In December 1884, Annie applied for 100 acres in North Beaconsfield. Survey delays meant that application would take years, but Annie did not wait for everything to fall neatly into place.

She secured a mortgage over a separate two-acre block near the Assembly Hall. Contemporary accounts suggest her new store was being built during 1885. In her correspondence with the Lands Department, Annie described herself as the storekeeper and postmistress of Upper Beaconsfield.

The post and telegraph office operated from one end of Annie’s building, making the Store an essential link between the young Hills community and the outside world.

By 1887, the property contained eight rooms, the shop, a kitchen and stabling. Its shelves carried groceries, drapery, ironmongery, boots and shoes, crockery and fancy goods. From the very beginning, the General Store was shaped around whatever its community needed.

A newspaper visitor in 1886 found much more than groceries. Horses looked out from their stalls while other animals were fed and washed, and the pigs could be heard above the noise of the property.

Visitors were warned to stay outside the rails unless they had business to conduct. Annie’s place was part shop, part communications hub and part working country property.