HOBBS Keith Hobbs Remembers

Keith is the son of Gordon and Kathleen Hobbs who established the first store in Lysterfield in 1928. Keith who was born in 1933 was the third child in the family with two older sisters, Phyllis and Shirley, and a younger brother, Raymond.
The children grew up in the house attached to the store and attended Lysterfield State School where Harry Mepham was the teacher.
"He was a good teacher, semi strict but well-liked," Keith recalled. "He boarded with the Taylor family." There were about 24 pupils at the school and those Keith remembered were Maurice and Doug McDougall, Bill Witham, Marion Moore, Max and Valda Hobbs (his cousins), Lois Golding, Hazel Pitson, Stan and Harold Boyle, George Van Brummelyn and Neil, Marie & Patricia Bennett.

Keith's Parents
Keith's parents were Gordon and Kathleen Hobbs (nee Jonstone). Gordon met Kathleen when he delivered vegetables to the shop she worked at in the The Broadway, Oakleigh. Gordon also took vegetables from his father's farm in Lysterfield to the Victoria Market, first on a horse-drawn cart and later with a T model Ford truck.
Gordon was an enterprising young man who completed courses in carpentry and blacksmithing at the Mechanics Institute in Ferntree Gully. The skills he acquired enabled him to build a cabin and tray for the truck. It was not a very powerful vehicle and Gordon had to drive it in reverse to get it up the steep hills near the Wellington and Kelletts Road intersection and beside AFL Park.
Gordon and Kathleen married in 1928 in the Church of England on the corner of Warrigal & Dandenong Roads and quickly set about making a success of their first store in Lysterfield. As a little boy Keith went with his father on Saturday afternoons to deliver grocery orders. His job was to open and shut the farm gates. His dad had a cup of tea and a yarn at every place and took the order for the following week. As a result the deliveries took all of Saturday afternoon. Sometimes Keith also accompanied his father on trips to pick up supplies for the store. He recalls picking up Robur tea from the tea warehouse in South Melbourne (close to Jeff's shed), flour from a McAlpine's Flour Mill in North Melbourne and chaff and other stock foods at the Richmond Grain Store. Keith enjoyed being with his father. Gordon was a tall, solid and strong man with a good sense of humour. He was definitely the boss but was a good father. He didn't drink, smoke or swear and went to church every Sunday at Ferntree Gully.

A Bad Accident
When he was only four Keith went over to his grandparents' house across Wellington Road to fetch a billy of milk. As he walked back he went too close to the draught horse which took fright and kicked out striking Keith's head. Gordon raced Keith to Ferntree Gully where Dr Taff stitched his torn cheek and set his broken jaw. Fortunately Keith survived the incident but to this day still suffers with neck problems.
In 1943 when Keith was ten, Gordon leased the store to Mrs Pearson who lived at 'The Leasowes' in Lysterfield Road and whose husband was confined to a wheelchair because of WWI injuries.
In the late 1950s Gordon sold the store to Don Keith who had been a pilot in the Second World War. The family moved to a house in Mulgrave owned by Archie Spooner. Gordon worked for Archie at his property 'Dalmore Park’ in Scoresby (later renamed 'Caribbean Gardens'). From the age of twelve Keith worked there with his father driving the tractor. Their rented house was located on the present site of AFL Park and Keith walked down the hill each day to Mulgrave State School where he finished his education before his 14th birthday. He remernbers one of his teachers there for a time was an Englishman with an unusual name: Harold Bromlyn Field Rye.

“Work, Work, Work"
Keith first worked for Forrest Brothers on their market garden in Jells Road for 30 shillings a week. He later worked with his brother Ray to grow winter crops of cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouts and pumpkins on their father's ten acre block in Powells Road, Lysterfield. From the time he left school life became "work, work, work" for Keith but he developed a great love for the soil, particularly so when he and Ray bought their own market garden at Lyndhurst.
Keith and Ray went to the local dances but were “too shy to take girls out". They each bought new Holden utes that became the loves of their lives for a while until eventually they met the Manley sisters, Marlene and Fay, whose parents ran the Rowville Post Office. (Through their mother, Kathleen, Marlene and Fay are descendants of one of Rowville's oldest pioneering families, the Bergins.)
Keith married Marlene at St James in Dandenong in 1961 and Ray married Fay at the same church in 1964. Keith and Marlene settled at Eumemmerring where Marlene has become a leader in community affairs. She was recently invested with the Order of Australia for her services to the community. Keith, meanwhile, has no thought of retiring from the life he loves - the miracle of turning tiny seeds into healthy vegetables for the people of Melbourne. Keith and Marlene have two children, Alan (married to Sandra) and Wendy (married to Steve) and three grandchildren, Michael, Kelly and Caitlin.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

Comments

Do you have something to add? Post a comment