Motoring through history

Photo: Tarrants Motor Works. Image courtesy of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society. 

Tarrants Motor Works and later Tarrants Ford 

When WJ Tarrant started a cycle business in Adelaide Street in 1898, he probably never imagined that the business would continue to flourish not into the next century, but the next two!

He owned the first motor car in Maryborough and was the first motor dealer in Maryborough and one of the first in the State.  The business traded as Tarrants Ford until January 2010 and at that time was believed to be the oldest Ford agent in the Commonwealth.  

Mr Tarrant was quoted in his older age as remembering the first motor vehicles sold by him: motor bicycles with three wheel chairs – all benzene for them had to be specifically brought from Brisbane.

Tarrant’s Cycle and Mower Shop, 1970. Image courtesy of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society.

Another Tarrant’s satisfied customer, leaving the Adelaide Street Garage in her 1930 Ford A. Image courtesy of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society.

Tarrants Motor Works, Adelaide Street. Image courtesy of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society.