Shaw Archive
John Vernon (Vernon) Shaw was born in Townsville on 9 June 1896 and died in Townsville on 4 April 1958 aged sixty-one. Vernon Shaw’s father, John (Jack) Shaw, sailed from Scotland on the Oban Bay with his mother and siblings and arrived in Townsville on 19 July 1883. Upon arrival, Jack found work as a teamster for the first year, then as an apprentice baker at Witham’s Bakery. Though from 1891 he resumed work as a signwriter with the Queensland Railways Department, Jack returned to baking. Jack’s brothers, Donald and Alexander, also became apprenticed bakers. In 1890, together with their mother, Donald and Alexander opened the West End Bakery on the corner of Flinders and Jane Streets. In 1907, Jack opened the Central Bakery in Morris Street at The Causeway. Jack’s son, Vernon, followed him into the trade, maintaining the business through the hardship years of the Depression and World War Two.
(Edna Shaw, daughter of Vernon Shaw, is the donor of the Shaw Collection of Australian Art and Culture held in James Cook University’s Eddie Koiki Mabo Library Special Collections.)
Archive Location: 19L
Detailed listing:
JVS/1 Bread Journal, November 1924. Central Bakery, Morris St, West End, Townsville.