Alfredson's Joinery, Pre-Cut House Workshop and Sawmill (former)

Just over the hill from central Cooran is a rambling utilitarian building which houses a second-hand shop and a joinery business. Established as Alfredson’s woodworking shop in 1933, this operation expanded from 1946 to include a saw mill which specialised in producing pre-cut homes. Alfredson devised his system of pre-cut mortise and tenon house frames from reading journals. He formed a partnership with Queensland Pastoral Supplies, which sent mail order catalogues to country customers. His pre-cut house materials were bundled together and despatched on rail cars from the Cooran Station. The workshop later produced houses for a mission at Weipa, communities in the Solomon Islands, remote mining settlements, outback stations and for northern NSW towns in the 1960s. Around 120 homes were built in Cooran and surrounding towns. The company also supplied doors and windows for the department of Public Works. At its peak the business employed 32 men, plus logging contractors, carriers and sub-contractors and over 60 apprentices learnt their trade in the factory. The property was managed by the Alfredson family until 1991 and subdivided and sold off. The joinery workshop now operating in the building uses new machinery within the space of the original workshop.