Doherty’s Garage has officially closed after brothers Howard and Cliff Doherty dismantled the sign from the front of the 64-year-old business.
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The garage is now for sale after both parents passed away and as Howard nears retirement age.
- READ MORE: Goodbye to garage full of stories
In the weeks leading up to the final day of business, Howard said they were just as busy as ever.
“We had people coming in for last jobs,” he said. “There was nothing wrong with the business. It was a perfectly strong business but it is just a winding up of the estate.”
Doherty’s Garage was founded in 1954 and was one of the oldest small businesses in the Bendigo CBD.
Howard said cleaning out the garage was a challenge.
“Cleaning the shed out was a bloody horrendous both physically and mentally. A lot of memories,” he said. “My father built this in 1952 and specialised in front-end wheel alignments, so taking that (machine) out after it had been set in the floor since the ‘50s was tough.”
Among the tools and car parts cleaned out of the garage, the brothers found an old register showing just how far people travelled to get their car serviced at Doherty’s.
“(Dad) had a huge reputation and this register showed every car that was worked on,” Howard said. “The interesting part was where people came from. It was Inglewood, Ravenswood and these country areas.
“I remember the farmers would come in and the old man would run them down the cattle market. With no quotes they dropped the car off, he fixed it. Then they wrote a cheque and they’d go home. They just had total trust in (dad).”
