Memories of my Early Years in Malvern

Grade 7 of Tooronga Road School in 1915. The class photo was taken by a photographer who travelled around in a phaeton horse carriage. Vincent is in the second row, 5^th from the left.

Below left : A zoom shot of Vincent taken from the class photo.

Like Vincent, many young men wore straw boater hats as witnessed by these scenes from the centre of Melbourne in 1910 ( below & below right) .

Photos Left & Right below: Stills from YouTube video "Marvellous Melbourne. Author C. Spencer.

Armadale State School ( Right) , which Vincent and other boys from the Tooronga Road School attended once a week for classes in Sloyd ( woodwork).

Photo from Google Maps.

Above: An Organ Grinder with a monkey similar to the one shown above, made regular visits around the streets of Malvern during Vincent's time at 48 Hunter Street.

Above Left: Vincent remembered the arrival of the first electric train at Malvern in 1922. A special section on Malvern's transport developments is contained on page 16 of this website.

Photo: Victorian Railways

Left : One of the Victoria Police fleet of Daimler limousines used during the 1920s in Melbourne and its suburbs such as Malvern. Vincent had memories of them travelling at speed, with an electric bell ringing loudly.

Still from YouTube video "Marvellous Melbourne. Author C. Spencer.

Above : Copy of a postcard showing the Model State School in Belmont Avenue ,Gardiner. ( Gardiner Central School.) Vincent attended the school the year after it opened in 1915. It

was closed in 1992.
The scenes on the postcard from about 1918 are:
1. The school and scholars.
2. Infants Classroom.
3. Eighth grade class
4. The staff in the teachers’ sitting room (Mr. W. M Rowe Head Teacher)

An inscription on the card reads:

The school is built in the latest style. The special arrangement for lighting will be noted, also the tables and chairs instead of

fixed desks in the 8th grade room.

Photo: Stonnington History Centre Collection

Vincent spent 1917 attending Swinburne Technical College in Burwood Road, Glenferrie. It was Named after a Hawthorn councillor involved in establishing the Eastern Suburbs Technical College in 1907. The original building has been replaced with the one shown opposite from Google Maps.

Over the years, the school was renamed the Swinburne Technical College, Swinburne Institute of Technology and since 1992 it has been Swinburne University of Technology.

Vincent used circuits printed in magazines and newspapers to build crystal radio receivers, and later small single-valve radios. (Above)

There were few radio stations as we know them to be picked up on the crystal sets.

However there were many amateur broadcasters who

played recordings and talked. In Australia there were some 900 amateurs broadcasting in the middle to late 1900s.

Vincent remembered receiving a

gift of a Kodak Box Brownie camera similar to the one shown at right.

He then set about converting the household bathroom into

a darkroom to develop and print his photos.

Chinese market-gardeners, who farmed in nearby areas, regularly drove around the streets of Malvern selling their produce. The vans were a common sight throughout Melbourne during the 1920s.

Vincent remembered their distinctive four-wheeled vans, similar to the 1:20^th scale model photographed at right.

The model was made by Mr Ron Titchener in 1983. It is 260mm high, 205mm wide and 510mm long. The steering and brake mechanisms work, the wheels rotate and the van’s back panel unlocks and swings down. The model is complete with imitation fruit and vegetables and a set of metal scales within.

Photo: Museum Victoria.

Above: A Baker's delivery cart in Ballarat about 1895. Similar stlyles of carts were used in Malvern and other Melbourne suburbs in the 1900s.

Photo: The Biggest Fanily Album of Australia, Museum of Victoria. Acquired from Mrs Jessie Scott,1985

There was also a chain of coastal radio stations set up in 1912 to communicate with ships at sea.

These stations also broadcast the official time signals at Midday and Midnight. One of Vincent’s listening highlights on his crystal sets was hearing those time signal “pips”.

The first official radio broadcast was made in August 1919 with

the playing of the then National Anthem ( God Save The King) between two buildings in Sydney.

In 1922, the then Prime Minister “Billy” Hughes made the first publicly available radio

broadcast in Australia from a small

hall in Bendigo, Victoria.

One radio station began broadcasting in Sydney in November 1923, and another station followed in January 1924. Two Melbourne stations started

in January and October of 1924.

Left:A school concert staged at the Malvern Town Hall included

an act by Vincent and five of his classmates which would be classified as racist today.

Vincent did not have happy memories about his visits to the Dentist. He had a particular

dread of the treadle-powered

drill, an example of which is seen

at the far right of the above photo.

The collection of dental equipment from the 1900s in the photo has been collected by

a firm of interior decorators

for use as home decor.

Photo: Home Design

Influenza Pandemic 1919

Vincent had strong recollections of the Influenza Pandemic which swept across the world in 1918-1919.

It killed an estimated 21 to 40 million people world-wide.

However, health authorities here were prepared for its arrival and Australian deaths were contained to between 10 and 12 thousand.

People were encouraged to wear masks in shops, hotels, churches

and on public transport. Public meetings of twenty or more people

were prohibited and schools and theatres were forced to close.

The New South Wales Government closed the border with Victoria, prohibiting traffic between the states.

Victoria was declared infected on 21 January,1919, but due to the measures taken in Melbourne, the expected massive outbreak

did not eventuate.

Most people who became infected eventually recovered.

In January 1919, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne was converted into a hospital with beds for 1500 people.

By the middle of August, it had treated 4046 cases.

Almost 400 of the patients died.

The temporary hospital was closed in September when the

worst of the epidemic was over in Melbourne.

Above photos: Scenes from the temporary hospital in the Royal Exhibition Building , converted in 1919 to care for patients who contracted the "Spanish" flu.

Photos from Museum Victoria

The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories set up by the Commonwealth Government in 1916 produced three million doses of vaccines in the effort to stop the disease. Actual bottle of the vaccine is shown at right.

Photo: CSL

The Royal Exhibition Building,Melbourne,as it was in 1910. The building was converted for use as a hospital during the 1919 Influenze Epidemic.

Still from YouTube video "Marvellous Melbourne. Author C. Spencer.

Clockwise from left: Three schools in Malvern were among many throughout Victoria which were converted to hospitals

in 1919 to care for flu victims.

Gardiner Central School,Armadale State School

and Malvern Central School

Colour photos: Google Maps.

B&W photo: Stonnington History Centre Collection

The local paper, The Malvern Standard, kept residents informed about the epidemic and the measures to contain its spread.

It's edition of Saturday 26 July 1919 followed up on an earlier report ( article at left) with high praise for the setting up of emergency hospitals in surburban schools. The paper said they had been instrumental in saving many lives.

In the fortnight before publication, 125 patients were admitted, up from 90 the previous fortnight.

The total number of admissions since the school hospitals in the distict were opened was 600. Five deaths had occurred.

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