Baby Health Centres in Coburg in 1953

(Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg)

This would have been just around the time my mother was taking me to what one of my waggish friends calls the 'Baby Elf Centre'. I even have the little book that was kept recording my progress. (Mum kept all of our books. They make amusing reading.) Our family was living in Kerang in the Mallee then, so I was a pretty long way from Coburg where we moved in the 1960s.

Coburg Television Centre, Sydney Road, Coburg, 1953

Ruskin's 1953 All about Coburg

I'll leave you to decide why this shop was called Coburg Television Centre. Television broadcasts didn't begin until November 1956, although there had been earlier demonstrations. You can read about the history of television in Australia here. 

Venetians blinds were all the go in 1953

(Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg)

I rather liked the old wooden Venetian blinds in the parsonage at Coburg when we arrived in January 1962. My mother didn't - dust traps and oh so difficult to keep clean. The same could be said of the new 'modern' blinds in a range of pastel colours to suit any decor that are advertised here.

My across the road neighbours in Bendigo liked their venetians, though. They were forever pulling them slightly apart to see what was happening in the street!

Charles Marshall's house, 80 Bell Street, Coburg

Charles G. Marshall's home, 80 Bell Street, Coburg, pre1915. Next to the Town Hall. Photograph by Dr Thomas Beckett. Image courtesy Melbourne Museum, Image MM 1730.

This house, called 'Montrose' by the Marshall family, has gone now. Next door, though, is the only house left in this strip of Bell Street - 82 Bell Street, known as The Bluestone Cottage Museum and home of Coburg Historical Society. It's well worth a visit, and open Fridays from 12 til 2pm and the first Sunday of the Month. It closes over the summer (December and January), so you've still got a few weeks of 2019 to visit.

Several years ago I researched (with the help of many others) and wrote a World War One history of Coburg entitled The Old Boys of Coburg State School Go to War.

One of the old boys featured was Charles Marshall's son 39670 Gunner David Ronald Marshall, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.  

Charles Marshall, like his son, attended Coburg State School. He was a Trustee of Coburg Cemetery and of the Coburg Presbyterian Church. He worked for 50 years as an accountant and was a notable local athlete and sportsman in his younger days. 

If you'd like to find out more about any aspect of Coburg's history, why not contact the local historical society. You can check out the contact details here. 

If you'd like your own copy of The Old Boys of Coburg State School go to War, they are still available at the bargain price of $20. Details of how to purchase a copy can be found here.

And the Society's Facebook page is always worth a look. You can see that here. 

Sam Gandolfo's service station

At the moment everyone's very interested in the Gandolfo Gardens situation now that the Upfield Line's upgrade is getting closer to reality. You can read about that here. 

And I've already written about the Gandolfo Gardens and Sam Gandolfo in a previous post, which you can read here. 

From the Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg

Today, though, I thought I'd feature Gandolfo's Service Station, corner Sussex and Gaffney Streets, Pascoe Vale. I'll bet there wasn't a roundabout there in those days. And I'll bet it wasn't the tricky intersection it is today.

Those of you who live in the area know that Shedden Street runs parallel to Gaffney Street, off Sussex Street. Street Names of Coburg states that it was named after A.P. Shedden, a Brunswick real estate agent who sold much of the land in Pascoe Vale.

This is quite a 'new' area of Moreland, with most building occurring after the end of World War Two. There's a terrific photograph of an unmade Shedden Street in 1948 in the Moreland Leader, 28 October 2019 issue, page 8. It's of a very wet and muddy street. Construction had started but had definitely not finished. I wouldn't want to try and drive my car down the street in that state!

Prowse Street, Brunswick, 1940s

Weatherboard cottages and factory, c1940-60. Photographer Lyle Fowler. Part of the Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. Image H94.150/123.

Today, Prowse Street is a long street running parallel to Sydney Road (it's to the west of Sydney Road). It starts at Albion Street and after a few dog legs ends up in Cameron Street which runs parallel to the Upfield Bike Path and ends up at Woolacott Street in Coburg.

The street is named after William Prowse who lived in Sydney Road, Brunswick as early as 1863. He is listed as a slaughterman working from his Albion Street abattoirs by 1865. Prowse Street first appeared in the Sands and MacDougall Street Directories in 1890. 

When William Prowse died in March 1911 aged 86, he was living at 60 Cassells Road, Brunswick. It was said that he had lived in Brunswick for 60 years and been in Albion Street West for nearly 50 years. (Coburg Leader, 24 March 1911)

Originally from Newton Abbot in Devonshire, William Prowse was one of nine children, eight of whom came to Australia to live. 

Prowse and his wife had only one son - Thomas William - who reading between the lines of his will was unable to live independently. (He left £2,000 to be invested and the income was to go to the maintenance of his son Thomas William Prowse who was to live with Thomas Edward Cowell (a plumber) and Louisa Ellen Cowell of Cassells Rd., Brunswick. If they died the money was to go to a trustee who would decide where son would live. Prowse hoped he’d go to a respectable person in the country (preferably a farmer)’.)
 
So when he died, Prowse left most of his considerable estate (worth £15,000) to his nieces and nephews (23 of them, 17 of whom staked a claim to his estate.) They were only eligible, he said, if they lived in Victoria and were not involved in the Roman Catholic Church. This ruled out his brother Charles's nine children. He had married an Irish Catholic and three of children were in religious orders. These provisions were contested and a judge ruled that the claimants did not need to live in Victoria, but he upheld the Catholic clause.

Probate papers include a description of Prowse Street in 1911: 

Public Record Office of Victoria, VPRS 28/P3 Unit 216, item 120/511. 

It tells us that ‘Prowse Street ... is little more than a right of way being only about twenty feet in width.’ And this is a pretty good description of the street as shown in Lyle Fowler's photograph, taken some time between 1940 and 1960.

Ferguson's Cake Shop, Coburg

From the Ruskin's All About Coburg, 1953.

Ferguson's Cake Shop was a go-to destination for my family in the 1960s. We didn't have far to go - we lived diagonally opposite. Regular buys were vanilla slices, apple slices, Boston buns and chocolate eclairs. Yummo. And all because my mother went to work at Myer in the city and no longer had time to bake. Oh yes, and my father had a very sweet tooth!

There was also a fish and chip shop just down Bell Street (same side of the road) somewhere near the railway line. Lots of kids from Coburg State School went there on Fridays to buy potato cakes and chips. This must have been in pre-decimal currency days because I'm pretty sure I was given sixpence to spend on lunch on those rare occasions when I didn't go home for lunch. (Lived right next to the school, so no excuse, really.)

Does anyone else have their own favourite memories of Fergusons?