Taylor’s trip down memory lane
• Arthur Taylor has called Winnaleah home for 50 years.
By Daisy Baker
April 22, 2020
When Arthur Taylor moved to Winnaleah in late 1970, it was a thriving farming town with a fish and chip shop, a Four Square grocery store and garage, as well as the hardware, post office and hotel which remain today.
Mr Taylor moved to the area with his children from Penguin after buying the milk bar and grocery shop.
In those days, Westpac Bank called to the town twice a week, servicing the many farmers and families throughout the town.
“There were a lot of little dairy farmers, probably around the 20 mark but they’ve mostly been gobbled up by the big dairy farmers now,” he said.
“I think today it’s probably down to about seven.”
He said the community embraced his family when they arrived.
“The community was great and I was made to feel very welcome,” he recalled fondly.
“I have never regretted moving here.”
Football and cricket were both popular among the North-East’s regional towns in those days and Mr Taylor quickly made friends through the Winnaleah Football Club and cricket team.
His days were divided between driving the school bus, morning and afternoon, running the milk bar and grocery store, and then sports training several nights a week.
“I don’t know how I fitted it all in,” he laughed.
During his 50 years living in Winnaleah, Mr Taylor has been involved in many facets of the community, including the swimming pool, the hall committee and the fire brigade, which he has been the chief of the 43 years now.
He ran the milk bar and grocery store for 36 years until he shut up shop and retired in 2006.
Once a week, he would meet the freight train, which ran between Launceston and Herrick, at the Winnaleah station to get his grocery order.
It wasn’t unusual for regular customers to book up groceries or petrol with Mr Taylor and he said when he closed the shop, as with a lot of businesses, there were still a few dollars owed on the books.
“A few years after I closed I was at a footy match and a man came up to me and handed me an envelope,” Mr Taylor recalled with a chuckle.
“When I asked him what it was he said ‘this is what I owe you’. And that was a few years later.”
In 1974 Mr Taylor established his Ayrshire stud of dairy breed cattle.
“From then on, I toured the state off and one in my own truck showing my cattle,” he said.
“I still have the stud today but now I only show at the Scottsdale Show.”
These days, Mr Taylor is a hobby farmer and looks after a few head of cattle.
He can often be seen shifting his cattle around town, where they graze on the vacant blocks.