Our history and where we started
Mr Rod Hore was born at Albury in 1892 and lived his early life on the family property “Glenleigh” at Bowna, via Albury. The youngest of 9 children he left school at 15 and entered the stock and station business of C.L.Griffiths & Co at Albury, as a Junior Booking Clerk.The following year saw C.L.Griffiths & Co merge with Dalgety & Co. In 1912, Rod Hore opened a branch of Dalgetys at The Rock. Dalgetys were to undertake the marketing of the major rural subdivision of “The Rock Station” and Rod Hore was assigned the task of selling this property on behalf of the company. During his time at The Rock, Rod met W.B. Davies who was later to marry Rod’s sister Vera Hore. Rod managed this branch very successfully until 1922 when Dalgetys acquired the Wagga Wagga stock and station business of P.W. Williamson & Co and Rod Hore was sent to Wagga Wagga as Joint Manager. The business was again very successful and Rod Hore handled all the auctions conducted by Dalgetys in the Wagga area.
Rod left Dalgetys in 1923 to go into partnership with Mr Tom Flanagan with the partnership trading as Flanagan and Hore.The firm, headed by Rod Hore was to change name a further 3 times, firstly as Hore and Macintosh, then Hore and Docker and finally on the 1st January 1954 when the firm amalgamated with W.B. Davies and Sons, and so the firm Hore and Davies was established.W.B. Davies had commenced business as a Real Estate Agent in 1920 opening an office in Gurwood Street. At the time he lived at The Rock and would commute daily by train to Wagga where he would walk from the Railway Station to his office, conduct his business for the day and then return to The Rock by train in the evening. As most purchasers of rural property and livestock came into Wagga Wagga by train in those days it was not uncommon for the local real estate and stock & station agents to meet the train in an endeavour to secure new clients by handing out their business card to likely buyers.Tom Davies had returned from the war and in 1946 commenced business with his father W.B. Davies, a brother in law to Rod Hore. Tom’s brother Bob, a qualified accountant and ex RAAF pilot had been selling farm machinery for International Harvester in Victoria when he decided to join his father and brother at W.B. Davies and Sons in the early 1950s.W.B. Davies had for many years, undertaken a variety of agencies including amongst other things a motor vehicle dealership selling Essex motor cars. He was also the Ticketing Agent for Australian National Airlines the predecessor to TAA. At times when the weather made landing at Sydney or Melbourne impossible, Wagga Wagga was used an alternate airport and W.B. Davies and local taxi proprietor Son Binfield would meet these flights and transfer the passengers to Romanos Hotel. There they would be put up for the night, before being collected in the morning and driven back to the airport, which at that time was located off Hammond Avenue, to resume their flight to Sydney or Melbourne.
Later in the 1960s Andy Ireland joined the firm as Rod Hore was getting close to retirement. In 1973 both Robert Davies and Peter Davies, the sons of Tom and Bob, joined the firm becoming partners in 1978. In 1983 Tim West who had married Lindsay Wilson from “Big Springs” moved from Victoria to join the firm. 1986 saw John Davies, who owned a successful machinery business, also join Hore and Davies to continue with rural property sales after the retirement of Tom Davies.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s Tom (1984), Bob (1986) and Andy had all retired leaving the management of Hore & Davies to Robert, John, Peter and Tim. In 1993 Peter and Tim left the firm to open their own office while Robert and John continued as the proprietors of Hore & Davies.
In January 1996 Doug and Sue Newbigging joined with Robert and John as partners at Hore & Davies.
The firm continued to prosper in the local real estate market and over the next 10 years conducted many important rural sales in the local area including the Forest Hill aggregation sold to Mr Rodney Price, Deep Water Station and in 1997 the G.H. Michell and Sons, Riverina properties which realised more than $67 million dollars.
In June 2006 Doug Newbigging resigned from Hore & Davies and moved to Canberra to further his ambition to purchase, renovate and remarket residential property.
2007 proved to be a momentous year for the firm, in July John Bittar, whose family had owned and operated Dee
ps Menswear for nearly ninety years purchased an interest in the company.
John’s primary roll being residential sales development, working closely with Garry Cox Homes and Commercial & Industrial sales & leasing. Through John, Hore & Davies was appointed leasing and management agents for the new 40 million dollar Mill Shopping Centre in Edward Street. This development consequently fizzled out and is now under new ownership.
Then on the 1st October 2007, Hore & Davies Real Estate merged with Rose & Breust Real Estate with Gary Byrom becoming a director of the firm. The merger added a further 190 residential properties to the residential management department bringing the total number of residential properties under management to in excess of 700 and 3 additional staff members. With the merger of the two firms Hore & Davies created another “first” for Wagga Wagga by establishing a “stand alone” specialist residential property management department in Chaston Street.
On the 16th March 2009 Hugh Davies joined the firm as a trainee real estate consultant. Hugh, following in the steps of his Great Grandfather and Great Great Uncle is the forth generation family member to commence working at Hore & Davies.
On the 1st October 2009 Gary Byrom sold his interest in the firm but remained a senior member of staff in our residential property management department.
A further change of the guard happened on the 31st December 2009 with John Davies selling his interest in Hore & Davies.
Robert Davies retired in December 2014, leaving the business in great hands with Sue Alleva (Newbigging) & John Bittar.
March 2019 saw the business move to 126 Baylis Street (Formerly Deeps Menswear), a more prominent exposure location, and a return for John Bittar to a property that has been in his family for nearly a century.
In 2020 we celebrate 100 years in business. A credit to the past and present principals of the business, who over time have contributed to the development and growth of our city. Many employees have become part of the Hore+Davies family over the years as the Company continues to grow and prosper.
Hore & Davies Real Estate continues the great traditions commenced by Rod Hore and W.B. Davies over 100 years ago, offering clients a full range of real estate services including residential sales and management, commercial and industrial sales and management, strata management, and rural property sales.