Draft:Bairds department store

• Comment: This could be notable, but the current sources aren't enough to establish that. The first one, on which this is mostly based, is written by a member of the Baird family, and therefore not independent. The second looks like a primary source. Some are just images, and it's not clear whether #7 is a published source at all. There is also quite a lot of information that doesn't appear to be supported by any source. DoubleGrazing (talk) 05:27, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

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Withdrawing submission Template:Ai-assisted

Bairds

The former Bairds Building, 491–493 Wellington Street, Perth (1906). Photographed 2025.
Type	Private (1896–1965); Public (1965–1969)
Industry	Retail
Genre	Department store
Founded	1896
Founder	William Hutchison Baird
Defunct	1969
Fate	Acquired by Myer Emporium Ltd, December 1969
Successor	Myer
Headquarters	Perth , Western Australia, Australia
Area served	Western Australia; mail order to Northern Territory
Products	Department store retail; mail order catalogue
Number of employees	Over 900 (1960s)
Parent	Myer Emporium Ltd (1969–1989)

Bairds (also known as The Bairds Company and, from 1917, formally Bairds Company Ltd) was a Western Australian department store and mail order business founded in Coolgardie in 1896 by William Hutchison Baird (1869–1947). From goldfields hardware origins, the business expanded to Perth in 1903, establishing Bairds Arcade — described by The West Australian as a "miniature Crystal Palace" — in 1909. By the 1960s, the company employed more than 900 staff and operated stores in Perth and Fremantle.

The company operated a mail order catalogue known colloquially as the "Farmer's Bible," which served rural and remote customers from Perth to Darwin. A two-way trading model — under which the business accepted farm produce in exchange for catalogue credit — was a distinctive feature of its operations throughout the mid-twentieth century. By 1964, annual catalogue orders totalled £779,000 against a mailing list of 28,000 country names.

In December 1969, the business was acquired by Myer Emporium Ltd for $4.3 million, concluding 73 years of Baird family operation. Bairds and Boans — Perth's two major family-founded independent department stores — were thus both ultimately absorbed into the Myer group, Bairds in 1969 and Boans in 1984.

The company's former headquarters building at 491–493 Wellington Street, Perth — purchased by William Baird in 1919 — survives as a State Heritage-listed structure and currently houses the WA State Heritage Office. It is the only surviving structure from the Bairds operating footprint. The main Emporium trading premises on Murray Street were demolished in 2002 to make way for Perth Underground Station.

History

Origins in Coolgardie (1896–1902)

The discovery of gold near Coolgardie in 1892 and near Kalgoorlie in 1893 triggered one of the largest internal migrations in Australian colonial history, with the population of the Western Australian goldfields exceeding 100,000 by the mid-1890s. William Hutchison Baird was born in Ballarat, Victoria, on 19 May 1869, the son of William Baird Senior, an accountant from Ayrshire, Scotland, and Janet (née Paton), also from Ayrshire, who had emigrated to Victoria during the Victorian gold rush era. Baird had trained at the Ballarat Hardware Store before travelling to Western Australia.

In 1896, aged 26, Baird founded the Coolgardie Hardware Co. in Coolgardie. His brother Robert joined him in Coolgardie in the same year. Stores in Kalgoorlie on Hannan Street (1897) and Boulder on Burt Street (1898) followed. The trading name across the goldfields stores expanded from hardware to "Ironmongery, Fancygoods, Glass and Crockeryware" — an early precursor of the department store model that would develop in Perth.

By 1899, siblings Adam, Elizabeth, Jessie, and Ann Baird had also joined the firm. John Baird arrived in 1902 to manage the Boulder store.

Perth expansion (1903–1909)

A store opened on Hay Street, Perth, in 1903, alongside a rural mail-order house. By 1905, the family had leased a full city block from Hay Street to Murray Street. Early Perth trading names included "Bairds Drapery" and "General Providers," reflecting the shift from goldfields hardware origins to a broader general merchandise offer.

Bairds Arcade (1909–1919)

Bairds Arcade, designed by Adam Baird — a civil engineering graduate of Ormond College, University of Melbourne (1896) — was completed and opened in early 1909. The arcade ran the full depth of the city block from Hay Street to Murray Street and featured a glass-vaulted roof along its entire interior length, which prompted The West Australian to describe it as a "miniature Crystal Palace." The arcade contained both Bairds departments and tenanted third-party shopfronts. A 1915 photograph held at the State Library of Western Australia (catalogue reference BA533/128) records a third-party tenancy — the Direct Supply Company — operating within the arcade.

A 34-page promotional brochure published in 1910, held at the State Library of Western Australia (catalogue reference b3161900), documents the arcade at its first full year of operation, including photographs of the Provision Department, merchandise displays, and portraits of managers A.F. Scott, T.C. Morrow, and W.P. Armstrong.

In August 1917, the business incorporated as Bairds Company Ltd.

The Emporium and Depression era (1919–1947)

In 1919, William Baird purchased the Wellington Street building at 491–493 Wellington Street, Perth — a four-storey Federation Free Style commercial building constructed in 1906 for ironmonger Levi Green (died 1914), designed by architect R.J. Dennehy and built by J.D. Sanders. The acquisition extended the business from Murray Street to Wellington Street, creating a continuous retail presence across the full depth of the city block. Bairds Emporium opened in 1920, offering drapery, men's clothing, furniture, shoes, and hardware.

Also in 1919, Adam Baird drafted a profit-sharing agreement for staff; the agreement was not implemented, though he subsequently introduced a subsidised mutual-aid plan and health insurance. A branded water tower on the Wellington Street roofline, carrying the legend "THE BAIRDS COY. LTD. GENERAL PROVIDERS," became a prominent Perth commercial landmark visible from multiple approach streets and is confirmed in dated press photographs from the 1920s through to the early 1970s.

During the Great Depression, Adam Baird extended credit to farmers, accepted payment in kind — including farm produce in place of currency — and assisted customers with marketing their goods through the store. No staff were retrenched during this period.

William Hutchison Baird died on 30 May 1947, aged 78. Adam Baird assumed the role of Managing Director.

Post-founder period (1947–1969)

Adam Baird died on 9 February 1954 at Peppermint Grove, aged 80. Sir Walter Murdoch described him as "one of the best men I have ever known, and the most modest." Keith Hugh Baird (Adam's son, known to staff as "Mr Hugh") became Managing Director, working alongside Neil H. Baird (William's son), who had joined the firm in 1924 at age sixteen and served as President of the Retail Traders Association of Western Australia in 1961–62.

By the 1960s, the business employed over 900 staff. The company went public in 1965. That year, the Perth store was rebuilt and air-conditioned, and a purpose-built new store opened in Fremantle at 2 Queen Street (corner of Queen and Adelaide Streets). Keith Hugh Baird died on 18 July 1965, aged 53, and Neil Baird assumed the chairmanship.

In December 1969, Myer Emporium Ltd acquired Bairds Limited for $4.3 million — 73 years after the founding of the Coolgardie Hardware Co.

Mail order operations

A mail order operation was established alongside the Perth Hay Street store in 1903. The catalogue — known colloquially as the "Farmer's Bible" across rural Western Australia — commenced publication approximately 1929–30. The August 1939 edition (No.10, 320 pages) is the earliest edition confirmed in institutional holdings. Product categories included hardware, tools, grocery, crockery, boots, furniture, and drapery, and the catalogue was produced under the legal name "The Bairds Co. Ltd." with premises listed at Murray to Wellington Street, Perth (telephone B 2161; GPO Box C-107).

Geographic reach

Freight routes confirmed in the 1939 edition extended to Carnarvon, Onslow, Roebourne, Port Hedland, Shark Bay, Broome, Derby, Wyndham, and Darwin, serviced by boat freight to North-West Ports, goods train, packet post, parcels post, and aerial post for small parcels to remote locations. The 1939 edition also carried a standard notice: "CARTRIDGES and MATCHES cannot be sent through the Post," indicating that ammunition was a regular catalogue line consistent with the company's station, farmer, and miner customer base.

By 1964, annual catalogue orders totalled £779,000 against a mailing list of 28,000 country names.

Two-way trade

A distinctive feature of the Bairds catalogue operation was its two-way trading model. The 1939 edition carries the notice: "SEND US YOUR EGGS. Write us for information or quotations," and offered a five-shilling crate of vegetables and a seven-shilling-and-sixpence crate of fruit and vegetables, confirming the acceptance of farm produce in lieu of currency or in exchange for catalogue credit. During the Depression, Bairds also accepted payment in kind more broadly, a practice documented in the Adam Baird biography in Try Bairds.

Buildings

Bairds Arcade

Bairds Arcade ran from Hay Street to Murray Street across the full depth of the city block. Completed in early 1909 and designed by Adam Baird, the arcade featured a glass-vaulted roof running its full interior length. Contemporary accounts described it as a "miniature Crystal Palace." The arcade contained individual tenanted retail shopfronts alongside the Bairds departments, with the Murray Street elevation carrying the signage "BAIRDS ARCADE / THE BAIRDS COMPANY."

Wellington Street building

The former Bairds Building at 491–493 Wellington Street, Perth, is a four-storey Federation Free Style commercial building constructed in 1906. It was designed by architect R.J. Dennehy and built by J.D. Sanders for ironmonger Levi Green, who died in 1914. The building was purchased by William Baird in 1919 and remained in Bairds occupation for fifty years, until the 1969 Myer acquisition. Myer continued to operate from the premises until 1989, when the company relocated to Forrest Place.

The former Bairds Building, 491–493 Wellington Street, Perth. Federation Free Style (1906). Architect R.J. Dennehy; builder J.D. Sanders. WA State Heritage listed, Place ID d47df231. Now houses the WA State Heritage Office. Photograph: L.W.D. Forte, 2025.

The building was closed by WorkSafe in 2003 due to asbestos contamination. It was registered on the WA State Heritage List in 2004 (Place ID: d47df231). The State Heritage Office describes it as having been "occupied for fifty years by the popular store Bairds Company, a business of particular importance to country customers." Following extensive renovation, it now houses the WA State Heritage Office. The City of Perth Local Heritage Survey (2022) describes the place as of cultural heritage significance to the State of Western Australia and to the local area. It is the only surviving structure from the Bairds operating footprint.

Murray Street Emporium

Wellington Street, Perth, 2025. The former Bairds Building (Federation Free Style, 1906) survives at centre-left — the only remaining structure from the Bairds operating footprint. The Emporium premises on Murray Street were demolished in 2002. Photograph: L.W.D. Forte, 2025.

The principal Bairds Emporium trading premises on Murray Street were demolished in 2002 to accommodate Perth Underground Station. The building's rooftop water tower, which had carried the company's trading name as a cityscape landmark since the 1920s, had been removed at some point between the December 1969 acquisition and July 1974, as confirmed by a National Archives of Australia photograph (reference A6135, K28/7/74/35) showing the building with Myer signage and the tower absent.

Fremantle store

A purpose-built single-storey modernist store opened in 1965 at 2 Queen Street, Fremantle, on the corner of Queen and Adelaide Streets. Following the 1969 acquisition, the site was subsequently operated as a Target store from 1972.

A separate building at 33–37 High Street, Fremantle, has been associated with a Baird presence from approximately 1901. The building, designed by Cavanagh and Cavanagh, is listed by the City of Fremantle as being of exceptional heritage significance.

The Baird family

The Bairds business was a six-sibling enterprise and remained under continuous family operational control for the entirety of its 73-year independent existence. William Hutchison Baird founded it; Robert joined in 1896; Adam, Elizabeth, Jessie, and Ann in 1899; John in 1902. The second generation — Neil H. Baird (William's son) and Keith Hugh Baird (Adam's son) — held the business through its peak staffing years.

Key members of the Baird family

Person	Role	Life dates / Notes
William Hutchison Baird	Founder; Managing Director 1896–1947	Born 19 May 1869, Ballarat; died 30 May 1947. Trained at Ballarat Hardware Store.
Adam Baird	Managing Director 1947–1954; designed Bairds Arcade	Born 1873, Ballarat; died 9 February 1954, Peppermint Grove.
Robert Baird	Joined 1896, Coolgardie	First sibling to join the firm.
Neil H. Baird	Chairman 1965–1969; RTAWA President 1961–62	Born c. 1908; joined firm 1924, aged 16.
Keith Hugh Baird	Managing Director 1954–1965	Known to staff as "Mr Hugh." Died 18 July 1965, aged 53.
Rosanne Baird	Family historian	Author of Try Bairds (1987), the primary family account.

William Baird's wife, Elizabeth (née Langdon), came from a Ballarat gold mining family. She died during the Second World War after being struck by an Army vehicle on Stirling Highway, aged 78. The Baird family resided at 28 Leake Street, Peppermint Grove.

Legacy

A former staff reunion held in 1980 attracted 300 attendees — eleven years after the 1969 acquisition — reflecting the institutional loyalty the business had generated across its trading life.

The Bairds story was documented by family historian Rosanne Baird in Try Bairds (1987), a 45-page account published and held by the State Library of Western Australia (catalogue reference b3291089).

In popular memory, the business was associated with the saying: "If you can't find it anywhere else — try Bairds. You can be sure you'll find it there."

Further reading

• Baird, Rosanne. Try Bairds. 1987. State Library of Western Australia, b3291089. Full text (PDF)
• Bairds Arcade, Perth W.A. Bairds Company, 1910. State Library of Western Australia, b3161900. Full text (PDF)
• The Bairds Co. Ltd. Mail Order Catalogue No.10. August 1939. Busselton Historical Society; digital record at Collections WA.

External links

• State Heritage Office inHerit Register — Bairds Building (fmr), Place ID d47df231
• National Trust WA — History of Perth's Lost Department Stores

See also

• Boans — Perth's other major family-founded department store, acquired by Myer in 1984
• Myer
• Forrest Place, Perth
• Perth Underground station

Category:Department stores of Australia Category:Retail companies established in 1896 Category:Retail companies disestablished in 1969 Category:Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Category:History of Perth, Western Australia Category:Heritage places in Western Australia Category:1896 establishments in Western Australia Category:1969 disestablishments in Australia Category:Myer