When Des Elliott opened his tool business on the corner of Armstrong and Eyre streets in 1958, the concept of handheld electrical power tools being available to the general public was still in its infancy.
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Carpenters and handymen learned their trade using handsaws and hammers, sliderules and screwdrivers, chisels and mallets, planes and plumbobs.
They relied on Des and other people with knowledge of tools and toolmaking to supply them with not only the latest innovations, but the best quality available.
All that has gone now, says Des’s son Kevin. He’s closing the doors of United Tools after starting his own career there in 1971. He says the rise of two things has crushed the small retailer: online sales and big box retailers such as Bunnings.
“One of the reasons small stores like this can’t continue or survive is that people buy online, or they go to the big box retailers,” Mr Elliott says.
“That’s not just for hardware, it’s across all; but certainly in this industry there’s a gravitation towrds places with big stocks. They might not have much knowledge of what they’re selling, but they have big stocks and – theoretically – cheaper prices. And it’s got bigger in the past half-dozen years.”
The younger tradies are all knowledged up; they've got mobile phones; they know everything before they come in; they know the price they want to pay; they know the power and wattage and what it’ll do.
- Kevin Elliott
Looking around the shop, which Des bought and expanded over time by knocking walls through to the two shops next door, there are very few tools left now. Everything is largely sold, as Kevin plans to close the Friday before Christmas Day.
What are left are some signs that reflect the swift, sad decline of Australian toolmaking. Once a proud and respected export industry, Kevin Elliott says virtually all tools today are made in China and other parts of Asia.
High on a wall a sign advertises ‘Dawn’ vices and clamps. Dawn manufactured their engineering tools in Coburg, starting in 1917, and the company is one of the very few still making tools in Australia today.
Names like Titan Chisels, Ajax Nails, Sher, Lightburn and KBC have long ceased manufacturing. Black and Decker had a manufacturing operation here; now gone. Suttons/Patience and Nicholson maintain a tiny operation in Maryborough. Like Dawn they opened and thrived during and after the First World War.
Carter planes. Wolfenden table saws and spindle moulders. Brades. The great suppliers like McPhersons. All gone in the name of globalisation.
Even the names that survive mostly manufacture offshore, says Kevin Elliott.
“If I was to take you around the shop now and show you what was Australian-made, well… all these router bits that were supposedly Australian-made, they haven’t been made in Australia for years. None of the Sidchrome stuff is made in Australia any more. There are maybe some soldering irons we have that are made here. It’s a real shame.”
Another great change is that tools are no longer repaired, for the greater part. While his brother is still taking on tools to fix next door (and that business will continue), Kevin Elliott stopped 11 years ago when they separated their business.
“Repairs are a lot harder to do now,” he says.
“I sent one tool back to Metabo for a quote on repairs yesterday – it needed two little bits in it – and they quoted $290. A new one is $170. It’s crazy, and I suppose the reality is suppliers don’t want their stuff repaired. They want to sell new stuff to keep the factories turning over.”
Any store that has survived for 60 years will have built a regular and devoted clientele, and while the regulars are now ageing, Kevin Elliott says they are devoted and he’ll miss them.
“The regulars are the older people – a bit like myself now, I suppose – and they come in looking for advice,” he says.
“That’s another thing that’s changed over the years. The younger tradies are all knowledged up; they've got mobile phones; they know everything before they come in; they know the price they want to pay; they know the power and wattage and what it’ll do.
One of the reasons small stores like this can’t continue or survive is that people buy online, or they go to the big box retailers
- Kevin Elliott
“The older guys don’t do that so much, but they’re gradually retiring or dying. Some of them don’t need too many new tools. I’m probably at that point!”
Kevin Elliott started as an apprentice with his father Des after he left school. His father was originally an auto-electrician. After the job became overly specialised, he saw the potential in selling the new brands of power tools coming onto the market. Names like Festo, which became Bosch, and Metabo, were in Des Elliott’s eyes reliable makes that he felt comfortable selling and servicing.
“He had a vision in seeing the what the market could be,” says Kevin.
“The market expanded and he addressed it. I’ve expanded on it again, but I think he had more vision than any of us, his sons, did. And at one stage five of his seven kids were working with him, and he was a good boss to work for, and easy person to get along with.”
Des Elliott died in 2014. Kevin Elliott says he took with him a library of knowledge about the industry, but even someone as saturated as his father in how tools work would struggle to keep up today.
“Battery tools have taken over now. There are 240-volt tools that you just can’t sell now. The battery tools have taken over completely. It’s been an immense change to the way people use tools.
“The knowledge Des retired with – it’s been superseded so greatly. If he walked in here today he wouldn’t recognise a thing. But he was very forward-thinking. He did all this, he opened up the building; he could see the benefit of a big showroom. He knew the poky little corner shops were too old-fashioned. He had a great instinct.”