Lawrence & Hanson Dandenong
Alfred Lawrence, then a daring and inexperienced junior clerk, became the Australian representative for the massive British General Electric Company in the year 1885. Shortly thereafter, he founded the electrical company that would bear his name for the next century and a half. Soon after joining the company, Lawrence received word that he would be required to travel to Australia. The British General Electric Company had put out the call for a volunteer from among its staff, but it appears that nobody was interested in making the trip to Australia. Alfred Lawrence was not exactly coerced into accepting the position, but he was informed that such an opportunity may only be presented to a man once in his lifetime; consequently, he accepted the position. Upon his arrival, Lawrence walked the streets of Melbourne collecting orders for BGE and sending them back to London via telegraph. The work was laborious and did not fulfill Lawrence’s ambitions, so he continued to pursue his goals.
In 1886, Lawrence relocated to Sydney, where he established a business known as ‘Alfred Lawrence, Electrical Merchants, Engineers & Importers’ on November 19, 1886, on Wynyard Street. Lawrence had only been in business for a little bit more than a year when he watched in astonishment as customers willingly carried the highly sought after lighting goods out the front door and in through the back door from the wharves.
Canny Lawrence foresaw the impending disaster that was about to befall Sydney, which was that the city was about to run out of lighting. Lawrence placed an urgent order for several thousand pounds’ worth of lighting equipment – lamps, cable, and fittings – in England via cable, backing his judgement and using some of his own capital in addition to some borrowed from close friends. By the time the order arrived in England a few weeks later, young Alfred practically held the only substantial stocks of lighting equipment in the city. It was an incredible windfall that ended up being very helpful in establishing the business that had been struggling.
During an address in Tenterfield, New South Wales, in the year 1889, electric lighting pioneer Sir Henry Parkes delivered his first impassioned call for “a great national government for all of Australia.” Arthur Cox, a common friend of both men, was the one who introduced Arthur ‘Jerry’ Hanson to Alfred Lawrence and suggested that the two enter into business together. Both men could see the benefits of the partnership right away – Lawrence was buried under a mountain of work and lacked the financial resources to do anything about it. In order to complement Lawrence’s hands-on experience with all things electrical, Arthur Hanson contributed a much-needed boost of energy in addition to acute accounting and business savvy. In that same year, for the very first time, a sign advertising “The Lawrence & Hanson Electrical Company” was affixed to a building on Wynyard Street.
If you are looking to visit Lawrence & Hanson Dandenong, you can visit our Damaged Car Removal company as well because we are located in the same area. Look at below maps and get directions.
We Pay up to $10,000 in Cash For Any Car in Any Condition, Anywhere in Melbourne.
Melbourne VIP Cash For Cars
Unit 3/2 Lace St
Eumemmerring VIC 3177
(03) 9067 7578