ROY Dark’s new store was thought to greatly enhance the appearance of that area in the township.

The main store, built of brick, was 20 x 13 metres featuring over 25 metres of plate glass and three main entrances.

Additional structures included a weighing and packing room, truck loading well, spacious ‘lorry’ sheds, a garage and two petrol depots.

With the new buildings bringing further lines of retail and the original buildings retained for the produce branch, Roy Dark was thought to be one of the biggest produce dealers on the north coast.

The new store’s grand opening was held in October 1934 as a fundraising concert for the band with supper and games, before the internal fittings had been installed, which included seven shop counters made from cedar.

Eight months later Roy was instantly killed in a truck accident, after running into a telegraph pole on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour, while returning late from a trip to Ulong on 19 May.

Roy’s wife Catherine employed a store manager, but by 1938 Roy Dark’s younger brother John ‘Jack’ Dark had taken the position.

The following year William Buckler constructed a new brick building on the corner of Moonee and West High Street, which consisted of one main shop and three small shops to replace buildings destroyed in a fire the previous year.

On 4 November 1939 Dark’s store moved into the largest store, in the foremost position on the corner, beside the present ‘Winn’s Thai Kitchen’, giving it the name of Dark’s corner.

Catherine Dark married Jack Dark in 1941 but retained the previous store, which was used in 1942 as the 12th Light Horse Regimental Headquarters, transferring ownership to Jack in 1946.

That year Jack sold the new store to Ernest Smithson and the second store in 1951 to Louis Teece, a butcher. Ernest Smithson continued trading until January 1973 when its doors finally closed after 64 years of business, with 34 years located at Dark’s corner.

By Karen FILEWOOD