In the days before the motor vehicle and on the eve of the arrival of railway travel the horse and the camel ruled the transport business. Jules Samuel Gascard was one businessman who was at the forefront of this booming trade.
Gascard’s Livery Stables – Cue
Cue 1896 – Jules Gascard’s Livery stables are the largest in the colony and cover over an acre of freehold ground with two fronts, one to Robinson and one to Dowley Streets. The main building is 140ft long by 42 ft wide and has a height of no less than 25ft, built of wood and iron and cool even in the hottest of weather.
Accommodation as provided for 60 horses, one side devoted to the sleek well-fed mail-coach horses and the opposite stalls to the livery department, a long row of vehicles of all kinds occupy the centre. Mr. William George Grey, on whose shoulders fall the management of the whole large establishment, showed his favorite conveyances, strong double spring buggies, made by Babcock and Co of New York State that have never needed repair since they came into the stables. A number of wagons, carts, and runabouts by D White and Co, which are well-liked by Gascard’s numerous patrons.
Behind the main building are the blacksmiths and repair shops as the firm has its own staff of mechanics, saddlers, blacksmiths, and wheelwrights, and others among the sixty staff employed. The well in the yard is down 140ft and is worked by a horse and whip giving an abundance of fresh water for all purposes on the premises. As Mr. Gascard has the contract for three mail services, from Cue to the end of the line, Cue to Nannine and Cue to the Star of the East the number of horses needed is great, and no less than 200 are in constant use in this branch alone.
Until the railway crept along so far, no better mail service in the colony existed than that between Mullewa and Cue, the distance of 254 miles being covered, with constant relays of horseflesh, in less than three days. Three hundred camels are also employed in the carrying trade under the charge of Mr. Symonds, for Jules Gascard is also a carrier and forwarding agent. Seventy camels are now being broken into wagons, in view of the large eastern and northern trade for which Cue will be the distributing centre when the railway is completed.
Jules Samuel Garcard was often thought to be French but was in fact born in Bern Bern Switzerland on the 4th June 1836. He was the son of Samuel Gasrcard and Francoise nee Weber who were both 16yrs old when he was born. At the age of 21yrs, he married Janet Barr, a Scottish girl, in Ballarat Victoria in 1857. Four children were born in the marriage, Hannah born 1858, Augustine born 1859, Samuel & Jules born in 1861. His family never accompanied him to Western Australia and all remained in Victoria.
Jules died suddenly only three years after the above article on his thriving business was written:
West Australian – Perth – 13 February 1899, page 2
DEATH OF MR. JULES GASCARD
GERALDTON, February 12th, 1899.
Mr Jules Gascard for many years connected with the coaching services on the Murchison, died suddenly at the Club Hotel Geraldton, shortly after midnight last night. The deceased, who had been ailing for about a week, arrived here from Cue by yesterday’s evening’s train and he was conveyed to the Club Hotel in a cab, where he walked upstairs unassisted and went to bed. Growing worse during the night the doctor was called in, but the case was found to be hopeless. The heart was beating faintly and finally ceased, fatty degeneration of that organ being the cause. The funeral took place this afternoon. Mr Gascard is said to have a wife and family in the eastern states and is very wealthy. He was the licensee of the Nannine Hotel and owned the Annean station on the Murchison and considerable other property. He had made his final trip to Geraldton due to recently suffering sunstroke and a wish to escape the prevailing heat in Cue at the time.
His considerable estate of £18,506 was left to his youngest son Jules Garcard who was to take over his father’s business concerns. He is buried in the Geraldton Cemetery (now Apex Park).
Menzies Miner – 1 July 1899, page 5
Moya Sharp
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