Edward ‘Ted’ Huckell was instrumental in bringing radio sets to the market
At 8pm on 23 November 1923, Sydneysiders gathered around a new piece of technology – the ‘wireless’ – to hear the first radio broadcast in Australia. In the 100 years since then, broadcasting has advanced from radio to television and the internet.
One colourful North Shore businessman, Edward ‘Ted’ Huckell (1897-1994), was a pioneer of radio and television in Australia.
Born in England, Ted migrated to Australia in 1912, working various jobs, including as a farmhand, piano salesman and pastry cook. With a natural interest in physics and engineering, he became fascinated by the new communication medium which had been evolving worldwide since the early 1900s. Before the government had developed any regulatory framework, amateur radio enthusiasts began to experiment with crystal sets and headphones to transmit and receive messages. Huckell qualified as a radio engineer in 1925 and became a founding member of the Institute of Radio and Electronic Engineers of Australia.
He began working for Guille & Co furniture sales in Newtown, and convinced the managing director that ‘complete home furnishing’ should include radios. The earliest stock was produced by amateurs contacted through the Wireless Institute of Australia, with mixed results. He recalled, in a 1988 interview, one ‘horrible’ set that had been ‘made on a bread board’. Such improvisation was not unusual at the time; Huckell even saw the department store Grace Bros selling a radio set ‘with the coils wound on the handle of a broom… and valve sockets made out of bits of cardboard and bent metal.’
By 1927, Huckell was the designing engineer and production manager for the ‘Guilledyne’ models at Guille & Co, the first comprehensive catalogue of tabletop and portable radios in Australia.
Huckell established his own business in Cremorne in 1928. The junction of Military and Cabramatta roads soon became a local landmark known as ‘Huckell’s Corner.’ He sold various brands of radios and spare parts, including his own creation, the ‘Eureka.’ Several models of the ‘Eureka’ were available, such as the ‘Commodore,’ specifically designed for rural NSW residents, and the ‘London Calling’ to receive broadcasts direct from London – ‘guaranteed or your deposit refunded.’
Huckell’s Corner became a favourite haunt of children from the 1930s onwards, watching elaborate mechanised window displays which Huckell had created. These displays included a Punch and Judy show to promote a new radio set with ‘such wonderful ‘Punch and Tone,’ and a working model of the Blue Mountains Scenic Railway encouraging customers to hire a radio for their holiday.
When television emerged as the latest technology during the 1950s, Huckell embraced it, declaring it ‘as irresistible as life itself.’ In a 1951 edition of his monthly feature in the Journal of the Radio and Electrical Retailers’ Association of NSW, Huckell urged his peers to realise the potential of TV for education and entertainment: ‘Our industry is the leader in this age of wonder. Australia is the centre of our universe, it is our Aladdin and we – the slaves of its magic lamp’. It was a motif he evoked frequently since the trademark of Huckell Radio (and later Huckell Radio & TV) was ‘The Slave of the Magic Lamp.’
Huckell earned a new title, ‘Mr Stayput,’ in 1965 when he refused to sell his shop to Mainline Constructions. The developer took over cottages and shops at Cremorne Junction to make way for a $3.2 million complex comprising of the Strata Motel and shopping arcade. The wrangle continued for six years; even though Huckell was offered $6,000 above the value of his property, he would not be bought out, claiming: ‘Anything they construct on my piece of land won’t be as big a service to the community as my shop.’
By the 1970s, Huckell’s Corner was home to the Cremorne Museum of Wireless, showcasing Huckell’s personal collection of early 20th century technical equipment. This collection was donated to the Queensland Museum in 1981, following Huckell’s retirement after more than 50 years in business.
Stanton Library has been gifted a fascinating archive relating to Ted Huckell which includes postcards, photographs and slides of the Huckell family. We would be delighted to transfer them to a more suitable home. If you are a relative of Ted Huckell or know of someone who may be interested in preserving these family memories, please contact localhistory@northsydney.nsw.gov.au
Historical Services, North Sydney Council