I am asking if anyone has any information relating to who imported MArklin When? Any historial information would be usefule.

1. EMAIL had a warehouse in Sydney where MArklin was stockpiled and sent to retailers in Australia during the 50s-60s
KArl and Frank Myer started Minicity in Dubbo and then started importing in the 40s-60s Minicity was disaplayed all around Australia and eventually ended up near Magic Moutain at mermaid Beach on Gold Coast Qld. It was moved acroos the road to a bigger place
2. Bill Sylvester became an importer in the 60s-70s
3. Walthers and Stevenson and Levesons were retailers in Sydney in the 50s
4. Model Dockyard In Melbourne retailer
5. Searles of Pitt st Sydney were retails along with Hobbyco in the 50s
6. Retailers Like Bill Webb Model railways at Mittagong now Allaboard

This is a topic of interest to me also. Have you reviewed this previous thread (perhaps they could be merged - BD?)

https://www.marklin-user...cularly-NZ-and-Australia

And while I think of it - I acknowledge some of the information below may be either from that other thread, or from other members kindly sharing their own material - very much appreciated!

For some time I've been gathering information as it comes to hand about the Marklin scene in NZ, and by extension, Australia also. The intention being an article on the subject once I have enough material to actually work from.

My main sources of information are anecdotal, word of mouth, chit-chat etc, usually from old-timers in the game - although some would class me in that range also.

But for me an important resource is anything printed or produced that nails down a time-period. Catalogues and Price Lists with Dealer Stamps is the most obvious, but also old advertisements (Newspaper usually), correspondence etc.

In regards to Australia specifically, what I can add so far is regarding Searle & Co in Sydney. This sign was sold at Auction some years ago. Someone in Australia has it. This sign was in the special 1953 Werbehilfen catalogue of Dealer promotional items.

Note that the sign states at that time, "Est. 53 years". so this indicates the company was founded around 1900 - that's a long time, and surely a rich history.






When exactly they started selling Marklin items is unknown, but there may be ways to find out more. Your National Archives for example may have some info?

Another possible avenue is your Customs Dept, records of Imports can sometime be quite detailed. What, When and by Who.

This advertisement might be of interest, from the Sunday Herald, 1951 Nov. 18. It lists four different retailers, Searle, HobbyCo, Price's and Southern Cycles. Note of course the "Factory Representative" at the time, "James Balfour, 13 Market St, Sydney, a Unit of EMAIL"




There's also this taken from a 1949 catalogue




As far as price lists goes, these are what I have so far

1962 - J Searle & Sons Sydney

1975 - (believed to be Australia, but no dealer info)

1976 - HOBBYCO - Sydney stamp on front, Email logo on rear. ** Note this is a factory printed pricelist from the print code "TN 0576 ru" indicates a print run of 10,000. Must have had a healthy customer-base! (yellow paper)

1976 (Effective 04 1977) - EMAIL Ltd, Joynton Ave, Waterloo, NSW on the front, HOBBYCO on the rear (yellow paper) - this style pricelist is likely importer named on the front, and retailer personalised on the rear)

1978 July - EMAIL Ltd, Joynton Ave, Waterloo, NSW (pink paper)

1976-77 - The Model Dockyard Pty Ltd, 216-218 Swanston St Melbourne
1977-78 - The Model Dockyard Pty Ltd, 216-218 Swanston St Melbourne

1980 July - MARKLIN DISTRIBUTORS - Sole Australian Agents - Suite 3, 100 South Pacific Highway, Waitara NSW (green paper)
1982 July - MARKLIN DISTRIBUTORS - Sole Australian Agents - Suite 3, 100 South Pacific Highway, Waitara NSW (pink paper) - BILL WEBB stamped on front, Figtree NSW
1983 July - MARKLIN DISTRIBUTORS - Sole Australian Agents - Suite 3, 100 South Pacific Highway, Waitara NSW (yellow paper)
1986 Feb (New Items) - MARKLIN DISTRIBUTORS - Sole Australian Agents - Suite 3, 100 South Pacific Highway, Waitara NSW (white paper, photocopy?)
1995 July - MARKLIN DISTRIBUTORS - Sole Australian Agents, P.O. Box 517, Wahroonga, NSW

There is also currently Nathans Trains (https://www.nathanstrains.com/) - I'm not sure if they are factory-direct to Australia or operate as an extension of their Malaysian business. They've been active in QLD for many years, I visited their store also around year 2000 and dealt happily with Noel Loganathan.

1996 - probably should mention TRAIN TRADER (Peter) 15 Waterloo Street, Narrabeen NSW - that price list is 28 pages, and a mix of New and Used but certainly doesn't list the full range nor things like accessories, track etc.

I seem to recall they may have been "parallel importing", they were certainly active, I visited that store roughly around that time. Any direct connection with Märklin or Agent is unknown but they do refer that the New C-Track is here so they did have access to the current range.

And a couple of their business cards collected along the way. I'm not promoting them in any way, no connection to the business, is it even still running?



And a letter from 1992 re the Marklin Club

Thanks for that. There was another retailer in Melbourne at Box Hill. Can't recall the name of it just now but I bought a new Primex Set there in the 90's. I seem to recall he was a Märklin dealer. It closed only a few years later.

Cheers

Hi all,
The following has very little or nothing to do with Märklin.
Bill Brown's (his real name) Sports Store in George Street Brisbane (think football, cricket, soccer, golf, hockey etc) was I believe an importer for Fleischmann from the 1950s, until closure (1970s??).
This is the same time span as Clive McTaggarts activity as Austral Modelcraft.
On his death (about 1990) the business was purchased by Ray Nunn and his wife and is still partially active on the south-side of Brisbane.

I guess by Traintasia you mean the model train expo/show at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Kimball

By The way are you the Kim Thurlow that I knew in QLD???? I bought a number of railway books from you when you lived in house on the south side of Brisbane. I believe we met in Telecom somewhere.