Railway Avenue
The Ambulance Station was built in the treed park on the corner of Railway Avenue & Southway, as before this was built Jeff Long used to keep the ambulance at his place (30 Railway Avenue) and Val Hall was the other Ambulance Driver who lived over the back from Longs at 21 Southway.
The “Live Wire” local newspaper office was situated at 55 Railway Avenue – I remember going there with my mum. It was closed after the Latrobe Valley Express opened offices in Morwell and took over as the local newspaper. I still remember seeing the printing room through the door. Langdon’s moved from Valley Road to these premises so Mr Langdon could use the printing and office side for his TV repair business.
Later next to Langdon’s eight houses from the Eastern Hostel area were moved to Railway Avenue – Pam Robertson’s, Suzanne Barnard and the Findlay families being 3 of these houses.
There was the Salvage Depot where I used to love going with my Dad. He was always making things. When I was a toddler he made a “rocker” where one of the small cable spool things was cut in half and 2 kids could rock back and forwards (bit like a seesaw thing for little kids). He made a “playhouse” for me out of second hand timber and corrugated iron from the salvage including an old enamel kitchen sink. Didn’t look much from the outside ( nowadays you would paint it to blend in with the backyard) but the inside was wallpapered with pink baby animal wallpaper – bambi’s and rabbits, my mum made curtains at the windows and along the kitchen bench cupboards. Mrs Bell next door donated her old stove and Dad cut off the legs so it was kid height and made to set of triple decker dolls bunks (which us kids could fit in to). It was a great place to play in with the kids of the neighbourhood and didn’t mess up my bedroom (that's what mum liked the most!!)
There was Dinny Goss who lived at 18 Southway, who used to mend or resole shoes. He had this big machine in his shed which went along the whole wall, would repair shows one end and had large brushes attach at the other – I used to love sitting there watching him mend peoples shoes.
The other thing would be at state school. I was in Miss Box’s grade 1B in the original building and Mrs Crane had 1A. There were huge bi fold doors which could make these rooms in to one. In about grade 2 or 3 Mrs Crane’s room was made in to the library and Mrs LeBroy was the first Librarian teacher !
(Memories by Helen Hender)