Victor Gubgub

(1907– 2003)

“Victor was about the most honest used-car dealer there could be and among the first three or four used-car-only traders in Perth.” (West Australian, August 10 1991, p.12)

Victor ‘Harry’ Henry John Gubgub was born 2 December 1907 to a Christian Lebanese family. His father Habeeb MouGhabghab (1868-1919), born in Ain Zhalta, Lebanon and mother Agia Sophia Sedawie (1878-1961), from Damascus, Assyria, now Syria and Lebanon, were teachers, and met in Lebanon.

Habeeb and his brother Josef initially planned to immigrate to America. However when they landed in Singapore they heard of the Gold rush in Western Australia and decided to come there instead. It was here, in 1894, they changed their surname to Gubgub. The brothers walked to Kalgoorlie with their wheelbarrow and spade to prospect for gold. They later worked together timber milling and running a mineral water factory in Collie, and finally buying land near Queens Park, where they farmed pigs, chickens and grew tobacco.

Habeeb had made money in the gold fields and when a letter came from his sister that he should propose to Agia (then in Melbourne) Habeeb made the long journey to Melbourne to ask for her hand and returned with Agia, to Perth on the RMS Himalaya, which left Adelaide for Fremantle on 11 September 1902, with the newlyweds. (West Australian 12 Sept 1902 p 4) Their daughter Mary was born in 1903, son Victor in 1907.

“General Servant wanted. H. Gubgub, corner Bridget and Hay sts., Subiaco.” (West Australian 5 Nov 1903 p 10)

When Victor was 11 his father ‘Harry’ died and the farm was lost. His mother Agia continued to support the family with a lunch bar and delicatessen in Hay St, near Parliament House, and by dressmaking. He left school at 14 and began a mechanic’s apprenticeship at Winterbottom Motor Company, agents for Dodge cars.

Victor had an early connection to the Dalkeith Opera House (built 1904) at 52 South Terrace in Fremantle. As a child, he escorted a windowed friend of his mother to shows in the building. When he later played football for Perth against East Fremantle, he went to dances there and as an organiser of the Police Boys Club in Maylands, he brought
 the boys down to compete against their Fremantle counterparts in gymnastics, boxing and basketball in the same building, which had become Kings Theatre.

Victor was too young to join the First World War and started his own business during the Depression.  In 1930 he went to work for a used-car dealer at 396 Murray St, Perth and took them over a few years later. In 1935 Victor started his own Garage and Motor dealership – called V. H. Gubgub & Co., the first dual-agency in Perth- selling Citroen and Renault cars.

Victors married his first wife Letitia May Jones in 1934. They had a daughter Marjorie. The family lived at 1102 Hay Street, West Perth. Letitia died in St. Florence Hospital, Subiaco, aged just 22, in July 1935.

Victor was always keen on sports. In 1932 he was made Secretary of the WA National Football Association (Perth/ Victoria Park Club) and in the 1940s he was very involved in the National Fitness movement, being involved from the very beginning until it became a Government Department:

It was feared that Australia was lagging behind other nations, especially European countries, in its encouragement of sport and physical training so in 1941 the federal government passed the National Fitness Act 1941 to improve the fitness of the youth of Australia and better prepare them for roles in the armed services and industry. Implementation of the National Fitness Act made federal funds available at a local level through state-based national fitness councils, which coordinated promotional campaigns, programs, education and infrastructure for physical fitness, with volunteers undertaking most of the work. Specifically focused on children and youth, national fitness councils supported the provision of children’s playgrounds, youth clubs and school camping programs, as well as the development of physical education in schools and its teaching and research in universities. 1

Victor participated in many of the National Fitness Camps in Bunbury in the early 1940s. (See photos)

1946 National Fitness Presidents report:

“During the early stages of the season, Mr. Vic Gub-Gub (sic) visited Narrogin with a team representing the Central Districts Football Club. Our boys provided hospitality for the 23 in the party, who were more than thrilled with a wonderful weekend, packed full of entertainment. Mr. Gub-Gub spoke very highly of what he claimed was the happiest weekend he had ever experienced on a country visit.” (Narrogin Observer, 6 April 1946, page 8)

After more than 50 years in existence, the National Fitness Act was superseded, in 1972, when responsibility for national fitness shifted from the Department of Health to the newly created Department of Tourism and Recreation. 1

While Victor was too old to join up for WWll he was requisitioned to travel all over the state and find old cars from farmers, which he then refurbished in his garage, for the Army. As parts could not be imported, he often had to make his own and his machines were busy manufacturing machine-gun parts and parts for airplanes all during the war.

In June 1943 he was made a member of the Masonic Lodge, and became a life member after 60 years.

1947 “Fire In Sleep-out A Mt. Lawley family returned from a day's outing to find that neighbours and firemen had put out a fire in their sleep-out. Occupant of the house in Railway Parade is Mr. V. H. Gubgub. Damage was slight, the cause of the fire unknown.” (Daily News 10 March 1947, page 4)

In 1946 Victor was offered the Ford dealership in Fremantle. He bought the Kings Theatre at 52 South Terrace and “ripped up the floor and concreted it to get rid of the pigeon droppings and the fleas, and turned it into the showroom for Victor Motors”. (West Australian Saturday, August 10 1991, p.12)

By October 1946 Victor had opened his dealership in Fremantle, which he operated until 1965. He also had a couple of acres on the corner of Douro Road and Hampden Roads for workshops. In 1947 a shipload of cars being imported from Europe was lost to pirates near the Ivory Coast. Luckily Lloyd’s of London paid his Insurance.

1952 THE FREMANTLE INVESTMENT COMPANY PROPRIETARY LIMITED. Notice is hereby given that the Registered Office of the Company is situated at 52 South-ter. Fremantle, and that the days and hours during which such office is accessible to the public are as follows: Mondays To Fridays 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2 p.m.-4 p.m. except Public holidays. Dated this 10th day of March, 1952. V. H. J. GUBGUB. Director of the Company. (West Australian 17 March 1952, page 16)

1953 “VICTOR MOTOR COMPANY- Your Fremantle Ford Dealers Commencing Wednesday, July 8th we proudly present . . . The New Ford V8 Customline -THE FINEST FORD IN ALL FORD HISTORY. We invite you to come in and see for yourself the beautiful new Customline, featuring the sensational new miracle ride”. (Daily News 7 July 1953, page 8)

 On 7 March 1953 Victor married Anna Bonnie Beaver (1924- 2008). Bonnie worked at Prices and in 1947, when she was 23 won the Title of Miss Commonwealth Public Service, a part of the Miss Australia Competition. (Daily News, 15 October 1947, page 20)

1953 “Imprisonment was imposed by Mr. Justice Walker in the Criminal Court yesterday on Kenneth Graham Westgate (34), truck driver, of Alma-street, North Perth. Westgate had pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge that at Fremantle he obtained from Victor Motor Co. Pty. Ltd. a motor car valued, at  £850 and £150 in money by falsely pretending to Victor Harry John Gubgub that a motor truck was his own property and free of all encumbrances”. (West Australian 24 March 1953, page 7)

1954 “In Bridgetown last Saturday were Mr. and Mrs. Victor Gubgub, of Fremantle. Vic, who is a vice-president of the National Fitness Council, was on his way to Pemberton for a big rally: Rated one of the up and coming motor men in Fremantle, Vic and Mrs. Gubgub left a lasting impression with the few Bridgetownites they had a chance to meet”. (Blackwood Times 26 February 1954, page 14)

Victor and Anna had one daughter, in 1955.

In 1965 Victor had a major operation and while recovering in St John of God Hospital for three months he discovered money was being stolen by one of his employees. The business subsequently went into liquidation and Victor was soon after, offered a job selling real estate, with Sir Frederick Sampson.

He kept the building and watched its further incarnations as an Ice Skating Rink. It then became Cargo’s Nightclub and finally Metropolis Concert Club. It is still owned by the family.

Victor died on Good Friday, 18 April 2003 at the age of 95.

Anna ‘Bonnie’ died 19 March, 2008.

Written by Jo Darbyshire after interviewing Jamelia Gubgub at her home in Mosman Park, 10 Oct 2022. All photographs care of Jamelia Gubgub.

1. Reference: Fit for purpose: Australia’s National Fitness Campaign, Julie A Collins and Peter Lekkas, Medical Journal Australia 2011; 195 (11): 714-716. || doi: 10.5694/mja11.10336 Published online: 12 December 2011