DOBSON Gordon Dobson Remembers

Reliability was the word. No matter what the weather or the circumstances, Gordon would be there. And it was an education to watch him handle stock: always calm, patient but firm, he could load the most obstinate animals without the bluster and beatings that some other stockmen employed.

As Rowville became an area for the agistment of horses during the 1970s, Gordon was in much demand to transport ponies to gymkhanas and pony club events and again his patient way of handling these often flighty horses was a great lesson to their young owners.

Scoresby Days

Gordon Dobson was born at home on his parents' farm in 1915. His father had a thirty acre block on the north-west corner of Scoresby and Ferntree Gully Roads where he ran some cattle. He was a very good horseman and worked as an agent for Scott & Co., the Dandenong Auctioneers.

At the time of Gordon's birth the area was very sparsely settled and the nearest doctor was in Oakleigh, so Gordon's mother was assisted by the local midwife, Mrs Cove, who also happened to be their next door neighbour.

Gordon's father and mother were both members of the very large and extended Dobson family whose original ancestor, Thomas Dobson, was one of the first men to fell timber in the Dandenongs.

Gordon's father was Charles Dobson and his mother Charlotte Dobson; their respective fathers were both named Thomas Dobson and these two Thomases were second cousins.

Gordon's father was brought up on "Rushdale", the best known of the Dobson properties in Scoresby. As a young man he enlisted to fight in the Boer War and went to South Africa with the Melbourne contingent of mounted riflemen to serve there for two years. He turned 21 while in South Africa.

When he returned to Scoresby, he became active as a Methodist lay preacher and got to know Charlotte who was a Sunday School instructor at Ferntree Gully. Their marriage was a very happy one and produced five children: Raymond, Douglas, Sydney, Gordon and Mabel.

Gordon couldn't remember when he first rode a horse, but recalled with a laugh an incident which occurred when he was barely four years of age. His father had warned him not to attempt to ride a particular pony called "Little Dick". Gordon thought he knew better and when his father had gone off, he caught the pony and mounted it but had only trotted it a few paces when the pony suddenly dropped his head and sent Gordon flying. Fortunately he wasn't hurt but he couldn't catch the pony running about with the telltale bridle on. Finally he had to go and beg the assistance of neighbour, Tom Williams, who not only caught the pony and removed the bridle but kept quiet about the incident.

Gordon enjoyed growing up on the farm and remembered his favourite task was feeding the calves. He had to make up a mixture of separated milk and pollard and while the calves were feeding on this he'd put on their coats before turning them out into the paddock.

At Ferntree Gully State School

Gordon completed all of his formal education at Ferntree Gully State School. He rode his pony the two miles there and back each day and left it in a paddock next door to the school with the ponies ridden by the other children.

Gordon enjoyed school. In those days there were about 60-70 pupils in two rooms. The Head Teacher, Mr Ginardini, was a wonderful man who treated the children very fairly. However, one day he gave Gordon a slap with the strap because his arithmetic homework answers didn't agree with those of the other pupils and he thought Gordon was guilty of not trying hard enough. Gordon stood his ground and insisted that he had done the homework diligently and, what is more, had had it checked by his brother Sydney, who was very good at arithmetic. Mr Ginardini then checked all the answers and discovered that Gordon's were correct; all of the others had copied the wrong ones. He apologised to Gordon.

Like all kids they had plenty of fun at school but Gordon remembered one boy, Bert Harrison, who was always getting up to mischief. One day Bert brought a big fire cracker to school and planned to explode it in a very large galvanised iron water tank beside the school residence. He got permission during a lesson to go to the toilet and went out, lit the fuse on the bunger, tossed it into the tank and raced back to the school expecting that the fuse would burn long enough to allow him time to reach his seat and be sitting there innocently when the explosion occurred.

Unfortunately for him the bunger went off with a tremendous bang before he reached the school door so there was no doubt about his guilt. In later life Bert became a school teacher.

The Timber Block in Rowville

When Gordon left school he used to ride each day with his brother Doug down to Rowville where his parents owned a thirty acre bush block on the high north-east corner of Stud and Police Roads, opposite the present recreation reserve meeting hall. Gordon's parents had owned this block for as long as he could remember and had worked for years steadily clearing it. Clearing thirty acres was a slow job. Gordon and Doug spent their days grubbing out the soil from the roots of the tree stumps and then using devices such as a Trewalla Jack and a Forest Devil to lift the stumps. Later the family leased land from the Closer Settlement Commission - 300 acres bounded by Police Road, Stud Road, Dandenong Creek and the Police Paddocks to the east (and including the land where the football ovals are now) and 70 acres on the other side of Stud Road which is now the site of Tirhatuan Golf Course.

All of this flat land was covered with wattles and blackberry - "you couldn't lead a horse through it" - and clearing it was a long, hard and tedious job. (The first stockyard they "built" on it was simply a cleared space in a dense patch of blackberry.) By spraying and slashing they finally cleared it and sowed strawberry clover in the grazing areas. It was beautiful land but, said Gordon, "It would break your heart to see it now, overgrown with blackberry and gorse again".

They also grew vegetables and crops of maize and oats. Gordon well remembered the disastrous 1934 flood which completely washed away their oat crop and cut off Rowville for a week. The whole flat area between North Dandenong and Rowville was covered with water and the Plume (petrol) man had to stay with them until the flood eventually subsided.

'Stud Road was a Bush Track'

The ride between Rowville and Scoresby along Stud Road could be hazardous. The road was very rough with great rocks on it and in places the bush came right down to the roadside barely leaving enough room for two vehicles to pass. One night Gordon was riding home to Scoresby in the dark when he was passed by a number of young fellows in a ute. They stopped a couple of hundred yards in front of him and Gordon realised that they were up to no good so he galloped his pony towards them. One young bloke tried to grab the pony's bridle but Gordon thumped him over the head with the butt of his stock whip and scattered the others.

In those days, Miss Bergin ran the little Post Office and her Uncle Nick was the blacksmith next door. Gordon used to take the horses there to have their feet done. Nick was a strong man and liked boxing. One day a big Irishman came and invited Nick to put on the gloves and "he'd show him a thing or two". Nick obliged and knocked the Irishman backwards into the big trough of water he used for cooling the hot metal.

On another occasion, Nick came off second best when another powerful man and local character, Jack Murphy of One Tree Hill, called in. Nick told Jack a yarn about how a very strong man had visited him the previous week and had lifted his anvil and carried it across the road. Jack saw that his reputation was being challenged so without a word he picked up the anvil, carried it across the road and heaved it over the fence. He then dusted his hands, mounted his horse and went home. Nick had a terrible job getting the anvil back to the forge.

The Family Moves to Rowville

By the early 1930s the family had moved down to live at Rowville and steadily built up the farm. However, when World War 2 broke out Gordon and Doug enlisted in the army and were stationed at Caulfield Racecourse. Doug was sent overseas and fought at Tobruk and New Guinea. He was wounded but survived to return home safely. On the other hand Gordon was ordered to return home to the farm as his ageing parents by this time could not continue to work it. Such are the mysterious ways of the army!

After the war had ended Gordon leased the area where the Rowville army and P.O.W. camp had been sited. He was riding through it one day when his horse stumbled into an unfilled trench overgrown with blackberry. Luckily the mare was strong and alert and managed to throw herself forward and scramble out safely otherwise they both would have taken a bad fall.

Towards the end of the 1940s a new family named McIntyre moved in to lease the farm next door and Gordon took a liking to Ann McIntyre. They went together to the Saturday night dances at Scoresby and Lysterfield and were married in 1950. They had one daughter, Jeannie, and now have two grandsons.

Gordon becomes the Rowville Stock Agent

Gordon's oldest brother Ray had followed in his father's footsteps and used to handle all the stock work for Scott & Co. as far away as Ringwood and up into the mountains. However, when Ray became seriously ill, Gordon took on the work and continued it right up to the time of his retirement in 1981.

In those days Gordon drove the cattle - in herds of up to 60 - along Stud Road with only the assistance of two good cattle dogs. He'd sometimes pick up additional cattle penned in Scott & Co.'s holding yards opposite where the T.A.F.E. College is now. If he did so he'd turn the herd up David Street and then down Cleeland Street to the stock yards which were then located where the Dandenong Produce Market now is. One day he was taking the herd around the corner at Heatherton Road and, where the BP Service Station is presently located, there was a farm house with a lovely garden. The front gate was open and a number of Gordon's steers got in and trampled the garden. Gordon expected "a proper blow up" but when the lady of the house came out she apologised for forgetting to shut the gate!

Market day was a very long one for Gordon as he would muster several sale lots of cattle and drive them to Dandenong Railway Station before returning to round up the day's purchases for the farmers of Rowville and beyond. It was often late at night before he'd driven the last lot to a farm.

"Old Sandy"

Gordon's affection for his working animals was apparent throughout the interview. It was obvious that his horses and dogs were very dear to his heart but he spoke of one cattle dog with particular fondness. "Old Sandy" always stuck close to him and this devotion, according to Gordon, probably saved his life. The occasion was an everyday movement of cattle around the farm but Gordon hadn't noticed that the bull had got in behind him. He rushed Gordon, knocking him unconscious to the ground. When he came to, "Old Sandy" was standing his ground between the angry bull (whose snout was bloodied from Sandy's fierce bites) and his fallen master. Sandy eventually drove the bull off and ever after gave him a very hard time whenever he wandered up the paddock towards the house. Sandy always slept on the verandah outside Gordon's bedroom window.

As the years went by and traffic increased the cattle had to be transported by truck, so the role of the cattle dogs was not so important - although they still were great workers in the yards when the cattle had to be loaded.

Gordon and Ann retired to North Dandenong, not too far from their beloved Rowville.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

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