Owner Mike Wood tells the story of Gourlay's, a Launceston sweet shop dating back to 1896. Video by Phillip Biggs
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00:00I'm Michael Wood, my wife Anita and I own Goulet Sweets.
00:08Goulet Sweets was started in 1896 by a Scottish gentleman, William Johnson Goulet, who immigrated
00:16to Australia from Scotland, and that's where most of our recipes come from for our boiled
00:22sweets.
00:23He ended up in Launceston, first opened his shop in number 80 Elizabeth Street.
00:30In underneath the shop floor is actually where he manufactured his sweets, and at the time
00:37in Launceston there was about eight little confectioners just all making their sweets.
00:44You didn't have the big factories like Cadbury's and all those, and over a period of time a
00:51lot of those closed down, and eventually we'll move the factory and the shop, relocated
00:58in Brisbane Street opposite the Majestic Theatre where people could buy their sweets from the
01:08shop and then go back to the theatre.
01:11It came down to his grandsons, and then in 1970 there wasn't anyone who wished to keep
01:18the business going, and so they sold it to mum and dad.
01:22I came into the business in 1989, started to make the sweets for dad.
01:27The factory was eventually relocated to Penny Royal Complex where we set up demonstrations,
01:34and now the factory's been relocated in the Door of Hope Complex, the old Coates Payton,
01:42and this is where we manufacture our sweets for our shop which is still in the Quadrant
01:46Mall.