anthony Cleary went into business on his own, his first truck was the one I described earlier, as the Bus operated by Alf Nicholls on Cordeaux Dam Run, which he sold as he had no further use for it. Anthony removed the Bus Body and returned it to a Table Top, and one of his first jobs with it, was to carry the fruit from Cyril Seagal's Orchard, to the Sydney Markets, a long slow haul of 50 miles on solid rubber tyres. Well known Mick Cleary, of truck and earth moving fame, who operates from Narellan, being another son of Anthony's, learnt to drive on this old truck, years before he was old enough to get his Driver's Licence. Many times he crossed the Nepean River, standing up so he could reach the brake pedal.
in later years . . .
Photo provided by Peter Monaghan
footnote:
In later years, the Cleary Brothers company split into three, with each of three brothers taking separate shares of the interests. Dan Cleary continued to operate Cleary Bros (Camden), Pat operated Cleary Bros (Parramatta) and John operated the business known as Cleary Bros (Bombo).
Mr Robert Elvy, Chief Executive Officer of the Cleary Brothers group of
companies from 1989, gave evidence in a court case in 1999 in regard to
the history of the company. He stated that Cleary Bros was
established in 1916 by John Joseph Cleary and two of his brothers to
carry on business in transport and timber-getting. He stated that,
in 1947, John purchased the interest of his brothers in Cleary Bros. John passed away in
1958.
(http://www.familycourt.gov.au/judge/1999/html/cleary_text.htm)
