It would have been a whole different story if Dick Parlour Snr had chosen Echuca rather than Cobden!

From Yorkshire (England) via New Zealand, Dick and Ethel (Daisy) with son Richard Jnr (Richie) arrived in Cobden in 1933 to set up businesses side-by-side. Dick's background was farm machinery while Ethel was a seamstress. Young Richie realised there was a demand for hardware so a third business was incorporated and, soon, it became the focus.

The two shopfronts become four and Richie Jnr enlised for World War 2 duty leaving Dick Snr, Ethel and Richie's new bride Thelma to run the businesses. One of Dick's pleasures at the time was to sneak through the side fence into Leo Thompson's hotel to enjoy a 'dog's nose' (ale with a dash of gin) with mine host.

Suppleis were hard to get after the war, both Dick (1951) and Ethel (1958) died, and Richie and Thelma's sons Lex, Graham, Jeffery and Milton joined the business while daughters Rosemary (music) and Jenny (textiles) pursued teaching careers.

Expansion followed with new demand for milking machines and petrol supplies, all the various needs of the Heytesbury Settlement, the milk factory and the new technical school, also the opprtunity to join the Homestead and CRT franchises and the opening of a Simpson shop. Richie died suddenly in 1967, and the four boys were 'steering the ship'. During this time, Graham also had national service commitments with the army in Malaysia.

Computers put both Cobden and Simpsons shops on-line before any other hardware stores in Australia.

The community-minded brothers, plus several staff, were all firemen so Thelma had to 'hold the fort' when the fire siren rang.

A mock hold-up of the store's 50th birthday celebrations in 1983 saw police as far away as Melbourne on alert . . .even though the Cobden constabulary were actually at the celebrations at the time! And who was the lady in the bikini arriving to claim the 'booby' prize, Margaret Loving?

Over one weekend in 1982, the huge backyard shed suddenly appeared. Builders like L V (Joe) Kelson, Angus Peter, Trevor Roberts, Brian Moulden, Barry McGrath, Des Mackay, Murray Kelson, Gerard Loving and Michael Hinkley were among regular tradie visitors to the timber yard over the years.

Legendary staff included Eric and Geoff Fagan, Joe Frusher (who worked everything out witha pencil) Ross Fleming, Tom Webster and Keith Hardness (an accountant who was often called upon to referee monthly directors' meetings).

Four generations of Parlours looked after the business over 63 years - 1. Dick (and Ethel) 2. Rich (and Thelma) 3. Lex, Graham, Jeffery and Milton 4. Lex's sons Richard, Stephen, Robert, and Graham's daughter, Tanya.

In 1992, modern-day matriarch Thelma retired, for at least the second time, and four years later, in March 1996, the business was sold to Frank and Jocelyn Martin. It was the end of the Parlour Hardware dynasty in Cobden. Lex pruchased the Simpson shop which continues to operate in 2016.