Sixty-nine years in East Bentleigh

At the end of June 2024 the Moses family ties with 37 Edinburgh Street, East Bentleigh ended.

My family moved to their new home in May 1955, one of many houses being built on  former market garden land. The house was scheduled for completion at the end of 1954 so at the end of the school year I had said goodbye to classmates at Reservoir State School. However, as the completion of the house was delayed, I was back at the school for the first term (there were three terms a year in those days) and didn't start at Coatesville State School in East Bentleigh until the commencement of term 2.

Our house was the third house built in Edinburgh Street. There was a timber house on the corner of Edinburgh Street and Tambet Street plus the large farm house on the Mackie Road corner. However a number of other houses were being built in the street when we moved into our new home.

As a seven year old, moving house was a great adventure especially when the house was situated in an area that only a short time before had been market gardens. As new houses were built there were plenty of places to explore when the workmen had gone home. How good of them to create structures that we could climb on or hide in and create imaginary worlds. Once a building was at the stage where it could be locked at night we moved to another one being constructed near by.

Two streets away was Coatesville State School (primary school) which I attended for almost five years. St Christopher's Church of England (Anglican church) was a short walk away in Mackie Road. Also in Mackie Road, three streets away in the other direction, were the Mackie Road shops. In the 1950s some of the shops included the milk bar, the grocers, green grocers, haberdashery shop and newsagent. A petrol station was on the corner near the shops. A branch of the State Savings Bank of Victoria was also in this shopping strip. The doctor's surgery was across the road from the shops. Land bordering Mackie Road, opposite the top of  Edinburgh Street became the cricket ground and also housed the bowls club. My sister was four when we moved too East Bentleigh and she attended the kindergarten in a church hall in Mackie Road, near North Road.

The Oakleigh - Middle Brighton bus service ran along Mackie Road. This provided easy access to Oakleigh Station one way or to Bentleigh Station in the other direction. Bentleigh Shopping Centre was the main shopping centre at the time though there was also a smaller shopping centre at East Bentleigh. When I went to secondary school I used to travel on the bus each day to Brighton and when I studied at RMIT I would travel by bus and train to the city.

Edinburgh Street was a good choice for a family to move to as most of what we needed was close by. Before long there were many other families with young children in the street. The children attended Coatesville State School or St Peter's school in Centre Road. After school and during the holidays the children all played together. One family purchased a television set shortly after television first came to Melbourne and some of us used to watch the Mickey Mouse Club after school before going outside to play. Occasionally, some of the adults met on a Friday evening to watch Graham Kennedy's In Melbourne Tonight at the neighbour's home.

The houses in our section of Edinburgh Street (it is a long street) soon became a community with neighbours helping other families when needed. I remember spending a couple of days with other families on occasions when my mother was not well and when my brother was born. When I made my wedding dress our next door neighbour helped with the fittings and provided friendly advice.

Many of the women attended Mothers' Club meetings at the school and when the annual fete was held kitchens would be devoted to providing cakes, biscuits and toffees for the fete. This procedure would be repeated when the church held its fete.

In the 1950s fireworks were legal and Guy Fawkes Day and Empire Day (Commonwealth Day) were celebrated with displays of fireworks including Catherine wheels in the fence and sparklers as well as bungers and other fireworks, including one or two designed to explode in the sky high above our heads as we celebrated around a small bonfire in the back garden. My father and another neighbour were the main organisers of such activities.

In our early years living in Edinburgh Street, in October or November it was not unusual for part of the street to flood providing another excuse for community involvement, particularly among the younger members who considered this another form of entertainment.

In the late 1960s a bungalow took up residence in our back garden. My father was a journalist and needed extra space for his writing when he was working at home. I came to know part of the bungalow well as, when I returned to Melbourne from Canberra in 1971, I was allowed to use part of the bungalow as a bedroom. As I worked full time and was completing a university degree part time I usually only needed my space at night. My main challenge was to keep my father's dog from using my bed as his bed when I wasn't home.

After I finally left home the bungalow disappeared and an extension was built at the back of the house.

As family members moved from home we still got together for special occasions, especially Christmas Day celebrations normally held at Edinburgh Street. A major feature of these occasions was the game of street cricket involving family members and the neighbours. More recently the cricket games were played in the back garden to accommodate younger family members.

On 23 June we had our last family get together in Edinburgh Street. In the afternoon I went for a walk with my grand-daughter showing her the back route I used to walk to school and also the church which recently closed and has since been sold. Plenty of memories. There was also the final family game of cricket in the back garden.

The house has been purchased by developers who have other plans for the land. Hopefully whatever is built will house other families who can enjoy living in Edinburgh Street and in East Bentleigh (now formally referred to by authorities as Bentleigh East).

More information: A patchwork of memories - based on an assignment for University of Tasmania Family History Diploma assignment.