Frank Clifton Bray (1911 - 1990)

Born 2 May 1911 in Brookton, WA

Ancestors

Husband of Muriel Elizabeth (Williams) Bray — married 4 Apr 1942 in Boulder, Western Australia, Australia

Died 14 Oct 1990 at age 79 in Kalgoorlie WA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Joan Gray [send private message]

Biography

Service Number - 84817

RAAF

Frank grew up mainly in the Beverly, Brookton area until he attended Northam High School where he held the schools long jump record for many, many years. We are not sure of the length of his jump and were not notified when the record was broken. What we do know is Frank was very good at sport, he played and umpired football with his brother Les, was very good at cricket and golf and even gave golf lessons and he also played lawn bowls. He and younger Brother Les use to umpire football and travelled by motorcycle to and from different games in the surrounding towns when they lived in Brookton. Muriel and Frank were married in the Queens Church (Methodist) in Piesse Street Boulder on the 4th day of April 1942. They met at a dance in Kalgoorlie. They adopted their only child, (me), not long after I was born in 1948. Frank came to the Goldfields when his Brother Les was living there. He started a business and Muriel looked after that while he was serving in the Airforce in Alice Springs.

Frank liked to go duck shooting with his mates, one was Jack Crisp. They would then bring home the ducks and I would help to pluck them. They were very tasty. He also would sometimes bring home a kangaroo tail from one of his mining friends and Mum would cook it up into Kangaroo Tail soup which was also very nice.

Frank owned and ran several businesses in Kalgoorlie, Boulder and Kambalda over many years mainly in the furniture and white goods line but did have a Newsagency and Toy Shop, a Gift Shop and Shoe shop. While he had the newsagency-toy shop, called Smith’s Newsagency, run by Peter and Pat Davies, which was just off the intersection of Maritana and Hannan Streets, now Cartridge World, he also leased the basement of this huge building called McKenzie Building. It was a huge area and was stocked full of toys, especially prior to Christmas for the huge Christmas trees that were held by the large mining companies out in the huge park in Fimiston called Hylton Park, for the children of the mines workers, for which he had the contract to supply all the toys. It is a fond memory of mine walking the isles of these toys and trying out a few. It was literally wall to wall toys. To me it was like Santa’s Workshop.

The first business I can remember Dad having was a large shop over the laneway, in Maritana Street, behind the Exchange Hotel where he sold tools and lots of other hardware. This was called Bray and Co. The main thing I can remember him selling in that shop was Spartan Paint. He had two partners in this business, Norm Johns and Ron Regan. They then went into the furniture business, Frank and Norm purchased W.J. Lucas which was in Hannan street, Kalgoorlie with a long laneway down the Post Office side leading to the rear of the Mechanic's Institute where they had a huge room full of furniture on show. Frank also had a furniture shop in Burt Street Boulder called Bray and Co., with Ron Regan where he also sold furniture, floor coverings and white goods.

He use to allow people to purchase on a three month payoff system interest free which allowed a lot of the immigrants who worked on the mines to get furniture and pay it off. Some told me years later that if it were not for my Dad they would have never had some of the furniture they were able to purchase.

He also carried them for 1 or 2 years at a very small interest rate. Many folk have told me their stories over the years and how their parents were able to purchase things from my Dad and pay them off. It is lovely to hear these stories. He was the agent for Lloyds of London Insurance for many years as well as having the first Home Building Society agency in Kalgoorlie Boulder later on. In the late 60's Frank opened up a Gift Shop and Shoe store in Kambalda East. He had these stores for many years along with his stores in Kalgoorlie and Boulder and another in the South Kalgoorlie Shopping precinct.

I ran the gift shop in Kambalda for a couple of years. Norm and Ron had left the goldfields by this time and Frank ran the businesses on his own. At one time he moved his 2 stores in Hannan Street Kalgoorlie to the old Musgroves shop on the laneway in Maritana street which was also in the Mackenzie Building. He also opened a gift and news agency shop next to the corner of Maritana and Hannan Street. Frank also opened a furniture shop in the new South Kalgoorlie Shopping area opposite the View-Way Drive-in. This was the new shopping area of the South Kalgoorlie area.

In his early married life Frank use to read the Regional News and report on local sporting results on the local ABC radio station. He was also a very keen weekend prospector and spent many a weekend in the bush. He travelled from the Kambalda area north to Paynes Find searching for Gold and anything else of value. One of his prospecting mates was a man from Coolgardie by the name of Harry Boucher who always bought his dog along. One day when it was time for Dad and Harry to go back to camp, Dad said it was this way, Harry said it was that way and the dog wanted to go another way. They decided to go the way the dog wanted to go and yes, sure enough the dog was right and lead them back to camp.

One of his employees Bert Skinner joined him in his goldmining searches in later years. They found nickel north of Kalgoorlie and sold that lease to a Nickel Mining Company.

Dad was a very good golfer and taught people how to play in the shed at our home in Graeme street. He was also good at lawn bowls in his latter years. He was a member of the Kalgoorlie Rotary Club for 25 years and was President in the early days. He was presented with the Paul Harris Fellow award during his membership.

Frank and Muriel, as far as I can remember never argued, or well only once when Frank was teaching Muriel to drive. They were also very loving and the home was such a quiet peaceful and musical home. Frank would come in from work and take hold of Muriel and dance around the kitchen often. Muriel would often have a pot or saucepan in her hands and they would still dance and dance. It always made me smile. Frank loved music and we had lots of records from the early 28's (His Master's Voice) through to the large LP's.

While on one of his leases mining with friends Frank suffered a heart attack and was raced back to Kalgoorlie Hospital but he passed away, doing what he loved. He was very much loved and is very sadly missed. Love you always Dad. Joan X

I have recently found out that Dad sold Real Estate when he first came to Kalgoorlie Boulder. Will have to do more research into this as he said to me in early 1990, I though you might go into Real Estate Joan. I did and for 10 years had a ball.

Sources

Remembered by Daughter Joan.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Joan Gray for starting this profile.