William Charlick cashes in on move to Adelaide's Mile End with business for cold storage of food and by reselling land
Staring what became South Australian Cold Stores was a major separate earner for the Charlick family, after William Charlick expanded his busines interests beyond Adelaide city's east end to the suburb of Mile End South. William Charlick Ltd followed technology beyond the horse-and-cart days (bottom left) for its many enterprises and also profited from reselling Mile End land, most notably to Richards Industries car body builders (bottom right).
William Charlick, with £4,000 capital from his involvement in running a fruit and vegetables business and creating Adelaide city’s new east end market in 1904, also started setting up a larger enterprise that year to bring his six sons into business life.
With his fifth son Havelock Malcom Charlick, he bought 1.26 acres at the northern corner of London Road and Railway Terrace in the inner Adelaide western suburb of Mile End South for £410 10 shillings. The land, part of an 86-allotment subdivision by the South Australian Company, was near the Mile End railway goods yards and, like other nearby business, was eventually serviced by a double railway line linked to the yards.
By late 1919, Charlick and his son had accumulated land from the northern side of London Road to the northern side of Scotland Road, with the Holdfast Bay railway line (later built over by James Condon Drive) and Railway Terrace as its west and east boundaries. This totalled nearly 14 acres and cost £3,646. William Charlick Limited sold just over half of the land between 1919 and 1945. The largest sales were to car body maker Richards Industries Ltd who bought virtually all allotments on the north side of Scotland Road for £5,429 in 1945. Charlick’s remaining land was between the eastern halves of London Road (northern side) and Scotland Road (southern side) including a private road – a total of around 5.4 acres. The Mile End site became focal point of several Charlick businesses until the 1980s.
William Charlick’s experience in fruit and vegetable alerted him to the need for more cold storage in Adelaide. In 1916, the Mile End Cold Stores Limited, with Charlick as chairman of directors, had its first ordinary general meeting in the Gawler Chambers, North Terrace, Adelaide city, with starting capital of £30,000. By March 1916, a factory was set up on 1.23 acres at London Road and Railway Terrace corner. As well as dealing in fruit, the company also handled butter and eggs and made ice. The early plant could store around 30,000 cases of fruit, 40 tons of butter and making five tons of ice per day.
In 1922, Mile End Cold Stores expanded to become South Australian Cold Stores Limited, with starting capital of £250,000. South Australian Cold Stores Ltd, separate from William Charlick Limited, had William Charlick as chairman, eldest son (Richard) Harold Charlick a director and Havelock Charlick as first company secretary. Fresh and canned meat was soon added to the products handled by the cold stores. The company thrived, with net (after tax) profits rising from £2,647 in 1929-30 to £5,111 in 1931-32 to £10,201 in 1938-39.
In 1935, the cold stores plant had its first extensions and improvements that continued into the 1970s. In the 20 years from 1935, the extensions generally were designed by architects Caradoc Fisher and Ashton and engineered by Hurren, Langman and James, both of Adelaide. In the meantime, from 1917, William Charlick Limited moved into flour milling.
