Mortimer Franklin and WP Davies established the firm in 1895. The Sturt Street workshops built bicycles and all manner of components, and by 1904 Davies-Franklin had the largest bicycle factory in the country, with 60 employees and an extensive sales network marketing their product across Australia. It became very well known in the years prior WWI; however, following the conviction of Franklin on serious charges in 1908 and a fire which destroyed the workshop in 1911, the business was sold to WH Leech in 1913.
SERIOUS CHARGE.
Ballarat, 7th October.
The City Court was crowded today when Mortimer Franklin, founder and managing director of the Davies-Franklin Co. Ltd., motor and cycle manufacturers, was charged with having assaulted a girl aged 14 years 11 months, on 5th October. A young woman named Kathleen Norman was also charged with having procured the girl in question.
Bendigo Advertiser Thu 8 Oct 1908
Both of the accused were found guilty, and were each sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) Monday 7 December 1908
FIRE AT A GARAGE
MELBOURNE, August 23. The Davies-Franklin Cycle Company's garage, in Gheringhap street, Geelong, was gutted by fire to-day, and the contents, including three motor cars, were destroyed. It is supposed that the fire occurred through an employee dropping a lighted match on to an oil-saturated floor.
Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA) Thu 24 Aug 1911
N.B. 1. The "late model" machine was dated by the source as 1913, but given the company history that date appears unlikely.
Sources: cv.vic.gov.au, Simon Fleming, Trove NLA.
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