Long-standing Juneebusiness is closing its doors for good on the 19th of December. TLB Industries, better known as T-Line Steel Fabrication, has decided to call last drinks on the long-standing business.
After the business had been in the Walster family for 100 years and carried on for another 33 years with Tony and Leanne Butt, they believe it is time to close shop and retire.
The business has been on the market for some 18 months with only a few inquiries and with that, the business was too big for some and not big enough for others, or they didn’t like the away work, and the welding profession does not seem to be attractive making it difficult to find welders needed to maintain a level of expertise that is required to continue.
T-Line started out building Luggage Trailers to go behind shuttle buses for airport transfers, on the family farm in Illabo, this progressed to the larger Safari Camping Trailers for the tour Coach industry, a friend in the racing industry asked if T-Line would build him a stable complex on his property in Melbourne, which they did, and with word of mouth, they were inundated with racing complexes all over Victoria, this lead to a need for a bigger workshop and more staff, which bought T-Line to acquiring the Walster family business, in Joffre St Junee, in March 1992.
Tony said that as word got out about the acquisition, the local farmers started to come in for machinery repairs, and the Junee Shire Council started contracting them for their work.
“We started building, Sheep and Cattle Feeders, Farm machinery, Truck bodies and Bulk bins, Custom-built trailers for trucks and Utes, Moore Ford contracted us to build Ute trays for their Ute sales, which led to requests from customers to build tray back Campers, which were designed and built by us well before they became popular in the tourist industry.
“After David Walster retired T-Line had a fully equipped machine shop lying idle for a while, they employed a couple of machinist before they found Bruce White, and he has been with us for twenty five years and is a wizard with repairing Farm machinery, augers, and grain handling plant, which has kept the Farmers, Conqueror Milling, the Licorice Factory and the Junee Bakery humming.
“Bruce made it known to us that he was retiring at the end of this year, which made our decision to close a little easier.
“T-Line kept the Walster Showroom and Yard open to the public for all their steel needs, stocking trailer parts, bolts and nuts, hydraulic fittings, seals and bearings, tekscrews, pop rivets and an array of various items that were required by our community.”
Tony said that as time went on, they acquired more staff and apprentices, totalling an average of 15 staff each year.
“Some of our apprentices were Andrew Coen, with us for 21 years, Rhys Clemson 17 years, Scott Vanzanten 13 years, Trav Hanson 9 years, and our office staff Peter Hogan 20 years and Cheryl Purcell 16 years, with this dedication and reliability amongst our staff we were able to take on larger projects with structural steel being our next phase in life, we travelled all over Australia Building Service stations, Fast Food outlets with the majority being McDonalds and KFC’s amongst others.
“Our Local larger projects in Junee were the Junee Aquatic Centre, the Junee Library, Junee Medical Centre, Skate Park, Memorial Park and Park Dam shelters. In Illabo, the new Show Pavilion and Amenities block. In Wagga, the Gumly BP and Mobil, APCO and the North Wagga Caltex Service Stations, the new Wagga Police Station, Wagga Museum and Projects for the Wagga RAAF, Kapooka and Bandiana Army Bases, and just recently the Barooma McDonald’s.”
Tony said, looking back over the 33 years, they have left a little bit of T-line in most towns and suburbs in every state in Australia, with the exception of Tasmania, working with our long-standing Sydney and Melbourne based Contractors.
“We have worked in over 330 different locations across Australia, employing 128 staff and Subcontractor’s in total over that period, we have built just on 180 Service Stations, 61 McDonalds, 40 KFC’s, 3 Pizza Huts, and worked on an array of Big W’s and Aldi stores, Woolies Drive to Boot Canopies, 4 RSL Club Renovations and over 20 Racehorse Complexes in Victoria and Qld.”
Although Leanne and Tony are looking forward to their next stage in life, retiring and soon having the time to travel back to some of the other places in Australia that they have worked, they are not happy about having to close the doors, they were desperately hoping someone could see the opportunity in carrying on this great business that has served them and the community so well, with their longstanding customers and friends they have made both locally and all over Australia.
Leanne and Tony said that they have thoroughly enjoyed their time working at T-Line, they got paid to travel Australia, they have worked in some wonderful places, with some very dedicated and talented people and made a lot of good friends along the way.
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.
