DOREEN Ayres enjoyed a Steels Creek childhood, which was typical of many country kids born in the rapidly changing first decade of the 1900s.
Born on 24 May 1907, Emma Doreen Victoria Hubbard was the 13th of William and Mary Bell Hubbard’s 15 children. She was a happy, independent child who grew into an independent young woman as part of a loving, hard-working family.
The Hubbards farmed land on both sides of Steels Creek Road running dairy cattle and growing world-export quality apples in orchards that have given way to vines.
She went to the original Steels Creek State School, helped out on the farm and played tennis and cricket.
Yarra Glen contemporary Thelma Exton, now 96, remembers playing tennis against the older teenager in the mid 1920s and recalls she was a very good player. Doreen enjoyed telling of how she played against the famous poet, C. J. Dennis at his Toolangi courts.
As a child, she saw three of her brothers go off to the first world war, one never to return. World War II saw another brother head overseas to fight. Her husband, Bill, was also called up.
Doreen and her Dixons Creek beau, William (Bill) Ayres had married at St Barnabas Church in Steels Creek on 22 December 1934, just five years before the war.
They were happily married for 55 years and raised eight children Des, Geoff (deceased), Val, Neville, Don, Phil, Alan and Marlene.
In a moving tribute to his mother at the church she had attended up to the age of 101, Des said she was a strong-willed and determined woman.
“Mum looked after us when dad was away working in the bush, so I guess she had to be to keep us kids in check,” he said.
He said his mum was a good cook and great support to their father who started the Boys’ Club in Yarra Glen and was a founding member of the Yarra Valley Boys’ Football Association.
“Mum would help out washing footy jumpers and making soup for the kids to have after each match,’ he said.
With a large family of her own to wash for, and using a Pope brand wringer washing machine, it was no small job.
She also worked in the canteen and was made a life member of the Yarra Glen Football Club in recognition of her contribution over many years.
Marlene said while her mother was a great cook, she didn’t limit herself when it came to taking on different challenges.
As a young woman she learnt to drive and would often drive her father into the city on business trips.
When her father died she left the farm to work in Melbourne.
“She got the job off her own bat, working for a doctor as cook and housekeeper and ended up looking after the children and answering the telephone,” Marlene said.
Mrs Ayres was a member of the Yarra Glen Red Cross and CWA and served on the Church Guild of St Pauls Anglican Church.
“Mum was lost after dad went, and devastated when Geoff passed away two years ago, but she had an extremely happy life,” Marlene said.
“She was happy to be a home-maker and help out in the community … that was her life,” she added. Des paid tribute to his mother as a woman who loved her family, which includes many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, and was much loved by them in return.
Mrs Ayres lived at home up until two weeks before her death on 6 December.
