By RAY DONKIN
A PHOTOGRAPH in the Mountain Views of former employees of French’s Laundry, after it burnt down (in 2012), brought back many memories of my association with the laundry and my life in Healesville.
Many years ago the late Mr Irvine French offered me the job to supply wood to fuel the boiler which provided the steam for the laundry.
I did this for many years loading the timber by hand three loads per day at 3 pounds 50 shillings per load.
Mr French would be at the laundry at first light to stoke up the boiler. The late Keith Pomeroy offered me the waste timbers from his sawmill at Thomas Road and both Mr French and Mr Pomeroy would call upon me when they were short staffed to help out.
Also around that time I was riding racehorses for Mr Lorenzo McKenzie from McKenzie Buses who offered me on very generous terms a block of land, where I opened a Building and Garden Supplies. Later on I was able to help John Stanhope establish his nursery on the same block of land, which is still there today known as the Black Spur Nursery.
At that time in Healesville if you were a bit leftish the tag ‘Commo’ (Communist) was soon attached to you. The politics of Mr French, Mr McKenzie and Mr Pomeroy would have been vastly different to mine and yet you could say the generosity of these three men helped me take the first step on a long march to establishing Healesville Building Supplies.
Around the ’50s and ’60s in Healesville most of the women worked at French’s Laundry, the telephone exchange, Dowd’s Lingerie factory or one of the many large guest houses. Most of the men worked in the timber industry, at the many sawmills and in the forest.
There always seemed to be plenty of work. You could leave one job on Friday and start a new one on Monday; so different from today and the forest appears to me to be just the same now as it was 60 years ago.
I still remember seeing Mrs Dowd in her Rolls Royce being chauffer driven from Melbourne to her beautiful home near Maroondah Dam. The home is still occupied by one of the Dowd Family today.
The Dowd’s also owned the Gracedale Guest House from where, as a contribution to the war effort, they produced clothes for the Australian Soldiers.
Later on they changed the guest house to a hotel called Maroondah Lake Hotel which later on burnt down.
Healesville was a small town but there was a strong camaraderie amongst the people.
Few of us were wealthy but houses were cheap. My first home cost 90 pounds and 100 pounds to shift to River Street.
It’s hard to believe that when the steam train pulled in at the station there would be eight taxis with drivers, of which I was one, touting for business.
That same steam train some years before had been our transport to secondary schools. I well remember my travelling companions Norma Parish (Hort), Bill Hort and others from Yarra Glen. We would leave at seven and be home at seven. It was a real bonus if we hitched a ride with one of the returning timber trucks. If Norma was with us we would allow her to sit in the cabin with the driver. We were gentlemen in those days.
Healesville had some characters back in the ’50s and ’60s.
Tubby Dennehy (Senior) would hold your attention for an hour telling jokes, Colin Stevens (Champ) the most fanatical Healesville football supporter, who at times we would hide in the car boot to get him into the away games grounds for free. Then there was Henry Saunders and Roy Buzza (Junior) motoring around in Henry’s 1928 roofless Chevy, with poor brakes which ended up one time in the front window of Jordan’s hardware shop (now Reece’s).
Henry also had his little dog which did tricks. Henry would keep us drinkers at the Grand Hotel entertained and if Henry ever got into a scuffle the dog would jump up and bite the offender on the legs.
Jack Nolan the town’s painter whose boisterous laugh would wake the dead was another of those characters.
Lionel Saunders who lived many years as the caretaker at the fire station, was known as Gouty for his consistent gout complaint as he limped along on his walking stick.
And, last but not forgotten, the two men who lived for some time in a hollowed out white gum at the River Street and Green Street intersection*. What a great pity no photos appeared of these men to be revisited for historical purposes, such as our town’s 150th birthday.
In conclusion, I have to say, I have travelled throughout Australia from Cooktown Cape York to Exmouth to Albany to Kalgoorlie and you won’t find a better place than the Yarra Valley.
*Does anyone remember their names, or have photos of them?
Ray Donkin came to Healesville as a boy and has played an active role in the business and broader community ever since (not to mention as a contributor to the Mail as a thought-provoking letter writer). He was a councillor with the Shire of Healesville in the ’60s but, he says, in the climate of the time his unapologetic leftist leanings at the time would have put paid to any progress towards the lofty title of Shire President.
