- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
well wrapped in newspaper and packed in tea chests or boxes. It was in the 1960s that the store became self-service,
although bush orders were still done and personal service was given in the hardware section.
Very few holidays were taken for Cyril was a ‘workaholic’ who devoted his life to his customers and, as they
had no children, Anne joined her husband in working long hours at the store. Cyril was known for his very dry
sense of humour and his ready supply of jokes. A slim, dark haired man who wore a moustache, he often aroused
people’s curiosity by always wearing the collar of his shirt up.
One thing not generally known about him was his ‘gentlemen’s agreements’. Many a young man in Katherine
got a start droving, fencing or in the pastoral industry with the assistance of money lent to him, or being staked
with stores and equipment, by Cyril. His book keeping system for those loans was a notebook in his pocket and
his memory.
There was an ‘unwritten rule’ for the staff of Cox’s store and that was that they assisted the elderly Aborigines
to do their shopping on what was referred to as ‘Pension Day’. Anne ensured that they had tarpaulins for the Wet
and blankets for the Dry and took a dim view of any staff member who did not assist the old people.
Considering that Anne and Cyril both received limited education, they did well in building up a large and
thriving business. They also purchased other property in the town, made wise investments and became well off
financially. Even so, they lived very simply and rarely entertained.
The store and large bulk storage shed had always had a pathway between them and in 1973 that was changed
when extensions took place and the two buildings were joined. Offices, a cold room and a hairdressing salon were
built, placing everything in the one complex.
The Katherine district was shocked and saddened to hear that Cyril Cox had passed away on 15 October 1973.
Both Cyril and Anne were generous in giving financial aid and extended credit without receiving publicity. After
Cyril’s death, Anne was often surprised by someone who had arrived to pay the balance of a debt about which she
knew nothing, but there were many who never paid her for the generosity shown by her husband.
Anne and Sonny continued to run the store after Cyril’s death until 1975 when Anne bought Sonny out and
continued to trade as the sole owner. After 37 years of trading under the banner of ‘C J A Cox and Co’, the store
finally left the Cox family when Anne sold out in 1977. In the 1990s it was still common to hear old customers say
‘how would we have survived without Cox’s’.
The store continued to trade until it was demolished to make way for the new Woolworth’s car park in 1987.
A mural on the sidewall of the Woolworth’s supermarket commemorates Cox’s store.
Cox family records held by the author; personal communications from A Cox and various members of the Cox family.
PEARL OGDEN, Vol 2.
COX, MATTHEW DILLON (c1829–1874), pastoralist, was born in England in about 1829 of a family which
had extensive interests in Java and New South Wales. In 1871, with a schooner in Batavia, he was planning to take
up land in north Queensland but was convinced to come to the Northern Territory. He was, he wrote, ‘directing
the interests of a large family circle who are to follow in my footsteps from Java and from England.’ He had spent
10 years squatting in New South Wales and 10 years importing horses into Java and other Australian colonies.
He also had an export business in Java.
Cox first reached the Territory in 1872 having travelled overland with a party, which included Darcy Uhr,
with cattle for the gold fields and remount horses intended for India. On 27 October 1872 he made application,
which was numbered 152, for a pastoral lease over land on what was then called the Douglas Peninsula but which
now bears Cox’s name. He named the property he established Bowerlee but it was never declared stocked, despite
a request for an extension, and no pastoral leases were ever issued. By February 1874 he advertised in the Northern
Territory Times and Gazette that he had a quantity of cattle for sale for meat at one Shilling per pound and it
was later reported that he had supplied Palmerston with ‘good, fat succulent beef’. In 1872 he had also requested
permission to kill buffalo but the South Australian government was very wary of issuing licences that might
have created a monopoly and so it was refused. Cox was among the first to see the benefit of Asian labour and in
April 1874 he paid 10 Pounds for the passages of Abdoola and his wife from Kupang in Timor.
To Cox must go the credit for the development of one of the first Top End cattle properties but it was to be short
lived. He was apparently a man of violent temper and this was ultimately to lead to his undoing. After their arrival
in the Territory Cox and Uhr fell out and the litigation between them, which included allegations of assault, was
to lead to Cox being charged with perjury. In March 1874 he prosecuted an employee, Cameron, for being absent
from his service. Cameron was fined two Pounds plus costs but a cross summons for assault was withdrawn.
On 17 April 1874, a nephew then in his employ, Charles Bourchier (also spelled Butcher), was charged with
assaulting him at Bowerlee a few days earlier. Evidence was given of a severe, unprovoked assault by, among
other witnesses, Richard Wells, then Editor of the Northern Territory Times and Gazette. The matter was heard
summarily and Bourchier was fined five Pounds, in default, two months’ hard labour, and was bound over to keep
the peace for 12 months.
On 4 May 1874 Cox died at his residence in Smith Street, Palmerston, at the age of 45. An inquest before a jury
was held the same day and evidence was given that since the assault on 13 April Cox had become increasingly ill.
In particular, medical evidence was given that he had suffered from spinal and kidney damage as a result of the
beating by his nephew. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter but as Bourchier had left town on 28 April
no further charge of murder could have been sustained. The two death certificates are silent as to the cause of death
but medical evidence was given that on examination a ‘slit’ had been found in one kidney, perhaps consistent with
a knife wound. At the assault hearing Cox had claimed that Bourchier had threatened him with a knife.