Roy Stanley BUCKNELL [5057]

  General Notes:

Roy was educated at Barker College, Sydney, where he was dux in 1923, he went on to Sydney University to study medicine. In 1925 He joined the Royal Exchange Assurance Fire Reinsurance Department, until in 1935 he became Manager of the Insurance Department of Luya Julius Pty Ltd. Following this he returned to Royal Exchange before taking up an appointment as Manager of Harvey Trinder (Vic) Pty Ltd, insurance brokers, working his way up through the company to become Chairman and Managing Director. He involved himself in a number of community activities and was a Freemason.

The Bucknell Julius Link
With a tribute to Reginald Hampton Julius as I knew him
by R.S. Bucknell
February 1985.
All things have a beginning and at that beginning the consequences are seldom known.
My first position in the commercial world was as the most junior clerk in the service of the Royal Exchange Assurance, in those days at 77 Pitt Street Sydney. This was in February 1925.
In 1927 I was fortunate enough to be appointed to a newly created position, to inspect certain entries in the books in the Capital City offices of the various companies which were under the management of the Royal Exchange. One of these companies was the Sea Insurance Company Ltd, Brisbane, whose chief agents and attorneys were Luya Julius Pty. Ltd. Before my first visit to Brisbane, talking to my mother, I made mention of this name, which immediately sparked a memory in her mind, "that must be the Mr Julius who is Carrie's friend". Such is the hand of fate, and mother wrote to Carrie, and I duly made contact with this quite unbelievable character, an elderly spinster, and not very close relative of my mother, a person of over flowing love. She introduced me to Mr R H Julius and also to his family. RHJ was a man of great kindness; he took me under his wing, and this is how the two families came to be linked, when on 5 March 1935 at St Albans Church, Wilston, it was my great good fortune to be married by the Rev P E Demuth to Margaret Hampton, second daughter of Mr and Mrs R H Julius, and so RHJ became my father-in-law.
At this distance I can only look back and recall from memory much of the man who was to be such an influence on my life. I worked under him as Insurance Manager for two years, 1936/37.
What I write therefore is not documented, and is not in any way a complete history, but is an attempt to paint a picture of a man as I knew him, with the help of the things that others told me; to be Reg Julius's son-in-law opened many doors.
He was educated at his father's school and was a brilliant student. One of his essays in my possession, shows him to be a lover of, and master of the English language. He won a scholarship to Maryborough Grammar School where he completed his schooling. He was a very good musician, and would sit at his piano, without music, and play classical pieces from memory. He had quite a collection of classical phonograph records. He played cricket for the Maryborough club, and also enjoyed tennis. He became an enthusiastic Freemason and was appointed as Senior Grand Lodge Officer. He was a strong supporter of the Church of England; and was for many years Rector's Warden at St Albans, Wilston, and was instrumental in having the present church built.
The family history tells of his early life, from the time he became a partner with H.E. Luya in what started as a partnership when Luya joined RHJ in 1913. I hardly knew Luya, but he too was a legend and in all their 17 years together they did not have a single quarrel.
Luya Julius was a Customs Agent and Carrying firm, and RHJ was always in the forefront of this industry, taking active part in the Master Carriers Association, becoming its President. In the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce he also rose to be President. It was arising from these associations, that he represented Brisbane at a meeting in Melbourne where he first met his Melbourne opposite number William Mortill of the Melbourne Carrying Company. A lifelong friendship came from this of which further mention will be made later.
In his own firm or Company as it became through the years, he was also in the forefront. He started of course with horse-drawn vehicles, but soon achieved a number of firsts:
First to cease horses, and become wholly motorised.
First to use diesel powered vehicles.
First to use an articulated trailer.
First to use a tanker.
But there was progress in other directions to, as road transport steadily made inroads into freight haulage, previously a virtual monopoly of the State Railway System, the Government in 1930 introduced a punitive tax system on road transport. The master carriers met, and there were calls of "fight to the death" and calls to "surrender". But not RHJ. He went back to his office, called for maps which showed rail and road systems, saw the long winding rail connections between Kingaroy and Nanango around the Blackbutt Range and saw the short haul road for the same destinations. He went to the Transport Minister, and a contract was the result whereby all goods to or from Brisbane and Kingaroy whether the customer chose Luya Julius or the Railways would be carried by the co-ordinated system. A similar deal was made for Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads and offices were set up at Kingaroy and Murwillumbah.
General Motors.
From the first vehicle bought into Queensland by General Motors, RHJ had secured for Luya Julius a contract for the customs and cartilage work for this great multinational. It was a matter of great pride that when GMH entered into a similar Australia wide contract with a southern firm, that contract held the words "excluding Queensland" and their work never left Luya Julius.
The Firm.
It started thus -
R H Julius was a customs clerk in Maryborough, and was transferred to Customs House, Brisbane in 1902. In 1905 or 1906 he purchased (with financial assistance of Grandfather Gataker) a small carrying and customs agency firm called Wright Heaton & Co. He took into partnership with him a cousin (by marriage) named (Mr) Paul, so the firm of Paul Julius & Co began. Paul did not prove to be a very good partner (on one occasion he purchased a lorry and two horses, one of which was blind) and the partnership was dissolved, or RHJ bought him out (I incline to the latter) with great financial strain on RHJ who, in the following years, worked very hard and long hours almost resulting in a complete breakdown. . . . . .
After some years a new partnership was formed in 1913, with Herbert Luya, who was Luya Ltd, a similar, small carrying firm in South Brisbane which handled the cartage of flour from Sea Foam Flour Mills, so Luya Julius Pty Ltd was formed. The friendship with H E Luya was a great joy to the Julius family and he and RHJ worked together as a wonderful team and the Company flourished. The premises at 95 Eagle Street were purchased in 1915 and the company operated there until 1982 when many premises in Eagle Street were resumed for development 95 Eagle Street and other buildings are now demolished and a large "Riverside" Development is being undertaken on the old sites.
For many years RHJ served the Master Carriers Association and rose to be President. Again, in the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce, he became President.
In 1918 when attending an Australian Master Carriers Association conference in Melbourne, he contracted influenza, an epidemic which was sweeping Melbourne at the time. He was befriended by Bill Mortill of the Melbourne Carrying Company who was also at the conference. He took him into his home and engaged a private nurse to care for him. A long friendship continued with Bill, who lived to the ripe old age of 99, in Melbourne, and retained friendship with other members of the family.
Originally the fleet comprised all horse-drawn vehicles. Dutton Park was the stables and lorry depot, and a paddock property was bought at Hyde Road Yeronga, on the River, to spell the horses at week ends. The fleet expanded, and in 1924 the first motor trucks were purchased, 3 Internationals, and from then on started the phasing out of the remaining horses. In 1926, 3 GMC trucks, two 3 Tonners and one 5 ton "Big Brute" were purchased from General Motors Corp, who planed to open an assembly plant in Brisbane. Luya Julius became their contractors for Brisbane and this association has continued to the present day. GM cars were imported in CKD (completely knocked down) packs, and delivered to the Valley assembly plant. Later body panels and complete bodies were manufactured by Holden in South Australia, and delivered to the plant from interstate wharves.
Other Company activities:
Imports from overseas, particularly cars from the USA provided substantial amount of customs work and cartage, interstate cargoes arrived by ship to city wharves for transport to city warehouses. Cartage of Sea Foam flour, deliveries for Perkins brewery, transhipment of overseas cargoes for northern ports for Birt & Co, shipments of South Queensland butter into the United Kingdom, wool and hides etc, some of many other contracts.
Luya Julius were attorneys for the L'Union Insurance Company, subsequently replaced by Sea Insurance, now Sun Alliance. Luya Julius were also Queensland managers and agents for the first Australian National Airways¹, with Kingsford Smith and Ulm and their planes Southern Cross, Southern Cloud etc. A service to Kingaroy was instituted, which was later converted to co-ordinated service with rail and road link through Esk and Nanango. Bulk sugar and molasses were handled for the Colonial Sugar Refineries mills from Condong N S W, Maryborough and Nambour. Large tonnages of maize were carried from Roma Street rail for shipment to Melbourne, bulk grain was carted to ships loading at Brisbane and Gladstone. Bulk fertiliser was also handled and bagged peanuts from Kingaroy (see photo, held in annex at Bunderim). They handled clearance and cartage of Woolworths cargo from wharf and rail to bulk depots, and delivering to local stores. Luya Julius entered into a joint venture with the Archibald Brothers (of Sea Foam flour) in a passenger service to the South Coast, the Blue and Red Line. After withdrawal from this, the purchase of Broadbent's was effected and the name Broadbent's was retained as a separate subsidiary of Luya Julius.
Roma Oil.
RHJ was a shareholder and a director (I think) in Roma Oil, Queensland, a project which did not really get off the ground successfully, but he was very enthusiastic about the venture and always declared "there Is oil there" he had a rack on his office table, with bottles of the "good oil".
With the arrival of the USA forces in Australia in 1942, Luya Julius became responsible for the coordination and delivery of a large flow of supplies for them, from wharves to storages. They were also responsible for the payment of civilian employees of US engaged in the handling of the stores and equipment.²
With the development of containerisation of overseas and interstate cargoes, links were established with Australian National Line and Fleetways.
With the increase of the fleet, up to 230 vehicles, four wheel drives etc, Dutton Park became too small, and a larger establishment was set up at Casey Ridge, which is a very modern setup, and was officially opened by the Premier in June 1974 (and to which no member of the Julius family was ever invited to be present) in due course the Dutton Park property was sold.
H E Luya died in 1930, and his death was a terrible business and personal loss for RHJ. After this, W H Green (then accountant) was made a director. Members of the Luya family joined the company, H L Zoeller in 1924 and A F Luya at the time of the purchase of Broadbents, and he managed that subsidiary.
RHJ remained active in the business until his death in 1952 when Bill Green became Managing Director until his death in 1963. Then Zoeller and Luya and Gordon Fraser (a member of the staff for many years) and E D Summerson became the directors.
Some loyal members of the firm for many years come to my mind:
Bill Green - Accountant, Director and Managing Director.
Bert Newton - in charge of Cartage Depot.
Frank Bradfield - Customs Department.
(These usually referred to as "The 3 Boys", they gave a silver vase so inscribed "From the Three Boys" to Mum and Dad for their silver wedding anniversary.)
Bert Abbott - in the old days of horses and the start of the motors, he lived in a Company house adjoining the Dutton Park property.
Big Harry von Doran - a lorry driver, with his favourite horse called "Blue Whiskers"
Lenny Doren - (Harry's brother) Little Lenny in the office Eagle St.
Ted Elcock - who started in the firm as a boy and spent his entire business life with Luya Julius. He rose to become head of the Cartage section of the business after Bert Newton.
Mr Lock - always called Mr Lock, Insurance Manager
Jack Lewis - came to Luya Julius from General Motors, in charge of all motor vehicles and repairs are Dutton Park until he retired.
Mavis Sullivan (later Carter and now O'Sullivan) became company secretary.
Dorrie Miller - head typist for many years straight out of Technical College.
The company went public in 1965 and became Luya Julius Ltd and traded on the stock exchange the first time.
Subsidiary companies were L J Country Pty Ltd,
Grain Movers Pty Ltd,
Eljay Bulk Pty Ltd,
Liquid Bulk Pty Ltd,
Eljay Workshops Pty Ltd,
Dutton Storage Pty Ltd,
Bulk Foods Transport Pty Ltd,
Broadbents Carriers Pty Ltd,
Broadbents Storage Pty Ltd,
Broadbents Bulk Pty
Fleetways
When Fleetways purchased the company in 1967 for $1.5 million the name of Luya Julius Ltd was retained for use in Queensland. 95 Eagle Street was sold in 1982 for the "Riverside" development and the Queensland administration headquarters for the company are now at the Acacia Ridge property.
Ref: R S Bucknell 1985.
Footnotes:
1. Australian National Airways was formed in 1929 by Charles Kingsford Smith, & C.T.P. Ulm with two further directors Sir Frederick Stewart and Reginald Julius, a Brisbane to Sydney service was started on 1 Jan 1930, and in June 1930 the service was extended to Melbourne, later Launceston. Luya Julius arranged booking services in Queensland. The airline was well supported and in profit when on the 21 March 1931 it lost an aircraft, the Southern Cloud, in bad weather over the Snowy Mountains. The aircraft was not found for 27 years, the airline did not survive as a result of the crash, Australias first, closing later that year.
A silver inkstand from Ulm inscribed "To Reg in appreciation of your staunch friendship with Charles 16/2/35" remains in the family to this day - 2015.
2. A Luya Julius truck happened to be on a Brisbane wharf when the first of the US supply ships started unloading, contact was made to assist. This was a huge undertaking for Luya Julius and secured the company financially and profitably over the war years, lifting its profile in the business community considerably.

Roy married Margaret Hampton JULIUS [857] [MRIN: 1744], daughter of Reginald Hampton JULIUS [854] and Minnie Georgina Elizabeth GATAKER [855], on 5 Mar 1935 in Wilston C. Of E. Brisbane Aust. (Margaret Hampton JULIUS [857] was born on 29 Sep 1910 in Auchenflower Brisbane AUS and died on 22 Sep 1999 in Caloundra Qld..)