Captain G. Gunnersen (Part 1of story)

Story

Gunner Gunnersen was born in Ronnes, near Grimstad, on Oslo Fjord, Southern Norway. His father and grand father were shipbuilders and his grand father\’s brother was a sailor who perished in a shipwreck on the Goodwin Sands. Before that his family were farmers in southern Norway.

Gunner Gunnersen went to sea as a cabin boy at the age of fifteen on the trading ship ‘Norge’ of Arendal, captained by an uncle. In august 1873, at the age of twenty-four, he became master of the ship ‘Helga’ of 600 tons trading between America, India and Australia where he made three voyages. During his third trip to Australia, in 1877, he was ordered to discharge his cargo of Baltic pine in Adelaide and whilst the vessel was working he was invited to visit a farm at Gilles Plains, owned by an early German settler by the name of J.W.A.Sudholtz. There he fell in love with Mr. Sudholtz\’s daughter, Marie. Captain Gunnersen put to sea again to find another cargo for Adelaide but he was unsuccessful in doing so and in 1879 he returned to Adelaide as a passenger in the steamship ‘Lucitania’, and married Marie.

After a short while Captain Gunnersen commenced business in Semaphore, a maritime suburb of Adelaide, as a marine surveyor and commission agent. In 1884 he met another Norwegian, Otto Romcke, from a sawmilling family and they entered a partnership together, this time in Melbourne, which lasted for over ten years selling mainly Baltic timber. In 1898 Captain Gunnersen commenced trading in his own right again, G.Gunnersen & Co., having an office in William Street and a yard in Lorimer Street, Port Melbourne, until he retired in 1911.

Gunner and Marie had seven children and their grandchildren, great grandchildren and the current generation of great, great grandchildren live mostly in Australia, mostly in or near Melbourne. Before Gunner died in 1926 he took his family back to Norway for a nostalgic trip and lived out his life at his Camberwell home and Sorrento holiday house.

Gunner\’s eldest son, Thorold, joined G.Gunnersen & Co. as an office boy in 1899, at age 16 and assumed control of the business on Gunner\’s retirement. Trade was poor in Thorold\’s first years but as things improved from 1915 he formed Gunnersen Pty. Ltd. to expand the importing business. In those early years of the 20th Century Thorold expanded into Adelaide with the LeMessurier family, the Crockets in Sydney and both these families in Brisbane.

Thorold lived in Sydney between 1919 & 1922 and the Melbourne business was managed by William Nosworthy. On Thorold\’s return, Bill Nosworthy became a partner and Gunnersen Nosworthy was created. These companies traded as importers of timber from North America and New Zealand mainly with Baltic timber for the Melbourne trade. Conrad Lemke replaced James Crockett as Thorold\’s Sydney partner in 1924. In 1926 a young Norwegian, Edvard Alstergren came to Melbourne to visit his cousin, Sverre Lie. Edvard worked for two well known timber companies in Melbourne, H.Beecham & Co. and John Sharp & Sons. Thorold became friendly with Edvard and Sverre and in 1925 the three of them formed Alstergren Pty. Ltd. Thorold, Edvard, Roy LeMessurier from Adelaide and Norman Moore from Sydney also supported Tom Cullity of Perth, W.A. in forming Cullity Timbers, later to become the public company, Westralian Forest Industries Ltd. A further business expansion by Thorold and his colleagues in the early 1920\’s was sawmilling in Tasmania. These business prospered in the buoyant economic conditions and struggled in difficult times but all survived in one form or another and the Gunnersen business remains independent being privately family owned. The trading company is Gunnersen Pty Ltd ABN 35004051003.

continued in Part 2

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