What about Melbourne ?

Was it McGrath's? That name has a long association with the book shop for me. That shop in Little Lonsdale, next to the shot tower, went with the construction of Dimaru/Melbourne Central. What about E.D&E in Lonsdale street?

MrT.

A capacitor company in Bell Street Preston (the name escapes me) brought them out, and for a very short time after the city store closed, you could still buy components from a side street entry to the Bell Street building.

I seem to recall that towards the end, McGrath's moved from the downstairs place on the north side of Little Lonsdale to the other side of the road, to a double shop-front with large glass windows and doors.

Not sure where they went. As I recall, they excelled at supplying printed circuit boards for EA projects :-)

What was that company at the top end of Elizabeth street, between Latrobe and Little Lonsdale, on the west side of the road. Sold mostly surplus stuff, owned by a guy called Jack, I think. Eventually turned into an electronics supplier (name eludes me again!) around the corner in Latrobe street, between Elizabeth and Queen, also with an office in Springvale Road Mulgrave. The Mulgrave office eventually shut down, and the Latrobe street one turned more towards computers.

I also vaguely remember surplus supplier in Richmond, kind of behind (to the east of) North Richmond station. And a "Silicon Valley" store in Bridge Road Richmond, opposite and near the Town Hall, followed by the first Tandy store in the same road. With the Dick Smith store down the river end of Bridge Road, I think that Bridge Road would probably have to have been Melbourne's "silicon alley".

For a real memory stretch, who recalls Radio Parts, up a flight of stairs in Elizabeth street, near the corner of Burke, diagonally opposite the GPO?

Peter

Waltham Dan the Disposal Man ?..

-- John G.

Remember the galvanised bread-tins that the components were in? And about two times out of three you could even park.

I remember how I was always impressed about how easily they could calculate the 27.5% sales tax in their heads for any amount :-)

Although one of them did eventually spoil the trick for me by explaining that it was just 25% (ie a quarter) and then 10% of that again...

Peter

My memories (and physical being) don't go back quite as far, but I do remember All Electronic Components at the east end of Lonsdale Street, spread over 2 or 3 shopfronts. I wanted to buy about 200 LEDs and they gave me a sizeable discount without asking, even though they had to count them out by hand! Does anyone know when they closed?

I also remember sneaking out to Dick Smith's in Latrobe Street in the mid 1980s when my mum dragged me along to her ballet rehearsals every weekend. When she decided to be nice and get me a little something from that very same shop the guy there said "hey buddy, you're back!" and then as I said "what?" he replied, "yeah, you come in here all the time!"

Somehow I got away with that one. :->

You betcha! I've got lots of fond memories of the place.

That's right. IIRC, they had this weird little stairway to the upper level, with a railing you could look over to the ground floor.

Including all sorts of cool surplus/junk/scrap that was a godsend for poverty-stricken wannabe electronics students, which is what I was at the time. :^)

Again, IIRC, there was also some other mob that sold surplus junk within a healthy walk of McGraths too, maybe on Swanston or Elizabeth St, around Lonsdale? Does anyone else have any idea who I might be thinking of?

The last thing I remember buying from McGraths was some bits for making PCBs: Etchant, rosin, & a single-sided sheet bakelite PCB.

That sounds like "Ellistronics", on LaTrobe St, about 1/2 a block west of Elizabeth St. It's now a PC shop called, IIRC, "Tecs".

Didn't know any of that.

"Tecs"?

Yeah, that's about right. I remember it being a major adventure for me at the time (10 years old, maybe?) to make the expedition out to Trciky Dicky's et al, on Bridge Rd.

Yep. :^) You know they're still going strong, in a big shopfront at the North end of Spencer St?

No, unfortunately. That's /way/ too long ago for my memory to be very reliable.

LaTrobe St? - Weren't they in Bourke St, or maybe Hardware Lane? Or am I forgetting another branch?

"Lionel" "Phil Allison"

I think they were turning it into a stereo sound lounge, last time I saw the place - selling germanium transistor amps by " Peak" and the like.

I also remember visiting the basement level at " Homecrafts" in Swanston Street - bought an Eveready 6 volt lantern battery in about 1963 for my first home brew, two transistor AM radio - damn thing turned out to be flat !!!

....... Phil

That was it! The guy who ran it was Jock Ellis.

Not sure whether there's a connection between Ellistronics and Tecs, although I do think Tecs was originally "The Electronics Component Shop", rather than "The Electronics and Computer Shop" as it is now.

Yeah, buy stuff from them all the time, usually from the Malvern store. They're quite close to where I work.

I believe the Spencer street store burned down (or nearly so) quite a few years ago now. They rebuilt, obviously :-)

Peter

Not long gone, but I wonder how it continues is Preston Electronic Components on High St (near Bell St).

An amazing collection of kits & magazines from long-gone shops (eg Rod Irving), valves and other bits.

The prices for some bits make it more a convenience store (like Tandy used to be with its huge number of outlets).

There's another one we forgot - Rod Irving's, in High Street Northcote. Rod opened another shop near where Rockby's is now in Clayton before disappearing.

Peter

Huntingdale was a bit of a mecca as well. 261 Huntingdale Rd was something (Rod Irving) before becoming Rockby (until recently) then closing. Not far away was Stewarts (closed when I visited) and Daycom (radio gear).

Being near Monash Uni Clayton & Telstra Research Labs might have helped.

How could I forget Rod Irving's? They sold cheap EA ESR meter kits with no microcontroller, containing a note telling the purchaser to get it from the author, who knew nothing about it until he copped a whole lot of abuse from irate constructors. I think Rockby may have moved into the RIE building in Renver Rd when RIE (deservedly IMHO) went out of business.

"Bob Parker" wrote

Here's another story about RIE:

These people do!

In another life when I lived in Melbourne, it used to be the only place to go to get most components.

In the mid 70s you couldnt get a park out the front for all the bikes on Sat mornings.