Bob Snow

Portrait Anecdotes
by Heide Smith

The Sitting

I was running late; a shoot which I could not repeat later, had taken up more time than I had anticipated. So I raced through heavy traffic to the Sydney Building which is on the corner of Northbourne Avenue and London Circuit in the CBD. Mr Snow was waiting for me and he was not amused. I apologized for being late, but did not even try to explain - it was far too complicated. He was nevertheless, very courteous, and once we were talking and the session got under, I think he forgave me! Bob Snow looked perfect in his beautifully tailored suit, and seemed quite at ease in front of the camera. The location was of course very familiar to him, it was after all, the place where his father had opened his store back in 1927.

I used daylight only, with a slow shutter speed with fairly open lens to soften the background, and waited for pedestrians to walk by to add interest to the image. I worked later on the image in the darkroom, to fade the surroundings to emphasize the sitter.

The Sitter

In 1927, when Bob Snow arrived in Canberra at the age of 16, Australia’s Capital had a population of 5000. There was a housing shortage and many lived in hotels, such as the Canberra Hotel or the Kurrajong Hotel, or hostels, like Gorman, Brassy and Beauchamp Houses. There was no alcohol sold in Canberra between 1910 and 1927; you had to go across the border to Queanbeyan to get a drink. Horse and cart was the usual form of transport for construction workers, and he would have had to walk through sheep paddocks to reach Civic from the Ainslie Hostel. The Canberra that Bob Snow grew up in, is beautifully described in the Snow family history written by Ginette Snow, and much of the following is taken from that history. I was amused to find that Canberra Cottages, like the one that Heide and I owned in Braddon, sold for a thousand pounds in 1927!

Robert Alva Snow was born in 1911 in Dorrigo, where his parents were dairy farmers, and where he started school. Like many children at the time, he rode a horse to school, often piggy back behind his older sister. The horse stayed in the school paddock with the other horses until it was time to ride home, rather like a bicycle today.

In 1921, the family moved to Coogee, but Bob developed asthma, so the Snow family relocated to Wagga with it’s dryer climate, and then subsequently to Yass, where Bob attended Yass High School until receiving his intermediate certificate.

When the family moved to Canberra in 1927, Bob immediately started work in his father’s newly opened store “Snows”, situated in the Sydney Building on the eastern corner of Northbourne Avenue and London Circuit. In the same year Parliament House opened, and when it was decided to form a Light Horse Regiment to provide guards of honour, Bob immediately joined. Soldiers had to provide their own horses and were paid five pounds a month for the upkeep of the horse.

Robert (Bob) Snow (1911-2002)

The Sitter - continued

In 1932, he was a member of the honour guard at the laying of the foundation stone of Parliament House. After marrying his High School sweetheart Jess Walker in 1936 at St Johns Church Reid, Bob decided that the store could not support both his father and himself, and, with the help of his father, and the bank, bought the Queanbeyan Hotel. Prohibition was long over, so Bob and Jess changed the focus of the hotel to accommodate commercial travelers and the coach trade. They paid off their debts in a short time, and stayed in the Queanbeyan Hotel for 18 years, until selling it to Ansett which owned Pioneer Coach Tours (Reg Ansett was into busses before aircraft). The family moved to Canberra, where they had built a home at 80 Empire Circuit, Deakin. The boys had started at Canberra Grammar School as boarders two years earlier.

By now Bob had a number of businesses, and had made astute investments in inner city properties. Federal Government interest in Canberra did not really start until the Menzies era, and that governments commitment to new planning and development, led to the start of the building and construction boom which continued in Canberra for 30 years. Bob had a substantial holding in a company called Canberra Shops, which he converted to an unlisted trust, and which his sons, Terry and George later listed.

It became known as Capital Property Trust, and grew to have assets of over $550 million.

Jess, his wife died in 1980, and some time later Bob married Betty Schapel, who was like himself, a keen golfer at the Royal Canberra Golf Club. Bob was President of the club from 1963 to 1967, and before that he was on the house committee. Bob and Betty were both life members of the Royal Canberra Golf Club, awarded for their tireless commitment to the club.

George, in his eulogy to his father said:

“His business life, which spanned over 70 years, all spent in the ACT and region, was one committed to hard work, cautious optimism, enterprise based on his own values and personal exertion, and always taking the long-term view. He had modest ambitions and placed enormous reliance on personal integrity in dealing with all people. When walking around Canberra with him as a young man …….he was always greeted affectionately and with respect by people from a large range of backgrounds. “

What an epitaph!

Any questions ?