ST. JOHN’S WOOD MEMORIES
Sadie and Pam Woodman
What year did you move to the The Woods? And what do you remember about the area?
We arrived in the Woods in September 1959. Our house was situated at 61 St. John’s Avenue, St. John’s Wood. We had a dirt road with big boulders, not just stones, big boulders. We came in driving the car. We had to go up Piddington Street and down St. John’s Avenue to get to our house as the road was very bad, very, very bad coming up the hill. There were houses down and across the road from us. The brick houses up the road weren’t built. Houses down to Laird Street were there.
Who made up your family that lived in the Woods?
When we moved here Ron and I had Pam. She was three years old and I was six months pregnant with Judith.
Why did you decide to raise your family in St. John’s Wood?
Ron worked for David Jones in Sydney and was transferred here, supposedly for two years at the most, but the man that begged him to come up here, died and we were never transferred back.
Were you or your partner employed in the local area?
Ron worked in Queen Street in David Jones. Until 1977, I had the children until I went back to work as a nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, when Judith was at high school. I’d hide the key for the girls to get in-they were latch-key kids (joking). I did a lot of charity cooking and convening the school tuckshop. I had just had enough of cooking. One bout of cooking, I had cooked 27 ½ dozen eggs for charity. The school was hoping I’d convene the cake stall at high school. I blew my stack and went home and thought if I could find a refresher course for nursing, I would do it. That morning there was an advertisement in the paper for a refresher course and I got into it. The government paid for the books, shoes, uniform and even transport for those who went by bus. A month after the Social Service people contacted me and asked if I had a job. I hadn’t worked since 1956, this was 1969. Pam was at high school at BGGS and Judith at the Ashgrove Primary. I had a job.
Where did you do your shopping?
At Chandler’s Corner there was a grocery shop, hairdresser, barber, butcher and greengrocer. The greengrocer, milkman and baker would deliver. Then the 4 Square Grocers opened at “The Terminus”, as we called it and we still do. There was a butcher shop on the other side of the road, where the drapery is now. There was a cake shop near the church. There was a hairdresser next door to the cake shop and a greengrocer where the florist is now.
Where did you go in the local area for entertainment and recreation?
Where the child minding centre is now, the theatre was there. It was a very dilapidated place. They were showing two movies,“Cat Ballou” and I think, “Paint Your Wagon”. I booked four seats for Saturday night. When we got down there it was a cement floor and canvas deck chairs. All these people were bringing blankets, cushions and goodness knows what. We were just bringing ourselves to the pictures and we discovered that that’s the way that they saw the pictures down there. At the hill was a guide hut. I went up to enrol Pam and her friend, Robyn Boudette and to this day I’ve never heard from them. I chased it up. I was furious. Another friend of Pam’s turned up one Saturday and she was going to the Girl Guides and had never been booked in. But they took her.
What sort of transport did you mainly use to get to town or the shops?
1. To get to the city, I’d go by car. I’d park in College Road and walk down through the park, because it was very nice walking down. I catch the trolley bus back up the hill.
2. That was the highlight of school holidays. We went to the Terminus by car, we caught the tram to the Normanby, then we walked and caught the trolley bus from Wickham Terrace down to the Gardens and then we caught the ferry across the river to the Park and the girls had a play there. We caught the ferry back and fed the ducks with bread in the Gardens. We walked back up town to Adelaide Street and caught the tram back to the Terminus. We did that practically every August school holidays. It was one of their treats.
3. We’d catch the steam train into the Exhibition from Roma Street Station. We’d go on a Saturday, after going to the YWCA in town. We’d go to David Jones and wait until 11.30am, when Ron finished work and we’d catch the train.
Do you have any favourite memories of living in St. John’s Wood?
The builder of our house and houses next door wasn’t very good. They cut our water off, when building next door. The council then told us that our water had to go across the street and we had to connect it from there. The problem with water supply went to council, then the state and the outcome in the end was the council connected it to the fence line and we had to pay for the connection inside the fence.
Can you describe the natural environment and how it differs from today?
It was a great relief when they surfaced the road. They dug up the road and pulled out these huge rocks. They put them out the front on our properties. The man down the road and his son got up early in the morning, about four o’clock, and they took them all. We were all furious. They were beautiful, however that is what happened, they took them all. They surfaced the road before the sewerage. Clem Jones said that every street in Brisbane must be sealed to the curb. Before that they had gravel to the gutter. Clem Jones was a wonderful Lord Mayor. The trees have grown since we moved here. There were wallabies when we first came. The army used to play football over there on the GPS grounds. Pam would bellow out, “Come on Army, Come on Army”.
Were there any challenges or difficulties involved in living in the Woods or being near to the creek?
We have lost nearly 20-30 feet of our backyard due to floods and the changes in the creek. These five houses all went down the creek and we all had a lawn and gardens-we had a lovely garden down there and Ron had terraced it all. We lost all that land and the council said we can’t do anything about it. We lost bamboo that was 8ft in diameter. It was all washed down in the 1974 flood. The Hassell’s lost their orchard. The sand on the other side was our beach. When the football grounds were built up, that is where the water would wash to-that was our floodplain, but they built that up too.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
It is a nice quiet area. Our house is 61 and originally the house next door didn’t have a number. It was the manager’s house for the estate and I asked Mrs. Reese, why it didn’t have a number and the council said it just doesn’t have a number, what number do you want? So she said number 71, because that was the number of the house that she grew up in Hibiscus Avenue, Ashgrove. So it goes from 71-61.
We arrived in the Woods in September 1959. Our house was situated at 61 St. John’s Avenue, St. John’s Wood. We had a dirt road with big boulders, not just stones, big boulders. We came in driving the car. We had to go up Piddington Street and down St. John’s Avenue to get to our house as the road was very bad, very, very bad coming up the hill. There were houses down and across the road from us. The brick houses up the road weren’t built. Houses down to Laird Street were there.
Who made up your family that lived in the Woods?
When we moved here Ron and I had Pam. She was three years old and I was six months pregnant with Judith.
Why did you decide to raise your family in St. John’s Wood?
Ron worked for David Jones in Sydney and was transferred here, supposedly for two years at the most, but the man that begged him to come up here, died and we were never transferred back.
Were you or your partner employed in the local area?
Ron worked in Queen Street in David Jones. Until 1977, I had the children until I went back to work as a nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, when Judith was at high school. I’d hide the key for the girls to get in-they were latch-key kids (joking). I did a lot of charity cooking and convening the school tuckshop. I had just had enough of cooking. One bout of cooking, I had cooked 27 ½ dozen eggs for charity. The school was hoping I’d convene the cake stall at high school. I blew my stack and went home and thought if I could find a refresher course for nursing, I would do it. That morning there was an advertisement in the paper for a refresher course and I got into it. The government paid for the books, shoes, uniform and even transport for those who went by bus. A month after the Social Service people contacted me and asked if I had a job. I hadn’t worked since 1956, this was 1969. Pam was at high school at BGGS and Judith at the Ashgrove Primary. I had a job.
Where did you do your shopping?
At Chandler’s Corner there was a grocery shop, hairdresser, barber, butcher and greengrocer. The greengrocer, milkman and baker would deliver. Then the 4 Square Grocers opened at “The Terminus”, as we called it and we still do. There was a butcher shop on the other side of the road, where the drapery is now. There was a cake shop near the church. There was a hairdresser next door to the cake shop and a greengrocer where the florist is now.
Where did you go in the local area for entertainment and recreation?
Where the child minding centre is now, the theatre was there. It was a very dilapidated place. They were showing two movies,“Cat Ballou” and I think, “Paint Your Wagon”. I booked four seats for Saturday night. When we got down there it was a cement floor and canvas deck chairs. All these people were bringing blankets, cushions and goodness knows what. We were just bringing ourselves to the pictures and we discovered that that’s the way that they saw the pictures down there. At the hill was a guide hut. I went up to enrol Pam and her friend, Robyn Boudette and to this day I’ve never heard from them. I chased it up. I was furious. Another friend of Pam’s turned up one Saturday and she was going to the Girl Guides and had never been booked in. But they took her.
What sort of transport did you mainly use to get to town or the shops?
1. To get to the city, I’d go by car. I’d park in College Road and walk down through the park, because it was very nice walking down. I catch the trolley bus back up the hill.
2. That was the highlight of school holidays. We went to the Terminus by car, we caught the tram to the Normanby, then we walked and caught the trolley bus from Wickham Terrace down to the Gardens and then we caught the ferry across the river to the Park and the girls had a play there. We caught the ferry back and fed the ducks with bread in the Gardens. We walked back up town to Adelaide Street and caught the tram back to the Terminus. We did that practically every August school holidays. It was one of their treats.
3. We’d catch the steam train into the Exhibition from Roma Street Station. We’d go on a Saturday, after going to the YWCA in town. We’d go to David Jones and wait until 11.30am, when Ron finished work and we’d catch the train.
Do you have any favourite memories of living in St. John’s Wood?
The builder of our house and houses next door wasn’t very good. They cut our water off, when building next door. The council then told us that our water had to go across the street and we had to connect it from there. The problem with water supply went to council, then the state and the outcome in the end was the council connected it to the fence line and we had to pay for the connection inside the fence.
Can you describe the natural environment and how it differs from today?
It was a great relief when they surfaced the road. They dug up the road and pulled out these huge rocks. They put them out the front on our properties. The man down the road and his son got up early in the morning, about four o’clock, and they took them all. We were all furious. They were beautiful, however that is what happened, they took them all. They surfaced the road before the sewerage. Clem Jones said that every street in Brisbane must be sealed to the curb. Before that they had gravel to the gutter. Clem Jones was a wonderful Lord Mayor. The trees have grown since we moved here. There were wallabies when we first came. The army used to play football over there on the GPS grounds. Pam would bellow out, “Come on Army, Come on Army”.
Were there any challenges or difficulties involved in living in the Woods or being near to the creek?
We have lost nearly 20-30 feet of our backyard due to floods and the changes in the creek. These five houses all went down the creek and we all had a lawn and gardens-we had a lovely garden down there and Ron had terraced it all. We lost all that land and the council said we can’t do anything about it. We lost bamboo that was 8ft in diameter. It was all washed down in the 1974 flood. The Hassell’s lost their orchard. The sand on the other side was our beach. When the football grounds were built up, that is where the water would wash to-that was our floodplain, but they built that up too.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
It is a nice quiet area. Our house is 61 and originally the house next door didn’t have a number. It was the manager’s house for the estate and I asked Mrs. Reese, why it didn’t have a number and the council said it just doesn’t have a number, what number do you want? So she said number 71, because that was the number of the house that she grew up in Hibiscus Avenue, Ashgrove. So it goes from 71-61.
