Growing up in Preston
The following article was contributed following the first reminiscences session held at Watsonia library April 2008. It is John’s reminiscences about growing up in Preston.
John was born at the Bethesda Hospital in Richmond, 17.12.1936. His family took him home to 15 Dean St, East Preston.
John has memories of living in Dean St from about the age of six.. “ I had friends by the names of Warwick Jackson, Mervyn Rees and Faye Oliver and the 2 Jones boys, Trevor and Murray. Along with a few others we would play cricket and footy out in the street – not too many cars in those days. Near the East Preston State School, 5 minutes from our place. I’d leave home at 5 to, and be in the quadrangle by 9 o’clock.
I got my first horse when I was 9 and we used to ride all over where Northland is now, right through as far as Watsonia railway line. There were 1 or 2 houses along the way but they only had horse buggy tracks into them. To get across Darebin Creek at Wood St we added boulders to 2 big pipes and flattened them to get across. There was a farmer named Teeney who had cows wandering where Northland is up as far as Tyler St.”
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[edit] School
I went to East Preston State School in 1942. The school is still there and having their 75th Anniversary this year. The main gate is in Sylvester Grove, East Preston.
My first year at school was in the bubs, and my teacher’s name was Mrs. Maddock. While I was there my other teachers were Miss Johnson, Mr White, Mrs Dynan, and the Headmaster, Mr Wittle. There were thirty-two children in my class and there were sixteen desks, four rows and four columns, with two children per desk.
During play time and lunch time we would play cowboys and Indians, marbles, cricket, football, and tunnelball. We took Dinky toys to school to play with, an equivalent to Matchbox cars.
Swimming sports, which I took part in towards the end of state school, were held in St. George’s Road, near Gower St, in Preston. It is no longer there.
Once a year the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades would have a ball at the Preston Town Hall. I had a beautiful partner for two of those years, Claudia Tolley. She lived in Diamond St, which runs off Murray Road.
During the football season the Preston Football Club would give all the boys at the school season passes to all of their home games. They are still called the Preston Bull Ants today.
Where the Preston Market is now there was a tannery and a timber yard. The Council Club Hotel was not there, it was a part of the tannery.
[edit] Picture Theartres
There were four picture theatres in the area. There was the Gowerville in Plenty Road, near Bell St, the Junction at High St and Plenty Road, where there is now a furniture store, another in High St, near Murray Road, and the Rivoli in Gilbert Road in West Preston. All of these theatres are no longer in existence. The Plaza Theatre was in Northcote, near Separation St. Here they had live shows on a regular basis. I remember going with my parents to see the Great Franquinn, a hypnotist. I also saw Roy Rene (Moe). There were other variety shows staged there. Drive in theatres appeared on the scene in the 1950’s. There was one at Summerhill, where Target is now. It was previously a clay quarry which was filled. The other drive-ins were are the end of Gower St, opposite where Northland is, and Newlands Rd Reservoir.
I was about 8 to 10 years old when I bought my first horse. My dad built a stable in the backyard out of an old chook shed. In those days you could ride all over the paddocks. Northland (Shopping Centre) was not even a thought and you could ride almost to where the library is now. Woods St, Tyler St, Murray Road, and Gower St finished before Albert St. There was a drain running down the middle of Murray Road where we could go and catch tadpoles and frogs to take home. We would put them in drums with duckweed and watch the tadpoles grow legs and turn into frogs. I had a tortoise for a couple of years. I painted its shell yellow so that I could find it in the yard. My father had greyhounds, which he raced at Napier Park in Essendon. He also had aviaries of budgerigars, about 200 of them. One day he got fed up and opened the doors, letting them all go.
I had about 20 pigeons at one time which I would put in a box and my father would take them into the bush in his milk truck. He would then let them out and they would fly home.
In those days we would go down and play along Darebin Creek during the summer months, though we had to watch for black and brown snakes.
My father had milk trucks and carted milk from Epping, Whittlesea, and farms right along High St and Plenty Road. He sold this when I was young and bought another run to Baccus Marsh with a milk tanker. I have a picture of him with his truck which I also drove later in my life.
I can remember riding down near the creek one day when I saw a lot of tractors and trucks working over the other side. This was the start of the Olympic Village in West Heidelberg that was built. This was in the early 1950’s. All the roads went in and then the houses were built, that was the start of the commission houses in Preston. Down the bottom of Tyler St the Government built a village and moved the people who lived in the Camp Pell Army Post near the zoo, where I think is where the village for the last Commonwealth Games is.
Down the bottom of Woods St there was a guy by the name of Teeny. He had a farm and cows which would graze all the way from Tyler St right through to Bell St. We used to round them up and return them to the farm on our horses and help with the milking of the cows.
There was another man who had race horses at the bottom of Tyler St and he would gallop his horses where Northland is. He sold his property to the Government when they built the village.
[edit] Plenty Road
In Plenty Road there was a state savings bank on the corner of Woods St and a great fish and chips shop where you could buy enough fish and chips for four people for 2 shillings. Down further there was a cake shop by the name of Crawfords where you could buy a vanilla slice for only one penny. Just down Woods St there was a corner shop where you could buy a bag of mixed lollies for one penny. There was also a dairy where they malted milks in metal containers filled to the top for sixpence. I had a trolley with had four wheels and a handle that I went everywhere with, especially the dairy.
The tram from the city, No. 9, would finish at the intersection of Plenty Road and Tyler St.
I can remember going on the double-decker buses which started at Plenty Road and High St junction and would go down High St and into Smith St, Collingwood, and into town. The tram went to High St and Plenty Road and turned right and over a bridge and down St. George’s Road and Brunswick St, past the old Fitzroy football Ground.
[edit] Other Places of Interest
State Schools Tyler St State School, in Tyler St, between Plenty Road and High St
East Preston State School, in Sylvester Grove, East Preston
West Preston State School, in Murray Road, between Gilbert Road and High St
South Preston State School, Hotham St, South Preston
Preston Girls School, Swallow St, Preston
Preston Tech (1940), St George’s Road, Preston
Hotels – (One on nearly every main cross road)
Panch Hospital
Bell St. Hospital
Businesses
Alexander’s Menswear Store, Corner of Murray Road and High St. It had a little man tapping on the window.
First Holden Dealership in Preston, Corner of Wood St and High St. Their name was Campbell Motors.
John Hetherington 27.02.08
Another Business was Robinsons menswear situated in High Street. They were there for a long time.
Beryl June 16 2008
