About 1913 Bonnie (Yvonne) Davies moved from St Kilda to Rosanna where her father (W. C. Davies) had a house built on 13 acres on the ‘corner of Rosanna and Plenty Roads, Heidelberg’. She remembers:
Rosanna in those days was considered to be out in the never-never. No motor cars, only horse drawn cabs, jinkers, spring carts, wagons. Made roads were unheard of, only pieces of blue metal spread over unformed roads.
When our house was finished, after a nine month delay due to a builders’ strike, the great day came for us to move in.
I remember arriving at Heidelberg station in a steam train, with loads of trunks and hat-boxes, then climbing into a horse-drawn cab, which you entered by a step at the back and which had a seat on either side facing each other. The driver, Mr. Wilson sat in the front of the cab and had a long whip which fitted into a slot by his side.
We set off, clip-clop, down the main street (Burgundy Street) with its fine little shops and Ranks Hay and Corn store on the corner of Mount Street, two funeral parlours, S.S.B. (State Savings Bank) on one corner and the Commercial Bank on the other, opposite was Mitchell’s Bakery. Next door was a saddlers, then a greengrocers and butchers shops. Further down was Sheffields’ Newsagency. On the opposite side was Rouch’s Timberyard, where the old whistle would blow at 8.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. for the various workers to start and stop work and at 12.00 noon for lunch hour. Then came Clintons Bike Shop which later was turned into a garage, followed by the Post Office and opposite, the Sir Henry Barkly Hotel. On the other corner was Watts Grocers. About 300 yards further down, was the blacksmith’s shop and forge shaded by an enormous oak tree. I can still hear the striking on the anvil and pumping of the huge bellows as they hand made the horse shoes.
As we turned into Rosanna Road, the big old clock at the Austin Hospital (for cancer and incurable diseases, as it was then known) started to strike. I’ll never forget. It was the most mournful sound you could imagine.
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Image: Heidelberg Railway Station, Heidelberg Historical Society in partnership with Yarra Plenty Regional Library
