The Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores stored priceless stock for local businesses – but it was also the focal point for friendships in ‘a passionate industry’

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Trevor Peeler has spent 50 years of his life driving in and out of the gates of the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores. He didn’t see the site burn to the ground on Friday night because he was blocks away protecting his house.

Not that he could have done anything. The Cool Stores were directly in the path of the fire and turned into an inferno.