The previous owner of the former Pitts Motors, Geoff Beamish, with current owner Bill Brady.
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Businessman Bill Brady has certainly brought a bit of history back to life in Kyabram.
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The award-winning electrician is transforming the premises at the corner of Allan and Bishop Sts back to the days it was a garage called Pitts Motors.
The outside of the building, which was once a target for a new police station and McDonald’s restaurant, has been stripped back to its original red brick façade and makes for an impressive old-world sight.
Mr Brady purchased the site about six months ago from Kyabram’s Geoff Beamish, whose family owned the site for 70 years.
Among its many owners, it was originally a workshop for Mr Beamish’s late brother Neil, a carpenter, after it closed its doors as a garage in 1960.
It was a originally one of Kyabram’s first garages, built by the Pettifers in 1926.
Mr Brady has retained his nearby Fenaughty St premises where he has run his ballooning business in recent years.
Kyabram Historical Society historian Eileen Sullivan has retraced the history of the building first announced in the Kyabram Free Press on March 26, 1926:
A notable addition to the business establishment of Kyabram has been a modern motor garage, the new home of Pettifer Motors.
The structure is complete with the exception the sundry fittings, including repair plant and machinery, which are in course of installation.
The inside dimensions are 32 feet by 43 feet, which gives ample floor space for parking and demonstration purposes. The place is airy and well lighted, and in front of the main window there is a display stand.
Mr Jack Pettifer is agent for the Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Vauxhall, Bean and Clyno cars.
There is an automobile petrol pump in front of the garage, which is situated in Allan Street at the corner of Bishop Street.
Former owner Geoff Beamish and current owner Bill Brady inside the building.
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Jack Pettifer was not a mechanic by trade, so his brother-in-law, Bill Shaw, did the mechanical work.
Petrol tanks were placed inside the building at the front under the concrete.
At one stage, the site was considered for a police station, but the underground fuel tanks raised concerns, so the Haslem St corner was chosen.
The site was purchased by John Pettifer on June 15, 1922.
Pettifer Motors sold out to L Gray & F Bosanko in 1938 and began trading as Eclipse Motors.
When the garage was operated by J & L Muston, the first Holden car in Kyabram was on show in this garage in December 1948 with a price of £675.
Jack Muston was to become the first Kyabram man to own what was known as the new Holden.
In 1949, Brewster & Maddern took over the dealership of Holden, and Jack Muston sold to Watson & McCabe.
In 1952, Watson & McCabe sold the garage business to the Pope Brothers, who traded in Austin sales and service, under the name of Regency Motors.
They sold the Regency Garage to H & F Pitts in September 1955, trading under the same name.
In 1958, Frank Pitts and Kevin Higgs entered a 10,000-mile around Australia Redex car rally, which they managed to complete despite a great loss of points caused by breakdowns.
In 1960, H & F Pitts closed the business and built a new garage four blocks to the east.
Other occupants of the building over the following years included:
• Knight’s Big Store — used for storage
• Neil Beamish, builder, and some time later his brother Geoff Beamish, who carried out his carpet laying business.
• In the 1980s, the front of the building was used by the Kyabram Hospital Auxiliary as a second-hand shop.
The rear of the building has had many tenants over the years including:
• Tyre service and motor mechanic.
• Dybka Pottery, which leased half the building and ran pottery classes.
• Kyabram Removalists and Storage conducted its business on the Bishop St side of the site for several years and today an old-style male barber shop run by Terry Scott still remains in the north-west corner of the old garage.
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