Len and Bridgit Johnstone
Where and when were you both born?
Len was born in Longreach in 1922. He enlisted in the army in Longreach when WW2 broke out. Bridgit was born in Manly, Brisbane in 1928. Her maiden name was Merritt and her parents came from Maryborough
Where did you live before you came to St. John’s Wood? What did you do for employment?
Len boarded with his cousins at Red Hill and started his apprenticeship with Crowley & O’Brien and later finished it with the Queensland Housing Commission. Len caught the first tram to work each morning, at about 6am. “Everyone had their own seat on the tram, so if newcomers got on the tram, we would say, don’t sit there, Len sits there, sorry mate, you can’t sit there, John sits there, and you would look down the tram and see that someone was missing, so we would tell the tram driver, I can see Doug Milner coming, wait for him.” So the tram driver would wait for him to get on the tram.
Len would go to work all over Brisbane, so sometimes he would have to get a couple of trams or buses. “I worked at Stafford for a fair few of my carpenter days, so I would go to the Valley, then change trams and catch the Stafford tram to the terminus and then get a bus to where I was working then.” Bridgit lived with her parents and was a shorthand typist at the State Government Insurance Office and got the train to work from Deagon.
How did you and your family come to live in St. John’s Wood?
When we were engaged and we were looking around for a piece of land on which to build, we went to the real estate agents, Wilmore and Randell.
“One Saturday they took Bridgit and I around to look at land around Sparke’s Hill (Stafford) and Enoggera and they all looked shocking. Too steep, too wet or they had poor drainage. One agent said to me this is a nice piece of land, you will be able to have a tennis court and swimming pool here! I said, mate, I just want to get enough money to build a house, I have been saving and having my pay deferred, and I have just enough money to start to build a house. So one day, Bill Byrnes and Merv Burdette, who I used to work with, said, "Hey Len, they are putting up a sign on some land in St. Johns Wood." Merv had an old 1928 Chevy, (you will remember that they could pull the sides down in the winter, to keep you dry and warm) and he used to take us to work with him. Merv said, "Come home to our place and we will go and have a look at the land this afternoon."
Merv, Bill and I got out of the car, and had a look, walked over, it had been raining, but it looked like the drainage was good. So there was a phone number on the sign, Merv said, "What do you think?"
I replied, "I think it would be a good place to live."
So he said, "I will drop you back up at the West Ashgrove tram terminus, where there is a phone box and you can ring the number."
I rang the number and spoke to Bob Stewart and he said he would come out tomorrow. As arranged with Bob, I came out on the tram the next day, late in the afternoon, on dusk, stumbling over rocks on the dirt roads and asking myself, why did I get into this?? So I met Bridgit the next afternoon and said, "Do you want to go and have a look at a block of land?" We got off the tram and walked over and there happened to be two or three blocks available in the same street, so we walked past that one, the next one and finally the last one, and I asked her which one she liked. Bridgit said she liked the last one, "That is where I want to live." We both had picked the same block! After the house was built and we moved in we had four children, three boys and one girl, Lenny, Michael, Margaret and Bernard.
Did you get a war service loan to help you build your house?
No. At the time I did not take it because they were not going to let me build it myself. So then we got a loan from the Toowoomba Building Society. I was a builder and carpenter myself, building houses. The building of the house was commenced in 1954. Our house was probably about the third last house to be built in the street. Our house was built by our good friends, Bill Byrnes, Merv Burdette and me.
Bill Byrnes was building his house about the same time, so we made an agreement that no money would change hands and we would give each other 'day for day' work. Bill said you give me a number of days at my house and I will give you the same. Merv Burdette gave us a hand as well. My immediate boss was very good to me, he asked me if I was going to do my own stumps and I said, "Yes, too right." So he said I could have the electric cement mixer and all the boxing.
So I took the equipment home one Friday in the back of Lex Jarvey’s flat-top and had it back at work on Monday morning. We did all the foundations on one weekend. I had Merv, Bill, Lex and myself digging the holes and we had just about had it, when Bob Stewart popped over the back with his crowbar and helped me finish the holes off. That was what people were like in St. John’s Wood.
We moved into the house on Anzac Day, 1955. Len and Bridgit lived with her parents at Deagon until the house was liveable. We had a milkman, who delivered fresh milk for breakfast, his surname was Lowe, (can’t remember his first name). Sometimes he would be late, and we would be watching him in the next street, hurrying him along to get to our place, so we would be able to have breakfast and get to work.
We also had a fruiterer and a ‘fisho’ and the bread was delivered daily. There was an iceman that did his rounds, but we didn’t use him. We had a “Colda” refrigerator. When their children were at school age, Bridgit worked part-time at Marist College.
Shopping was done by the men on a Friday afternoon in Merv Burdette’s car. They would go to a farm at Grovely for fresh vegetables, stop at the Alderley Hotel for two, or maybe three beers, then to the butcher, Bruce Baker, in Frasers Road, and then onto Munro’s for anything else that was needed. Munro’s Store was located across the bridge at Chandlers Corner. Later on, Bridgit would go to the shops at the top of the hill at the terminus. She would walk up the hill and carry the groceries home or sometimes caught 'The Gap' bus that came into the Woods, to bring the groceries back home. Only on occasions when we ran out of things we used Hinton’s or Franklin’s stores. Mostly the Hinton’s store, it was a bigger shop, with a bigger range of goods.
Did you belong to the Ashgrove Bowls Club?
Yes, I am a life member of the Ashgrove Bowls Club.
Did you walk to the bowls club?
Yes, we walked across the creek on a big log.
Did the boys walk to school?
Yes. Our oldest boy, Lenny, when he first started at the Marist College never wanted to go back to school after the school holidays. It had been raining, so Bridgit said that she would walk him down to the creek to get him across. He got to the creek and he did not want to go any further. So I went over the creek with him on the stepping stones and I fell into the creek. I tell you one thing; I think he got to school that day in record time!
Where did you go for local entertainment?
We had our four children pretty close together, so we did not go out that often. We did go to the Ambassador Theatre a couple of times.
Did you take the children to the local picture theatre?
Yes, we took them in old cane prams. The passageways were filled with prams and strollers. Guy Fawkes Night was spent at the Burdette’s house, along with the Byrnes family. The children all played in the street and down the creek, they brought home guppies and eels.
What type of animals did you keep and what type of games did your children play growing up?
The kids kept guinea pigs, silkworms and budgies. Margie opened the cage one day and the two budgies flew out, she was in real trouble with the boys! We always had a dog or cat too. The boys and Margie would play cricket. Margie was great mates with Mary-Jude Hannogan. Mary-Jude used to wander a bit and whenever her parents were looking for her, they knew to come here. The girls played dressing-up games and with their dolls.
Did your children have chores to do?
The children washed and wiped up the dishes. They all made-up their own beds in the morning. They saved their pocket money for their holidays or going to the “Ekka”.
Socially, what did you do for entertainment?
Usually did activities with the Byrnes and Burdette families. School fetes were always a good social event too.
Education wise?
Len went to school in Longreach until he was 13, he had a job in the hardware store delivering parcels and then working with drovers. Then a job he had his eyes on, came up at the wool scour. Bridgit went to school in Sandgate. Their children went to Mater Dei School, the boys to Marist College and Margaret to Mt. St. Michaels.
What sort of transport did you use to get to town or the shops?
We used the tram in early days, and then the bus to town.
When did you get your first car?
Around 1969, most people did not have cars and used the local bus, or walked up the hill to the tram terminus.
What is your favourite memory of St. John’s Wood?
Len and Bridgit both agree that when you live in St. John’s Wood, you live in “God’s own country”. And having good neighbours was wonderful. We had the Berge’s, who lived on the upside of us and Bernie and Dulcie Walsh who lived on the downside of us.
Can you describe the natural environment when you first came here?
There were not many trees and we could see from our lounge room right over to the Marist Brothers College, which you can’t see now. We only had dirt roads in the Woods, until about 1954, when the kerbing and channelling was in progress. No sewerage. We had a thunder box in the backyard. We did think about getting a septic tank, but we were told in 1955, the sewerage would be here in 12 months, it took 12 years to get it here! We had a vegies patch growing all sorts of vegetables, including peas, beans and zucchinis. Len started the rose garden in 1956, and then joined the Queensland Rose Society, in the same year. He is an honorary life member. Len has been growing, showing and judging roses for over fifty years. Always keen to impart his knowledge to others. In May, 2012, he was a judge for the Queensland Rose Society Autumn Rose Show. Len discovered and introduced “Bridgit’s Joy” named after his wife. Len was a foundation member of the Roselovers’ Association which celebrated its 10th anniversary in February 2012. Len was the first person to show mini-flora roses at the Queensland Rose Society shows and firmly champions them as the rose of the future. Len has won a lot of prizes for his roses in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. At his surprise 90th birthday party, Paul Hains named a rose after him, called “Lenny”. Now “Lenny” is being sold all over Australia and is being sent to South Africa. And looks like going to Europe. Swane’s Nursery in Sydney is growing it now and hoping to get it into America.
Were there any challenges or difficulties involved in living in the Woods or so near to the creek? Difficulties such as the 1974 floods?
In our case we were not flooded out. Len had gone to work as usual by car on the Friday morning. At about 2pm, Len’s boss said he had better try and get home. When he got to the top of the hill to go down into St. John’s Wood, Len knew he was not going to get home, so he drove his car around near the Mater Dei School and parked his car up the hill. On the way home Len had heard on the radio that Moola Road was over, and if Moola road is over St. John’s Wood has got to be cut off. As he came down the hill, he could see the people standing under the cover of the shops opposite the bridge. Len decided not to try and get home. It was getting dark. The police asked the men to help them take down the barrier across Waterworks Road out to The Gap and the crowd were told they could try and get home to The Gap if they wanted too. Athol Hedges (Brisbane’s bus builder) came down and said right-oh, all you ‘Woods’ people, come on, your all staying under my house tonight. The phones were all out. In the Woods, Mick Marnane, who worked at Telecom, his was the only phone in St. John’s Wood that was working! Next morning we came home and were on standby to help people move their goods out of their houses. Round near Franklin’s old shop, the water lapped the floorboards of some the houses. The king tide did not get high enough to do any damage.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Our youngest son, Bernie, says it is the best place to live.
Len was born in Longreach in 1922. He enlisted in the army in Longreach when WW2 broke out. Bridgit was born in Manly, Brisbane in 1928. Her maiden name was Merritt and her parents came from Maryborough
Where did you live before you came to St. John’s Wood? What did you do for employment?
Len boarded with his cousins at Red Hill and started his apprenticeship with Crowley & O’Brien and later finished it with the Queensland Housing Commission. Len caught the first tram to work each morning, at about 6am. “Everyone had their own seat on the tram, so if newcomers got on the tram, we would say, don’t sit there, Len sits there, sorry mate, you can’t sit there, John sits there, and you would look down the tram and see that someone was missing, so we would tell the tram driver, I can see Doug Milner coming, wait for him.” So the tram driver would wait for him to get on the tram.
Len would go to work all over Brisbane, so sometimes he would have to get a couple of trams or buses. “I worked at Stafford for a fair few of my carpenter days, so I would go to the Valley, then change trams and catch the Stafford tram to the terminus and then get a bus to where I was working then.” Bridgit lived with her parents and was a shorthand typist at the State Government Insurance Office and got the train to work from Deagon.
How did you and your family come to live in St. John’s Wood?
When we were engaged and we were looking around for a piece of land on which to build, we went to the real estate agents, Wilmore and Randell.
“One Saturday they took Bridgit and I around to look at land around Sparke’s Hill (Stafford) and Enoggera and they all looked shocking. Too steep, too wet or they had poor drainage. One agent said to me this is a nice piece of land, you will be able to have a tennis court and swimming pool here! I said, mate, I just want to get enough money to build a house, I have been saving and having my pay deferred, and I have just enough money to start to build a house. So one day, Bill Byrnes and Merv Burdette, who I used to work with, said, "Hey Len, they are putting up a sign on some land in St. Johns Wood." Merv had an old 1928 Chevy, (you will remember that they could pull the sides down in the winter, to keep you dry and warm) and he used to take us to work with him. Merv said, "Come home to our place and we will go and have a look at the land this afternoon."
Merv, Bill and I got out of the car, and had a look, walked over, it had been raining, but it looked like the drainage was good. So there was a phone number on the sign, Merv said, "What do you think?"
I replied, "I think it would be a good place to live."
So he said, "I will drop you back up at the West Ashgrove tram terminus, where there is a phone box and you can ring the number."
I rang the number and spoke to Bob Stewart and he said he would come out tomorrow. As arranged with Bob, I came out on the tram the next day, late in the afternoon, on dusk, stumbling over rocks on the dirt roads and asking myself, why did I get into this?? So I met Bridgit the next afternoon and said, "Do you want to go and have a look at a block of land?" We got off the tram and walked over and there happened to be two or three blocks available in the same street, so we walked past that one, the next one and finally the last one, and I asked her which one she liked. Bridgit said she liked the last one, "That is where I want to live." We both had picked the same block! After the house was built and we moved in we had four children, three boys and one girl, Lenny, Michael, Margaret and Bernard.
Did you get a war service loan to help you build your house?
No. At the time I did not take it because they were not going to let me build it myself. So then we got a loan from the Toowoomba Building Society. I was a builder and carpenter myself, building houses. The building of the house was commenced in 1954. Our house was probably about the third last house to be built in the street. Our house was built by our good friends, Bill Byrnes, Merv Burdette and me.
Bill Byrnes was building his house about the same time, so we made an agreement that no money would change hands and we would give each other 'day for day' work. Bill said you give me a number of days at my house and I will give you the same. Merv Burdette gave us a hand as well. My immediate boss was very good to me, he asked me if I was going to do my own stumps and I said, "Yes, too right." So he said I could have the electric cement mixer and all the boxing.
So I took the equipment home one Friday in the back of Lex Jarvey’s flat-top and had it back at work on Monday morning. We did all the foundations on one weekend. I had Merv, Bill, Lex and myself digging the holes and we had just about had it, when Bob Stewart popped over the back with his crowbar and helped me finish the holes off. That was what people were like in St. John’s Wood.
We moved into the house on Anzac Day, 1955. Len and Bridgit lived with her parents at Deagon until the house was liveable. We had a milkman, who delivered fresh milk for breakfast, his surname was Lowe, (can’t remember his first name). Sometimes he would be late, and we would be watching him in the next street, hurrying him along to get to our place, so we would be able to have breakfast and get to work.
We also had a fruiterer and a ‘fisho’ and the bread was delivered daily. There was an iceman that did his rounds, but we didn’t use him. We had a “Colda” refrigerator. When their children were at school age, Bridgit worked part-time at Marist College.
Shopping was done by the men on a Friday afternoon in Merv Burdette’s car. They would go to a farm at Grovely for fresh vegetables, stop at the Alderley Hotel for two, or maybe three beers, then to the butcher, Bruce Baker, in Frasers Road, and then onto Munro’s for anything else that was needed. Munro’s Store was located across the bridge at Chandlers Corner. Later on, Bridgit would go to the shops at the top of the hill at the terminus. She would walk up the hill and carry the groceries home or sometimes caught 'The Gap' bus that came into the Woods, to bring the groceries back home. Only on occasions when we ran out of things we used Hinton’s or Franklin’s stores. Mostly the Hinton’s store, it was a bigger shop, with a bigger range of goods.
Did you belong to the Ashgrove Bowls Club?
Yes, I am a life member of the Ashgrove Bowls Club.
Did you walk to the bowls club?
Yes, we walked across the creek on a big log.
Did the boys walk to school?
Yes. Our oldest boy, Lenny, when he first started at the Marist College never wanted to go back to school after the school holidays. It had been raining, so Bridgit said that she would walk him down to the creek to get him across. He got to the creek and he did not want to go any further. So I went over the creek with him on the stepping stones and I fell into the creek. I tell you one thing; I think he got to school that day in record time!
Where did you go for local entertainment?
We had our four children pretty close together, so we did not go out that often. We did go to the Ambassador Theatre a couple of times.
Did you take the children to the local picture theatre?
Yes, we took them in old cane prams. The passageways were filled with prams and strollers. Guy Fawkes Night was spent at the Burdette’s house, along with the Byrnes family. The children all played in the street and down the creek, they brought home guppies and eels.
What type of animals did you keep and what type of games did your children play growing up?
The kids kept guinea pigs, silkworms and budgies. Margie opened the cage one day and the two budgies flew out, she was in real trouble with the boys! We always had a dog or cat too. The boys and Margie would play cricket. Margie was great mates with Mary-Jude Hannogan. Mary-Jude used to wander a bit and whenever her parents were looking for her, they knew to come here. The girls played dressing-up games and with their dolls.
Did your children have chores to do?
The children washed and wiped up the dishes. They all made-up their own beds in the morning. They saved their pocket money for their holidays or going to the “Ekka”.
Socially, what did you do for entertainment?
Usually did activities with the Byrnes and Burdette families. School fetes were always a good social event too.
Education wise?
Len went to school in Longreach until he was 13, he had a job in the hardware store delivering parcels and then working with drovers. Then a job he had his eyes on, came up at the wool scour. Bridgit went to school in Sandgate. Their children went to Mater Dei School, the boys to Marist College and Margaret to Mt. St. Michaels.
What sort of transport did you use to get to town or the shops?
We used the tram in early days, and then the bus to town.
When did you get your first car?
Around 1969, most people did not have cars and used the local bus, or walked up the hill to the tram terminus.
What is your favourite memory of St. John’s Wood?
Len and Bridgit both agree that when you live in St. John’s Wood, you live in “God’s own country”. And having good neighbours was wonderful. We had the Berge’s, who lived on the upside of us and Bernie and Dulcie Walsh who lived on the downside of us.
Can you describe the natural environment when you first came here?
There were not many trees and we could see from our lounge room right over to the Marist Brothers College, which you can’t see now. We only had dirt roads in the Woods, until about 1954, when the kerbing and channelling was in progress. No sewerage. We had a thunder box in the backyard. We did think about getting a septic tank, but we were told in 1955, the sewerage would be here in 12 months, it took 12 years to get it here! We had a vegies patch growing all sorts of vegetables, including peas, beans and zucchinis. Len started the rose garden in 1956, and then joined the Queensland Rose Society, in the same year. He is an honorary life member. Len has been growing, showing and judging roses for over fifty years. Always keen to impart his knowledge to others. In May, 2012, he was a judge for the Queensland Rose Society Autumn Rose Show. Len discovered and introduced “Bridgit’s Joy” named after his wife. Len was a foundation member of the Roselovers’ Association which celebrated its 10th anniversary in February 2012. Len was the first person to show mini-flora roses at the Queensland Rose Society shows and firmly champions them as the rose of the future. Len has won a lot of prizes for his roses in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. At his surprise 90th birthday party, Paul Hains named a rose after him, called “Lenny”. Now “Lenny” is being sold all over Australia and is being sent to South Africa. And looks like going to Europe. Swane’s Nursery in Sydney is growing it now and hoping to get it into America.
Were there any challenges or difficulties involved in living in the Woods or so near to the creek? Difficulties such as the 1974 floods?
In our case we were not flooded out. Len had gone to work as usual by car on the Friday morning. At about 2pm, Len’s boss said he had better try and get home. When he got to the top of the hill to go down into St. John’s Wood, Len knew he was not going to get home, so he drove his car around near the Mater Dei School and parked his car up the hill. On the way home Len had heard on the radio that Moola Road was over, and if Moola road is over St. John’s Wood has got to be cut off. As he came down the hill, he could see the people standing under the cover of the shops opposite the bridge. Len decided not to try and get home. It was getting dark. The police asked the men to help them take down the barrier across Waterworks Road out to The Gap and the crowd were told they could try and get home to The Gap if they wanted too. Athol Hedges (Brisbane’s bus builder) came down and said right-oh, all you ‘Woods’ people, come on, your all staying under my house tonight. The phones were all out. In the Woods, Mick Marnane, who worked at Telecom, his was the only phone in St. John’s Wood that was working! Next morning we came home and were on standby to help people move their goods out of their houses. Round near Franklin’s old shop, the water lapped the floorboards of some the houses. The king tide did not get high enough to do any damage.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Our youngest son, Bernie, says it is the best place to live.
