An Eye Catching Building.

In July 2010 the following email arrived at the Society:
Hello -
I quite often pass by an interesting looking wooden building at 229 Robinson Rd, Geebung. I would guess it was built during the war and has a distinctive architectural style. I was speaking with the owner who's owned it for a long time and it's likely to be demolished in the not-too-distant future. I wonder if anything is known about it's history or whether in fact it has come to your society's notice.
Regards
Since we didn't know anything about the building it took some time to come up with some answere. And some more questions, but that's the way history goes.
Indstriall Sales And Services (ISAS)

Cath Ballard, the Historian of Geebung, had information and photographs of the building and its environs going back to its inception in 1947. At that time Geebung was like all the local suburbs, scattered housing, small farms, bush with a few large enterprises just beginning. One of the latter was Industrial Sales and Services or ISAS which grew at No. 229.
It would be interesting to know how the materials for such a large building were obtained as there was a monumental shortage of building materials at the time. Possibly the State or Federal Government 'fast tracked' the process in order to get supplies of tractors.
Aerial View of the Site

Notes from Geebung Story - The Next Fifty Years by Kath Ballard Ch. 13 p.214-219
In February 1947 the firm of Industrial Sales and Service (ISAS) opened at 229 Robinson Road East, Geebung with George Lionel Ferguson as Chairman and Managing Director. The site was formerly occupied by Usher's Samsonite factory which was destroyed by fire some three years earlier. (Samsonite was used in making ports or suitcases, school children used ports made of Samsonite to carry their books in the days before the, now universal, 'bags' appeared.)
ISAS supplied and serviced heavy machinery such as International Tractors with caterpillar or tank tracks which were just coming on the market in Australia. The business prospered and eventually employed some 150 persons.

Wikipedia has supplied the following information. The Nissen hut or Romney hut or Quonset hut or Igloo was designed by Major Peter Nissan of the Royal Engineers during World War I. The hut is made in sections and can be easily erected simply by bolting the sections together. A team of six men can build a hut in a matter of hours depending on how big a hut is required; vast numbers were used in both World Wars.