From the Pacific to Carlton
Did you see the TV show "The Pacific" when the soldiers came to Melbourne for their R & R? If you had, you would have seen US marine Robert Leckie visit his girl friend in a double storey house in Rathdowne Street. Then he visited his neighbour in a lovely double fronted house in Fenwick Street.This program has been screened all around the world showing a little piece of Carlton.
La Porchetta Farewells Rocco Pantaleo
Rocco 'Rocky' Pantaleo, who died in a road accident on 26 March 2010 at the age of 53, will be remembered as an important force in the rejuvenation of the Rathdowne Street shopping strip between Curtain and Fenwick Streets, North Carlton. Shops at both ends of this block have over more than a century always survived economic and demographic changes but a number of shops in the middle of the block became private dwellings as early as the 1930s. One such was 392 Rathdowne Street, out of commercial use for thirty years when in 1974 Santo Aiello and a partner opened Porchetteria later called La Porchetta. According to newspaper reports, it was in a run-down condition when in 1985 it was taken over by Rocky Pantaleo, who had arrived in Australia as a young man of 21 and speaking no English less than ten years before. It was the first of his tremendously successful pizza restaurants which over the years expanded into a huge franchised business and four frontages in Rathdowne Street. The steady flow of diners is a mainstay to local shops of all kinds and local residents and long-term traders alike acknowledge the importance of Rocky Pantaleo's contribution to these Rathdowne Street shops.
Farewell Jack Ward
In 2009 one of our members, Jack Ward, died. The Carlton Community History Group will miss him for a variety of reasons. Jack was not only a really nice man, cheeky, friendly and always on time, he was passionately interested in North Carlton where he and his brother George and his younger sister Froney grew up. Half brothers Jack and George Ward and sister Froney lived in Fenwick St and later Henry St on the edges of the Rathdowne street shops. Together their experiences cover the time from Jack's birth in 1934 to the family's departure for Doncaster in 1966 some 32 years later when Froney was 12. Their memories record changes in the shops, businesses, and the characters and actions of the people who lived around them. Jack found us after looking at a number of history groups, and he and George came all the way from Glen Waverley and Croydon to attend our monthly meetings. They have been a source of a great deal of information.Jack was influential in our Rathdowne Street project partly because of his persistence in wanting us to make a map of the shops. One day he stood up at a meeting and drew a startlingly accurate map of the shops in the area between Fenwick and Newry Streets. We copied that and it became the basis for some interviews with him and George supplemented by material from Froney. Suddenly the picture of Rathdowne Street was not only peopled with exotic, hard working Jews and Italians running businesses but well established, hard working, generous, and gregarious Australians whose community, lives and activities came to life through colloquial and somewhat less than politically correct anecdotes. That part of our history had somehow gone missing, perhaps because it might seem too ordinary. But history is more than great or extraordinary men and women. We will remember Jack fondly and will go on working with George and Froney as we know he would like us to do. Although he left school like many of his generation at 14, he obviously had a sharp mind and went on learning and contributing all his life. Local history would be poorer and less accurate without people like him. We thank him sincerely.
Some Women of Davis Street : 1891 and 2008
Booklet available now at Carlton Library for $3.
Why Women of Davis Street?
Last year the CCHG became aware of a chapter in They are but Women : The Road to Female Suffrage in Victoria, which looked at the lives of some women who lived in Davis Street who signed a petition in 1891 calling on the Victorian Government to grant votes to women. We acknowledge the contribution of that research and build on it to explore the similarities and differences between the lives of those women and some women who currently live in Davis Street. We know the petitioners wanted votes for women and we examine the attitudes of the contemporary women to the achievement of that goal.The work also raises the question of when we should be celebrating the centenary of suffrage for Victorian women. Should it be when the legislation was finally passed by both houses of Parliament in November 1908, the granting of Royal Assent and gazetting of the legislation in March 1909 or the first state election when women actually exercised that right on 16 November 1911?
The Carlton Community History Group thinks we should celebrate them all.
We celebrated the passing of the legislation, in conjunction with the Yarra Council, in November 1908 with a performance by Wilma Farrow of The Immigrant's Friend and the Womens' Campaigner about the lives of Caroline Chisholm and Vida Goldstein, both ardent suffragists.
We are currently celebrating Royal Assent and the gazetting of the legislation with a small display tracing the development of the campaign in the Carlton Library.
We will celebrate again in 2011, 100 years after women first voted in a Victorian election. Did any of your forbears sign that petition? If so, can you tell us something about them? We have a list of all women in Carlton and North Carlton who did, but many others also come to the area later. They could form the basis of our celebration in 2011.
We also need to remember how easy it is to be confused about dates. Most of us believe that with Federation in 1901 women were granted the right to vote. In a sense that is true, but the first election for Federal Parliament was held in 1901 under state electoral laws, all of which were different and women who lived in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland were not able to vote. We forget that in December 1908, after the suffrage legislation passed both houses of parliament an election was held in Victoria but women could not vote then either because the bill had not received Royal Assent. We also tend to forget that although after March 1909 women could vote they did not get a chance to do so until 1911 and could not stand for state parliament until May 1924.
This month, March 2009, more history has been made. The first woman has been elected as Premier of any state in Australia, Queensland. Our contemporary respondents will take heart from that result. But it is likely they will also be asking when Victoria will be making this kind of history?
CCHG Inc - March 2009
Photo: David Langdon
CCHG President Judith Biddington and Wilma Farrow