You are right about HG Palmer, and they were pioneers of aggressive "Hire Purchase" retailing in Australia, which was the main form of consumer buying on credit, before credit cards. The buyer didn't own the item until the last payment had been made, perhaps over three years. Up-market TVs were a typical Hire Purchase item, and HG Palmer charged very high interest rates. The credit squeeze decimated discretionary purchasing and Palmer and others were left with many defaulting customers and an overstock of repossessed TVs. Consumer credit protection laws were introduced partly as a result of that case.

Maven

HG Palmer's problems ran deeper than the credit squeeze, which brought them to light. Palmer was a great salesman but an unscrupulous rampantly acquisitive businessman with a set of cooked books showing profit where there wasn't any. Ended up in gaol.

HG Palmer TV sets were a fraudulent lash-up, IMO, rushed to cash in on the boom. A vertical chassis of minimalist design - if you could call it original design. The finish was hammertone grey and they employed those white paper capacitors (in white plastic tube sealed at ends with epoxy) - of U.S. origin no doubt as they are present in '50s American TVs.

These Caps were often employed in higher voltage sections of US TVs such as H-Output, V-Output & B+Boost cap and had voltage ratings of even 1000v or higher, but don't trust them or any paper dialectic Cap!

I've had a couple of H.G. Palmer tellys over the years. I didn't think they were too bad.

The first one, way back in 1986, a mate and myself gutted it and stuck the chassis and tube of a hybrid Decca colour TV in its box. It actually worked really well and looked like a genuine B&W telly. So there was at least one colour H.G. Palmer TV floating about!

Nowadays the idea of stripping a old B&W telly to use the box for a colour one would be considered sacrilegious!

My second H.G. Palmer, in recent times, was more of a replacement of paper caps job. This set dating from about 1960 had your standard wax Ducon paper caps. There were a few of the higher voltage U.C.C. white caps as described by the previous post. The telly restored quite well except the picture tube was a bit on the dull side.

I worked at Hills c. 1969 and only saw the HG Palmer chassis come in for service at odd times - a dreaded event!
But if you say their cabinets had redeeming positive attributes, then that would be a (badly needed) plus in their column!

Worst TV in Queensland/Australia?: The 'Park Avenue' - a twin-chassis lash-up made by a niche 'Garage' manufacturer in Brisbane? Definitely not Upscale as the name Park Avenue would imply!

Edit
Actually I think that TV was "Park Lane" named after the London place on the Monopoly board

I have a bakelite Admiral with 9" or 10"? tube, will have to get to it one day *sigh*

http://s1273.photobucket.com/user/NewVista1/media/40sAdmiral_zps64a13e6f.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Does anyone have a photo of one of these H.G. Palmer televisions? I'd love to see a photo of one!

Chris

Chris.

Here is a range of H.G. Palmer TV models scanned from a JR Television service manual.

I'd love to see a photo of one!

Here's a newspaper ad from 1960:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/100979694

And here's a photo from 1963:

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemLarge.aspx?itemID=90996