Morgan and Wacker (former)

From around 1902 to 1906 the right hand side of Hall St to Brunswick St appears to have been vacant. It was leased from 1903 to the Stewart family, owners of the Stewart & Sons clothing factory at the corner of Hall and Marshall Streets. 

The firm of Alexander Stewart & Sons, previously Hemmant and Stewart, had been established drapers in Brisbane for many years when they built a modern clothing factory on the corner of Hall and Marshall Streets in 1898. By 1900 it employed approximately 350 people, mostly women, in its factory. The company continued to expand along the block, establishing a hat-making factory nearby and in 1904-05 constructing additions to the clothing factory in Hall Street. 

By June 1925 a single storey building had been constructed and was leased as a workshop and storage facility for motorcycle company Morgan and Wacker, which had been established by Bob Morgan and Henry Wacker in Elizabeth Street in 1917. Due to ill health Morgan was forced to retire from the company only six months after it was established – but his name has stayed with the company ever since. Henry’s four brothers eventually joined him in the running of the business. 

Karl, Henry and Willie Wacker took out a five year lease on this property in 1925. The new premises allowed the transfer of the company’s workshop and service station to Fortitude Valley, freeing up the Elizabeth St headquarters.  Recognising that there was also an urgent need for parking spaces for motorcycles across the city, Morgan and Wacker established motorcycle parking stations at both premises at ‘a moderate rental’. The following year Karl, Heinrich and Albert Wacker purchased the Hall Street property. 

The company struggled during the 1930s depression, but during World War II the workshop was used to service US Army Harley Davidson motorcycles. Morgan and Wacker continued to operate from the McLachlan Street premises until 1967 when the business was moved to Newstead. They were the longest serving distributors of Harley Davidson motorcycles outside of the United States.

1. Brisbane Courier, 1866-1933

2. Fortitude Valley Centenary Committee, Fortitude Valley Centenary 1948-1949,

3. Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plan No 154

4. Brisbane City Council Surveyors Notebooks

5. Queensland Post Office Directories

6. Queensland Land Titles Office Records