'Harry' Monsoor hawks his wares over vast rough distances from 1904 to South Australia outback communities
Hassan Ali (Harry) Monsoor and his wife Maheeba. Monsoor took on hawking wares to South Australian outback communities from early 20th Century, moving from vans pulled by donkeys and mules, to the modified Graham Bros truck, later donated to the National Motor Museum at Birdwood, South Australia.
Hassan Ali (Harry) Monsoor took the early 20th Century enterprise of hawking wares to the vast distances and challenging terrain of the South Australian outback.
Born in 1884 at Beit Meri, Lebanon, then part of the Ottoman Empire, Monsoor emigrated, at 17, to South Australia in 1901 and worked at the Port Pirie lead smelters. Hawking was a common way for migrants at that time to be self employed and Monsoor, three years later, joined the trade with a small van pulled by donkeys.
Based, from about 1908, at Leigh Creek, he toured the Flinders Ranges selling haberdashery. By 1918, he owned a bigger van, hauled by six mules. Monsoor was naturalised in 1924. Two years later in Lebanon, he married Maheeba Ali Solomon, and returned to South Australia, where he bought an American-built Graham Bros truck with a large van body. It proved too big to drive on the narrow winding tracks so it was shortened in 1930s.
Monsoor and his wife hawked their wares in the Flinders Ranges, taking stock from Adelaide. The family (a daughter was born in 1927) slept in the van. They moved to Copley in 1929 before settling in Adelaide in 1934 while “Harry” continued his outback runs over rough tracks.
In 1938, the family (with three children) opened a general store at Beltana in the Flinders Ranges. From there, Monsoor regularly took trips that lasted six weeks. His 680-mile (1,094 kilometres) journeys took in Leigh Creek, Marree, the Strzelecki track to Mount Hopeless, Arkaroola, Nepabunna mission and every settlement on the way.
Monsoor allowed a fornight between trips to restock and service the van at Beltana. His visits to railway towns coincided with paydays, outback race meetings or drovers bringing cattle from Queensland. He also looked after many Aboriginal customers. Monsoor had to be his own mechanic and, at night, removed the steering wheel to sleep in the cab.
For children in isolated areas, Monsoor was the sole source of sweets (Minties, jubilee mixture, almond rock), and for their mothers, bolts of cloth and sewing materials. Men bought tobacco, boots and razor blades. He covered the range from “the pretty bloomer today” to condoms (“the overcoat for the mad dick”). For some, Monsoor's truck was their first motor vehicle sighting and he brought news and gossip from along the track. His boisterous self-deprecating humour made him popular. He enjoyed gambling at cards or a wager on his remarkable physical strength.
At 66, Monsoor had a heart attack but went back on the back on the road again after three months. In 1954, wife Maheeba's ill health forced the family to return to Adelaide and Monsoor to retire. The Monsoors managed delicatessens until Maheeba died in 1957. Harry then returned to Leigh Creek where he died two years later.