Australian Cat Dealers History

Hi, Gavin84W.
Just one. I have been told that Wigmores, now Westrac, became a Cat Dealer in 1927 and was, until the events that lead to the name change-takeover-whatever, the oldest Car dealer outside of the continental U.S.. I was also told at the same time that there was only one dealer within the U.S. who had a longer standing as a Cat dealer but who it might be, I have no idea.

If you can access the old H. J. Wigmores company records, you may get a clue or three. The link below seems to only give a timeline:

http://www.westrac.com.au/company_profile/Pages/WesTrac_History.aspx

http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?action=PASearch&mode=subject&complete1=true&attribute1=subject&term1=H.J.+Wigmore+%26+Co.+Ltd

http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/pdf/battye/pods/1914/0174.pdf

I suspect that the telephone numbers given in that H. J. Wigmore listing may not be current today. LOL.

I also know that the Cat dealership yard at Alexandria in Sydney used to belong to Waugh and Josephson up to somewhere in the late 1970's-early 1980's. Then Gough and Gilmour became the Cat distributors for N.S.W. before they got the boot and Westrac won it.

http://www.goughgilmour.com.au/about/

Hastings Deering - Qld:

http://www.hastingsdeering.com.au/home/Home/About_Us/History.aspx

William Adams:

http://www.williamadams.com.au/aboutus.htm

Hope this helps. Sorry I can't be of more assistance but I think I need a nanna nap after all that Googling.

Deas:

Budd and Quinn (now Quinn along with the Sheppard franchise) was a Best dealer beginning in 1919 I believe and has been a Caterpillar dealer since April of 25. I believe Ziegler in MN was also a Best dealer starting in the 1919-20 time range and continues to be a Cat dealer to present. Both of these dealerships have acquired many other dealers and Ziegler now has most of MN and Iowa and Quinn-Shepperd has most of Central and Southern California.

T

Gavin - The first dealer for "Caterpillar" crawler tractors in Australia was a South Australian company named "Vrai Ltd" in 1922. Vrai Ltd were appointed Holt Tractor dealers for all of Australia, but went into bankruptcy not long after commencing business. I have dates of between 1923 to 1925 for Vrai's demise, but no firm confirmation. Vrai may have still been in business as late as 1928 or 1929.

Numerous Holt tractors were imported privately into Australia prior to this date. It is rumoured the first Holt crawler into Australia was in 1909, but I am unable to find out any more info on this purchase.

I do know that a local MP, construction magnate, and railways builder, one William Noah Hedges, imported a Holt 75 into Western Australia before WW1. The date I have is 1913, but this is also in dispute, and the date may be earlier, perhaps 1911.
I believe Hedges imported a second Holt 75 shortly after, as there is a newspaper report dated 1917 stating that "two Holt tractors are clearing scrub at Narembeen".
Narembeen adjoins the Bruce Rock district, where Hedges had substantial land holdings, and he is held in high regard as a Bruce Rock district pioneer.

Westrac's website is very light on info, and not entirely correct. Here is the West Australian agency history ..

H.J. Wigmore and Co were appointed Holt Dealers for Western Australia in 1923.

H.J. Wigmore had come from South Australia in 1897 and had commenced business in Fremantle in that year as a commission agent, selling agricultural produce. I am led to believe the trading name was originally H.J. Wigmore and Son.

Here is the timeline for Wigmores ..

1903 - Appointed W.A. agents for William Thomas & Son, flour millers of Port Adelaide, who had just purchased a flour mill at Northam.

1904 - Commenced trading as H.J. Wigmore & Co, mercantile brokers and agents.

1907- Wigmores became a Limited Liability company, H.J. Wigmore & Co, Ltd. They advertised as the largest hay and chaff auctioneers in W.A.

1909 - Headquarters moved to 613 Wellington St, Perth, where they remained until 1964.

1910 - Appointed agents for Shearer (S.A.) agricultural implements, and over the next 10 years, became agents for numerous makes of agricultural equipment. A 1914 ad shows Wigmores advertising as General Commission Agents, Agricultural Machinery Merchants, Produce Merchants, Auctioneers, Shipping Agents, Etc. They sold .. "Shearers Famous Stump-Jump Plows & Harrows", Shearer Strippers .. Bagshaw Winnowers, Chaffcutters, Corn Crushers, Horse Works and Seed Graders .. Mitchell Drills and Harvesters.

1922 - Appointed agents for Emerson-Brantingham tractors. E-B tractors were held in high regard, but were expensive. Not many were sold. There is an E-B tractor on display in the main street of the wheatbelt town of Kulin, where I used to live. This is a rare tractor, and I don't think the locals understand just how valuable it is.

1925 - Appointed agents for Caterpillar Tractors .. only the second foreign agent to be appointed, for the newly formed merger of Holt and Best.
At this point, H.J. Wigmore & Co were also agents for Garford Trucks, Moon & Diana cars. During the boom years of the 1920's, H.J. Wigmores became a one-stop shop for farmers .. selling trucks, cars, tractors, agricultural implements, groceries, wines and spirits. Wigmores had also established a shipping agency in Fremantle, and had appointed several country dealers in the larger West Australian country towns.

1938 - H.J. Wigmore & Co. Ltd, became a public company, trading as Wigmores Ltd.

1948 - Wigmores Ltd. were appointed John Deere agents.

1949 - Wigmores moved their tractor division to South Guildford. Headquarters remained in Wellington St., Perth.
They were awarded the agency for "Sentinel" diesel trucks.

1954 - Wigmores Ltd. became agents for "Lanz" tractors after JD purchased Lanz.

1964 - Headquarters moved to Gt Eastern Hwy, South Guildford. Wigmores Shipping agency remained headquartered in Fremantle.
During the 1960's, Wigmores sales focus changed from being entirely agricultural, to more industrial, as the mining industry in Western Australia expanded rapidly, due to the removal of sales bans to Japan of mineral ores.
The commencement of W.A.'s iron ore mining industry around 1965, saw a huge leap in Wigmores Caterpillar equipment sales, and Wigmores became the biggest Caterpillar dealer in the Southern Hemisphere .. a position it held for many years.

1967 - The company gave up the John Deere agency.

1968 - Wigmores became Ford tractor and agricultural machinery agents.

1970 - Wigmores gave up all its agricultural equipment agencies, and concentrated almost entirely on industrial sales of Caterpillar equipment. A small amount of Caterpillar sales were still made to agricultural areas, but this % of sales was tiny, compared to mining and construction sales.

1983 - Wigmores Ltd, an enormously wealthy and undervalued public company, is the subject of a public company takeover struggle between Metro Industries and the Bell Group, chaired by former South African entrepeneur, Robert Holmes a Court.
Holmes a Court is a very shrewd share dealer and lawyer, a feared corporate raider, and Bell Group wins control of Wigmores Ltd.

1988 - Alan Bond's Bond Corporation takes over the Bell Group in a move that typified Bonds shonkiness. Bonds aim was to access large amounts of cash held in a Bell Group subsidiary, Bell Resources.
Bond accessed and transferred the Bell Resources cash to other Bond companies, illegally .. a move that saw Bell shareholders lose vast amounts of value, and which move eventually saw him bankrupted, and jailed for fraud.

1989 - Caterpillar Tractor Co. rejects Bond as a suitable owner of the Western Australian Caterpillar franchise. Despite Bond going to America and trying to bully Caterpillar directors with threats of using his powers to remove Caterpillar from the Australian market, Caterpillar directors tell him to go right ahead .. advising him that the Australian market only made up 3% of Caterpillar global sales.

1989 - Wigmores and Bond lose the Caterpillar agency, as Caterpillar transfer the agency to Morgan Equipment Co, owned by an American.
Morgan Equipment relocate the Caterpillar agency to a new location in Welshpool, an Eastern industrial suburb of Perth.

1990 - A wealthy and shrewd Australian businessman, Kerry Stokes, uses his private company, Australian Capital Equity, to purchase 30% of Morgan Equipment.

1991 - A.C.E. purchase the remaining 70% of Morgan Equipment.

1991 - John Court, a local W.A. machinery dealer, purchases the company shell of Wigmores Tractors, from the liquidators of Bell Group, after Bond Corporation crashes in a spectactular fashion. John Court also acquires the former Wigmores Tractors site at South Guildford.
John Court convinces Kerry Stokes to return the Caterpillar agency to its former location. This is agreed on, the former site is extensively upgraded, and the Caterpillar dealership is re-named Westrac Equipment, and returns to its historically-important South Guildford site. It still operates from that site today.

For the state of New South Wales .. Caterpillar agency timeline ..

1880 - Waugh & Josephson commenced business in Sydney, as heavy manufacturing engineers. Directors are David Waugh and Sydney Josephson.

1885 - Acquires the Alfa Laval agency for NSW and QLD, and opens A-L agency in Brisbane.

1890 - Sydney Josephson opens branch office in Edward St., Brisbane.

Early 1890's - W & J opens larger premises in Sussex St, Sydney.

1895 - New premises built at Unwins Bridge Rd., St Peters, Sydney.

1900 - David Waugh retired, and Sydney Josephson continued on in the W & J business, alone.

1920 - W & J becomes a Limited Liability company.

1922 - Sydney Josephson dies suddenly, overseas, whilst on a business trip.

1923 - Larger branch office opened in Melbourne St., South Brisbane.

1923 - W & J appointed as Holt agents for Queensland (it appears that Vrai's territory shrank upon this appointment).

1930 - New husband of Mrs Sydney Josephson, one M.S. Atwill, is elected to the Board of W & J. At some later period (date unknown), sons of M.S. Atwill are also appointed to the Board.

1934 - W & J were appointed Caterpillar agents for the state of N.S.W., upon the disenfranchisement of William Adams as Caterpillar dealer for the state.

1936 - W & J import the first Caterpillar Auto Patrol grader into Australia. Almost immediately thereafter, the export of these machines from America was banned.

1936 - W & J commence the manufacture of Caterpillar #10 and #11 motor graders in Australia, under the auspices of Caterpillar Tractor Co., after the U.S. Govt imposes an export embargo of motor graders to the S.E. Asian region. This is the first known manufacture of Caterpillar equipment outside the U.S.

The W & J grader manufacturing operation built the entire grader frame and accessories, and Caterpillar engines and power trains were imported fully assembled from Peoria, and then installed by W & J, to complete the manufacturing process.

The grader engines were given an industrial engine S/N prefix, and the W & J graders were sold as Caterpillar Speed Patrols, to differentiate them from genuine Caterpillar Auto Patrols.

In excess of 600 W & J Speed Patrols were built between 1936 and 1946, and these graders played a very important part in the Allies WW2 airfield construction efforts in the Pacific region.

In 1946, the Steelweld Co, of Braybrook, Victoria, were given an extensive licence-to-build by Caterpillar, and W & J's Caterpillar-supported manufacturing operation ceased from that date.

1937. M.S. Atwill is appointed Chairman of W & J. He serves in this position until 1965.

1937 - W & J import the first LeTourneau bulldozer blade into Australia.

1940 - Not long after the declaration of War in Europe, W & J open a substantial new manufacturing facility for the Caterpillar graders at St Peters, Sydney.

Early 1942 - W & J is requested by the Australian Govt, to concentrate its entire manufacturing resources on the production of Caterpillar graders, and earthmoving attachments, for War purposes. In excess of 500 Caterpillar graders come off the W & J production line during the period from 1942-1945.

In this same War period, W & J became the central Caterpillar parts distribution centre for the Pacific region, for the U.S. Military forces, and the Division of Import Procurement.

1949 - W & J become a public company .. Waugh & Josephson Pty Ltd.

1950 - New premises established at Mitchell Rd, Alexandria, Sydney, in consultation with Caterpillar. The consultation was carried out to integrate stores, administration, and workshops, and also to plan for any future expansion.

1952 - W & J are disenfranchised as QLD Caterpillar agents, and the QLD Caterpillar agency is handed to Hastings Deering.

1965 - Sir John Atwill (son of M.S. Atwill) joined the Board.

1987 - W & J taken over by Robert Holmes a Court in another sharemarket raid. Soon after, Bond Corporation took control of W & J, as they gained control of Bell Group.
Once again, Caterpillar refused to transfer Caterpillar agency for NSW to Bond or any of his companies, and the Caterpillar agency was transferred to Gough and Gilmour, effective February 1989.

April 2004 - Caterpillar agency for NSW and ACT transferred to Westrac.

For the States of Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland ..

16th April 1926 - William Adams is appointed Caterpillar distributor for N.S.W. - excepting the Barrier District (Broken Hill was part of the defined Vrai Ltd's sales territory).
At this time, William Adams Engineering Dept was located at 521 Collins St., Sydney. They were also agents for Crossley engines, plus many other sales lines.
In adverts dated 1927, William Adams boasted of branches in Adelaide, Brisbane and Newcastle.

11th December 1928 - William Adams is appointed Caterpillar dealer for the State of Victoria.

5th August 1930 - William Adams is appointed Caterpillar dealer for the State of Tasmania.

18th June 1934 - NSW Caterpillar dealership terminated. W & J becomes new Caterpillar dealer for NSW.

1946 - William Adams Tractor Division formed.

1948 - William Adams opens new branch at Derwent Park, Hobart, TAS.

1949 - William Adams moves to new premises, at the semi-rural location on Princes Hwy., East Oakleigh, VIC.

1st May 1953 - The new company, William Adams Tractors Pty Ltd., formed to take over the William Adams Tractor Division.

1954 - William Adams opens new branch at Launceston, TAS.

1955 - William Adams opens new branch at Swan Hill, VIC.

1956 - William Adams opens new branch at Horsham, VIC.

5th March 1957 - William Adams, John Deere tractor agency terminated.

1966 - William Adams moves to new premises at the suburb of Clayton, Melbourne, VIC.

1966 - Hobart branch relocated to Berridale, TAS.

1968 - William Adams opens new branch at Burnie, TAS.

1971 - William Adams opens new branch at Bairnsdale, VIC.


South Australia -

1972 - Cavill Power Products, trading as CavPower, is appointed Caterpillar dealer for South Australia. CavPower is one of South Australias largest privately-owned companies.

Great reading guys ! Do you have any records of sales back in the 1950's so I can determine when and where my 1956 D2 was sold and to who ?
Does anyone have those records ?
Thanks for all the great info.
OzCat

OzCat - It's unlikely that those sales records still exist. There is a slight possibility that Caterpillar equipment ownership record cards still exist that show the ownership record back that far .. but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Cat dealers usually had a card recording the ownership, and transfer to new owners, of the major items of Cat equipment .. but these cards were not always accurate, and not always kept up to date.

If you know the state where the tractor was sold originally, you could go and ask at the dealer about those ownership records .. but generally, most of this info is binned, once the age of the equipment is more than 25-30 years, and support for the item is waning. The room required to keep all these old records isn't justifiable to bean counters.

Thanks OzDozer. I obtained my D2 from Perth a few months ago and believe it was sold new there, and the blade fitted there too. Next time I get over to that great state, I will follow it up. Cheers, OzCat

OzCat - O.K. .. that would have been a Wigmores Tractors sale, then .. and Owen Triggell informed me he actually obtained all the ownership cards that were in Wigmores, and copied them, while Wigmores were in "limbo" during the messy Bond Corporation ownership period.
Those cards will certainly have your original owner sale listed .. but the later owner record on the card is often lacking or wrong.
I don't know what the story is with Owens information, as Owen died last month, and I'd guess his brothers have inherited his huge collection of info and records. You could try contacting them, they live in Zillmere in QLD. Here's Owens old Ph No .. whoever answers should be able to give you more info .. 07 3865 2969. His information storage method was pretty messy, and I don't know how acccessible his records were.