“I got a message about Hensley’s old sheds in Lismore. Old Jim wanted to knock the shed over. I could buy the shed for $500, knock it down and sell the bits. I rounded up a mate and we went halves. We pulled it down and made some reasonable cash. Dr Stewart scored some beautiful 9 metre long Oregon beams out of that for a good price. We sold the steel to the old Teven quarry and sold building material to the Billen Cliffs community which we still provide stuff for. That’s how we started AJ Magnay’s officially here on the site in 1983 and that’s when I moved to Lismore, 37 years ago.
In the meantime I met up with friends who were into CB radios and Joe who works for me now had a partner who worked at the bowling alley. Her friend Donna worked there too so I thought the friend was cute. This is when I was still working for the funeral place so I had my nice blue suit on with my black shoes looking very swish. I must have made an impression. We ended up together and had a daughter Krystal. We split up when she was 5 but we still remain friends. Krystal is 33 this year and she has 3 sons.
After the breakup I met up with Anna who is still with me now. We’ve had 2 children. Lauren who has a little boy and Amber who likes looking after the kids. There was a time when we employed 12 full timers. We’d go to the Brisbane auctions and get factory seconds from big manufacturers. Back then too there were heaps of timber mills. I’d get timber that had sat there for years with scrub growing all over it. It looked like rubbish but you’d take the top skin off it and it was beautiful timber underneath. It was like Christmas. I was buying it for next to nothing, cleaning it up and making good money on it.
I had no business brain at all but our mob have always been collectors of sorts. We loved going to the tip as kids. The tip was open back then so you could fossick. We’d go to the tip with a load and bring home 3 loads. We were salvaging before it became popular and basically out of necessity as we didn’t have much money. I used to get a lot of stuff from the Weir’s auctions. They used to call me dollar Magnay because if they couldn’t sell it we’d buy it for a dollar. I ended up with the big shed here for $80pw. I bought an old caravan trailer and I had a Sandman Panel Van which I wish I still had.
We’d advertise in the Northern Star and people got to know we were there. Back then the Star was the only local paper, no internet or social media so we did well. We got to know the people out at Billen Cliffs through Peter Garbett who passed away and his dear wife who passed away not that long ago. The kids have now taken on that property. After the Aquarius Festival lot’s of people got into MO’s. I don’t know how many cabins we would’ve built out of here. Lots!
We have 2,000 square metres here now. 1200 under roof and another 300 across the road which houses storing solutions, pallet racking and stuff from supermarkets. We branched out from doing little local auctions to the first demolition we did. When people wanted to get rid of houses we’d go and clear them. We’d pull it down and clear the site for free then we’d sell all the salvage. Rubbish to some is gold to me. We live in such a throwaway society. Now we do building materials, new and old, shop fittings, doors and windows, carpets and floor coverings and everything in between. One of the reasons I picked this spot was because the rent was super cheap and the ’74 flood only came up to the back fence. Could you imagine moving all this stuff?
Olivia Newton John has shopped here, Pete Murray and a few other celebrities have come through but everyone gets treated the same. You could have the bum out of your pants, be gay, straight, have no money or a shit load of money. At the end of the day we are all just a person. Everyone gets the same treatment.
Since Covid, it’s made us step back a little and relax a bit more, rather than being stressed and manic because everyone is so busy. All of a sudden we are saying, how about we plant some veggies, go back to basics, get some chooks. Let’s make our own bread. How about we have a family dinner? It’s given us time to re-evaluate.
I love the diversity of the people here in Lismore. It’s a big creative hub. People smile and say g’day. We have it all here, the Uni, the Conservatorium, the hospitals, the airport, the ocean 20 mins away, the rainforest on our doorstop, waterfalls and we’re close to the Gold Coast. We probably need more housing, more industrial to bring employment here and our river needs some love.
35 years ago Peter Butcher who was my 2LM rep came to me and said..Magnay there’s a new bloke doing jingles. You need one for your business. At the time it was about $900 which was a hell of a lot of money back then. The guy used to work for the big jingle writers. We went through what we sell..anything from a toothpick to a railway sleeper and everything in between. We even do the kitchen sink. Basically he wrote it as we told him what we sell. It was so worth the money. People still come in and say, Magnay, I see your face and the first thing that comes into my head is your bloody jingle.”
In the meantime I met up with friends who were into CB radios and Joe who works for me now had a partner who worked at the bowling alley. Her friend Donna worked there too so I thought the friend was cute. This is when I was still working for the funeral place so I had my nice blue suit on with my black shoes looking very swish. I must have made an impression. We ended up together and had a daughter Krystal. We split up when she was 5 but we still remain friends. Krystal is 33 this year and she has 3 sons.
After the breakup I met up with Anna who is still with me now. We’ve had 2 children. Lauren who has a little boy and Amber who likes looking after the kids. There was a time when we employed 12 full timers. We’d go to the Brisbane auctions and get factory seconds from big manufacturers. Back then too there were heaps of timber mills. I’d get timber that had sat there for years with scrub growing all over it. It looked like rubbish but you’d take the top skin off it and it was beautiful timber underneath. It was like Christmas. I was buying it for next to nothing, cleaning it up and making good money on it.
I had no business brain at all but our mob have always been collectors of sorts. We loved going to the tip as kids. The tip was open back then so you could fossick. We’d go to the tip with a load and bring home 3 loads. We were salvaging before it became popular and basically out of necessity as we didn’t have much money. I used to get a lot of stuff from the Weir’s auctions. They used to call me dollar Magnay because if they couldn’t sell it we’d buy it for a dollar. I ended up with the big shed here for $80pw. I bought an old caravan trailer and I had a Sandman Panel Van which I wish I still had.
We’d advertise in the Northern Star and people got to know we were there. Back then the Star was the only local paper, no internet or social media so we did well. We got to know the people out at Billen Cliffs through Peter Garbett who passed away and his dear wife who passed away not that long ago. The kids have now taken on that property. After the Aquarius Festival lot’s of people got into MO’s. I don’t know how many cabins we would’ve built out of here. Lots!
We have 2,000 square metres here now. 1200 under roof and another 300 across the road which houses storing solutions, pallet racking and stuff from supermarkets. We branched out from doing little local auctions to the first demolition we did. When people wanted to get rid of houses we’d go and clear them. We’d pull it down and clear the site for free then we’d sell all the salvage. Rubbish to some is gold to me. We live in such a throwaway society. Now we do building materials, new and old, shop fittings, doors and windows, carpets and floor coverings and everything in between. One of the reasons I picked this spot was because the rent was super cheap and the ’74 flood only came up to the back fence. Could you imagine moving all this stuff?
Olivia Newton John has shopped here, Pete Murray and a few other celebrities have come through but everyone gets treated the same. You could have the bum out of your pants, be gay, straight, have no money or a shit load of money. At the end of the day we are all just a person. Everyone gets the same treatment.
Since Covid, it’s made us step back a little and relax a bit more, rather than being stressed and manic because everyone is so busy. All of a sudden we are saying, how about we plant some veggies, go back to basics, get some chooks. Let’s make our own bread. How about we have a family dinner? It’s given us time to re-evaluate.
I love the diversity of the people here in Lismore. It’s a big creative hub. People smile and say g’day. We have it all here, the Uni, the Conservatorium, the hospitals, the airport, the ocean 20 mins away, the rainforest on our doorstop, waterfalls and we’re close to the Gold Coast. We probably need more housing, more industrial to bring employment here and our river needs some love.
35 years ago Peter Butcher who was my 2LM rep came to me and said..Magnay there’s a new bloke doing jingles. You need one for your business. At the time it was about $900 which was a hell of a lot of money back then. The guy used to work for the big jingle writers. We went through what we sell..anything from a toothpick to a railway sleeper and everything in between. We even do the kitchen sink. Basically he wrote it as we told him what we sell. It was so worth the money. People still come in and say, Magnay, I see your face and the first thing that comes into my head is your bloody jingle.”