When shopping at Bayards was a pleasure

The iconic Bayards store, pictured here in the 1930s (photo: Nambour Museum).

Moments in Time from Nambour Museum 

The  iconic Bayards store opened in Nambour thanks to Herb Stollznow who had lost his own business in the depression and became a commercial traveler.  

He persuaded Harry Bayard that Nambour was an ideal place to expand his Brisbane business. 

So on Tuesday 16 May 1921, Bayards took over three shops in the Town Hall buildings near the railway station.

In the 1930s, Bayards moved into the Kearns & Hocking building, “an imposing structure with a width of 36 feet to Currie Street and 55 feet to Howard Street”.

It became Nambour’s most popular and well-known store with merchandise of every description.

Bayards Store was sadly missed when it was forced to close in 1982.  Bayards Corner was a well-known landmark and meeting place.  

Older Nambour residents still refer to Bayards Corner and remember Saturday nights with the Salvation Army band entertaining the crowd.  

“So many people still remember Bayards – someone on facebook remembered that it had a fairy floss machine downstairs every Christmas,” a museum spokesperson said last week.  

“I wonder if the current Nambour Book Exchange was part of Bayard’s downstairs area. The Ambulance men used to stand outside with their big Christmas stocking raffle (they had to earn money towards their own pay!).  I don’t know what it was called, but the shop had those wires overhead that sent dockets and payments to the cashier’s office and then returned them to the shop assistant. Whalleys’ store also had this.

“For many years, the saying was ‘Meet you at Bayards Corner’.  People still say to me that they miss Bayards.”