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Boans was a department store chain that operated in Perth, Western Australia between from the late 19th century to the late 20th century.
It was located between Wellington Street and Murray Street and had the Padbury Buildings between it and Forrest Place.
The store was founded by Harry Boan and his brother Benjamin who both came to Perth in 1895 from Broken Hill in western New South Wales. Harry and another brother, Ernest, had previously established a successful drapery known as "Boan Bros. Ltd." in that town.
In 1901, Benjamin died and Harry assumed sole ownership. Harry purchased adjoining land that spanned the block between Wellington and Murray Streets, near Forrest Place. The business was restructured to become a limited company in 1912 and the name was changed to Boans Ltd. In the same year, the original buildings were demolished and rebuilt as a single building between Murray and Wellington Streets.
Over time, the store became the largest private employer in Western Australia.
In late 1929 Harry Boan handed control of the Boans store to his son Frank Boan who had been living in England with his mother since 1913.
Like similar businesses, Boans had a mail order catalogue issued from the late 1930s that continued into the 1950s.
The Boans department store in Wellington Street Perth was subject to a major fire in 1979, which closed the store for some weeks. The store reopened, prior to its closure in 1986 when it was sold to Coles Group to make way for the new Forrest Chase Myer complex. This was later considered a bizarre coincidence, as the Boans department store in Morley was destroyed by fire in 1986. The Morley complex was later rebuilt, housing a Myer department store.
After World War II, the factory would also house a bakery and butchery, where smallgoods were manufactured. Between 30 and 40 vehicles operated out of the receivals and despatch section, which also included garaging and mechanical services.
After the Perth store closed, the building fell into disrepair for some years, but in 1996 was assessed by the Heritage Council of Western Australia as having historic, aesthetic and social value. As part of the redevelopment of the area by the East Perth Redevelopment Authority, the buildings have now been transformed into upmarket housing and office accommodation.
The site is bounded by Brown, Glyde and Saunders Streets and the building retains the name of Boans painted on its exterior.
These included:
The stores were located at:
Ross's Sales & Auctions held an on-site sale that cleared the entire building, including many fixtures and fittings such as the jarrah staircases and a Beale Piano baby grand piano "in-situ on the fourth floor". These items are now occasionally seen in refurbished and new buildings around Perth.
Myer said in 1986 that they would retain the Boans name and promptly rebadged the Myer city store at Murray Street and William Street (to be used as the city base until Forrest Chase was ready) and any Myer suburban stores with the Boans name. However, Myer management changed their mind in 1988 when the Forrest Chase building was nearing completion so that they could centralise all advertising and eliminate cost duplication. The Boans name was phased out over several weeks.
In 1989, Myer opened on the former Boans site with a new and larger store carrying through to Forrest Place. The suburban stores were converted to "Myer" badging.
Bingemann rebadged these stores as Stirlings department stores, and he operated this business as a regional chain until 1996, when Harris Scarfe acquired the business and they became Harris Scarfe stores. Harris Scarfe continued trading until 2001.
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