Cheney once stood where the Dandenong Hub arcade now stands in Langhorne Street, opposite the Post Office. Later the business would merge with Patterson Motors to form the present business. The local Cheney was opened in 1949 at temporary premises in Pultney Street, later (by 1950) moving to this location in Langhorne Street.
Cheney was originally founded by Sydney Albert Cheney), car salesman, born on 22 March 1883 at Smithfield, South Australia, fifth son of Samuel Cheney, labourer, and his wife Mary Ann, née Goodger.
In 1920 Cheney decided to take up a Chevrolet agency, left his Adelaide company and founded S. A. Cheney Pty Ltd in Melbourne; he soon climbed Mount Buffalo in thirty-seven minutes in top gear to demonstrate what a Chevrolet could do. In 1922 in South Melbourne he set up the first assembly line in the Australian motor industry. However, when General Motors themselves opened assembly works in 1926, Cheney switched to selling Austin and Morris cars, launched an advertising campaign to 'Buy British and be proud of it!', and persuaded William Morris (Lord Nuffield) to visit Australia to see why his cars were unsuited to local conditions.
Early in the Depression, after successful efforts to place his employees elsewhere, Cheney closed down his business in good order, and had a year's holiday. He then began selling used cars and in 1932 took an agency for Vauxhall cars and Bedford trucks, which he continued until the late 1950s when he finally took a Holden agency. He had also operated Sanderson & Cheney Pty Ltd as a large service station enterprise. During World War II he was active, with governmental support, in promoting gas-producers and charcoal production. In Adelaide in 1965 he published his autobiography From Horse to Horsepower.
Photo supplied by Stuart Jordan
