FORDHAM Connie Fordham Remembers

"I didn't know where I was going. It seemed back of beyond. I came up Stud Road in a jinker and it seemed as if I was never going to get there; I'd never been in a horse and cart that long before."

Thus Mrs Constance (Connie) Fordham, one of our oldest and most public spirited residents, remembered her first visit to Rowville in 1935 to meet her future parents-in-law.

Rowville was quite a shock for city-reared Connie who had lived almost all of her life in Carlton, "never far away from the shops and trams".

Con had met her future husband Frank at a dance at the Exhibition Buildings and they were married a couple of years later. Because the economy had still not shaken off the grip of the Great Depression, they had little chance to put away savings towards a home of their own, so they moved in with Frank's parents in Bergins Road.

The only public building in Rowville then was the tiny post office on the south-east corner of the Stud Road - Wellington Road intersection.

The blacksmith's business next door to the post office had closed because of Mr Bergin's failing health. He died soon after Connie arrived in Rowville.

Apart from the Bergins and Fordhams, the only other families that Connie could recall living in Rowville then were the Manleys, Finns, Gills, Gearons, Taylors, Goldings, McIntyres, Dobsons, Hills, Drummonds, Martins and Robinsons. The Fordhams had moved from Footscray to Rowville in 1920 when Frank was only 13. Their thirty acre property extended from Bergins Road to Heany Park Road. At that end of the farm, Frank and his father grew Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, tomatoes, peas and beans. Mrs Fordham senior raised cows and pigs at the Bergins Road end of the property while Connie had her hands full looking after the housework and her two baby daughters, Janet and Joan. At the same time she worked hard too on the farm and once came down with pneumonia after catching a chill while picking the sprouts crop.

At another time Frank bought two thousand chickens and Connie, who had never seen a live fowl in her life before she went to Rowville, cared for them so well that only three of the birds died.

In the winter Mrs Fordham senior scalded the milk from her cows to make clotted cream which found a ready market through the stall she ran at weekends in Ferntree Gully Road opposite the old Scoresby State School.

Frank sold the farm produce to fruit shops in Dandenong and also sold from a stall in Lonsdale Street in front of what is now the Westpac Bank. Twice a week he took his vegetables to Victoria Market. As well as this, Frank was a plasterer and found work in his trade whenever he could in those difficult times. At one time he obtained a licence to clear the timber from what is now known as the "bald hill" behind Heany Park Road. He sold the wood to bakers in Dandenong and the wattle bark to a tannery in Footscray.

Despite their hard work there was never much money and Connie recalled how difficult it was at times even to find the few pence for her daughters' bus fares to attend Sunday School at Scoresby. She, herself, used to walk to the Methodist Church at Scoresby where the services were conducted by the Reverend Blainey, the father of the historian Geoffrey Blainey.

Connie was a great walker. For ten years as a young woman she walked from Carlton to her work in Collingwood. On winter Saturdays she'd pay the two pence fare on the cable tram at midday knock-off time in order to get home quickly to watch her beloved Carlton play at Princes Park. Until old age caught up with her in recent years, she could be seen walking around Rowville, especially when making the annual Red Cross collection in March.

Connie's involvement with Red Cross commenced during World War 1 when she was a schoolgirl at the School of Domestic Arts in Bell Street, Fitzroy. The grades used to compete to raise money to qualify for Red Cross certificates. Once Connie walked home to Carlton at lunchtime to get the two pence that enabled her grade to be the first to reach the target of five shillings necessary to obtain a certificate. "We thought we were lovely," Connie laughed. She collected tins, glass and bottles to sell for Red Cross and her Girl Guides group made soft toys to sell at the Red Cross stall at the Austin Hospital.

In the late 1960s when Con was secretary of the Rowville Progress Association, a request came from Red Cross Headquarters for a contribution. Connie and Frank, Alfie Taylor and Harry and Rose Raymond volunteered to do a door knock collection and raised so much money the Red Cross asked them to form a local unit. Connie has been a member of that group ever since and has been awarded a long service medal by Red Cross.

Connie's record of public involvement is remarkable. She was the foundation secretary of the Mothers' Club at Scoresby State School when 16 of the 18 pupils there were from Rowville. She was also a member of the School Committee. For 35 years she was a member of the William Angliss Hospital Auxiliary, secretary of the Rowville Progress Association for eight years and also secretary of the Social Committee. She was a long-time member of the Recreation Reserve Committee of Management, President of the Football Club Ladies' Committee and a member of the Gymkhana Committee. Rowville Netball Club has honoured her with Life Membership.

Frank too was a member of many of these groups and was Captain of the Rowville Fire Brigade for a number of years. In 1981 Frank was made a Life Member of the Victorian Rural Fire Brigades' Association for his services to Rowville R.F.B.

Connie counts among her most satisfying achievements her part in the establishment of Rowville Primary School. "I'd walked around and got all the names and sent them to the Minister. When they opened the school, they toasted me with champagne, believe it or not!" Connie is also very proud of the fact that she was the first person in Rowville to receive the Civic Award from the Knox Council for her services to the community.

Connie has vivid memories of the World War 2 years in Rowville. "The Americans were very generous men. They'd come down to buy eggs and say 'Fill my hat up' and if it was eighteen shillings and they gave you a pound, the kids got the two shillings. They never took the change. Then they put Bergins Road out of bounds and, of course, that was the end of our eggs. Then down comes the driver for some eggs for the head man in the camp and Frank said, 'Oh well, go back and tell the Colonel that seeing the boys are not allowed to have eggs, there's no eggs for him either!' So we sold our eggs in the next ten minutes 'cos he took the ban off!"

However generous the Americans were, they were no match for the Australian soldiers when it came to turn-out and marching. "The Australians used to look lovely when they'd march up Bergins Road to church - all polished up but the Yanks used to march down here - but they were sad They didn't ever march, they just slouched around, I'd never seen such a slap happy lot in all my life." Con couldn't recall any problems occurring for the district when the soldiers were here. However a tragedy did take place towards the end of the war when there was a prisoner of war camp for Italian soldiers in Wellington Road where the SEC station is now. "The prisoners were allowed out but all the roads were supposed to be out of bounds but you'd see them here - they used to swim at Heany Park. They weren't supposed to go into peoples' houses: we were told by the Commander of the camp that we could be heavily fined or put in gaol for two years. One prisoner used to go out at night and he was told he wasn't to leave the camp and he did and he got shot and killed. He was only young too - about 23. That was an uproar in Rowville."

Connie has lived in Rowville now for 52 years. She is amazed by the development - and the price of land! However, she believes that Rowville is now a better place in which to live and is grateful for the many kindnesses of her Rowville friends among whom she particularly numbers her fellow members of the Rowville Baptist Church.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

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