Our History

 

The first public meeting of Armadale Chamber of Commerce was held on 14 March 1973 following a circular distributed by Warden and Minear (owners of Armadale Square Shopping Centre). The meeting was chaired by Cyril Rushton MLA Armadale and was dominated by retailers from the Armadale CBD who agreed that more should be done to promote Armadale as a shopping town. A steering committee was established to put these suggestions into effect. This committee comprised representatives from the shire Council retailers and various service clubs in the town. The annual subscription was fixed at $15.

The original committee to be elected were:

E.M. Bruce (Armadale Real Estate)
Phil Fokkema (Cottonwood)
Mr Wieske (Harrison Hardware)
Mr Joynes (Centre Management Armadale Square)

The first six projects that were undertaken by the committee were:

* Highway signage
* Festival of Armadale
* Public Relation, press and radio liaison
* Town parking facilities
* Obtain policy from Armadale – Kelmscott Shire concerning future development
* Business Directory.

It took nearly fifteen years for the festival and business directory to really get going. The original twenty businesses to become members of the Armadale Chamber of Commerce and Industry were:

Shell, Armadale Gavin Smyth Optician R. Vermeulen Insurance
Armadale Hardware Armadale Newsagent Armadale Real Estate
BP Armadale Comment News Armadale Target
Chemist Cottonwood Gypsy Baron G Atkinson Chemist
G Doukidis Keevil Motors Feature Home Builders
J.P. Lensell N A Lockyer Peet & Co Real Estate
Rapid Clean Roethelli’s Bookshop

The above history was originally written by Mr Alex Wood who was employed as the Chamber’s first Executive Officer. Mr Wood passed away in Oct 2003. Alex Wood Drive in the Forrestdale Business Park was so named in his honour.