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Woolley St, Essendon, "Laluma"

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 7 years, 1 month ago

Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

Houses of Essendon

 

View of "Laluma" from Woolley Street. Courtesy of Ian Reiher.

 

"Laluma" from the east.   Courtesy of Ian Reiher.

 

"Laluma" in the time of the Morison family

 

by Ian Reiher

 

 

The Reiher family came to Essendon in 1919 when they leased a home at 222 Pascoe Vale Road, Essendon and attended St John's Church. They left Essendon about 1923 when they purchased a house in Murumbeena. While at Essendon they were very involved with the church and its  tennis and cricket clubs. In the Bible class photo there are Dad and his brother Douglas as well as George Morison, the son of James Morison, and brother of my Mother Agnes Marion ( Mernie) Reiher nee Morison.

James and Jessie Morison purchased "Laluma" in 1918 when they wanted their son George to attend Scotch College, not as a boarder.  The house was purchased in Jessie's name so no matter what happened in the farming business at Mangalore and some other places, she had a home.  At that stage "Laluma" was on an acreage of about 2 and 1/2 acres. When they came down from Mangalore they brought with them a farmyard of a cow, hens, turkeys etc.

The house was purchased from W. E. B. Macleod, a stock and station agent whom the Morison's dealt with and  who was also a member of St John's. Jessie Morison's brother Frederick Leete of Seymour was W. E. B. Macleod's representative in the Seymour district.    James was an Elder of the church and on the Board of Management of St John's. I have a copy of the Souvenir 70th  Anniversary of  St John's in which he is included.

At "Laluma" there were James and Jessie, and in order of birth their children Jessie Grant Morison, Agnes Marion (Mernie) Morison, George Morison, May Madeline Morison and Marjorie Leslie Morison. While at "Laluma" Mernie attended Presbyterian Ladies' College (PLC), and May and Marj first attended Essendon High School and then PLC and of course George attended Scotch.

Although James was living at Essendon he spent most of the week at Mangalore which was a 2000 acre sheep and wheat growing property as well as at some properties on Phillip Island which he leased from the Campbell family,  and Yarra Grange, a 2500 acre property at Yarra Glen he leased from his solicitor, Arthur Phillips, spending the weekends at home at "Laluma".   Phillips may have been a connection of W. E. B. McLeod.   Phillips was living at Yarra Grange when he died in 1940 and MacArthur and McLeod were the agents when Yarra Grange was sold in 1941.

 

James Morison drove a very early model Dodge car, the first car in the Mangalore district. In mid 1920s he purchased another Dodge which was in the family into the 1950's.

 

A little further up the street from the house entrance there was an entrance for cars etc where you drove down to the stables. At this entrance there was a gatehouse which the Morisons let an Essendon scout group use as a clubhouse. The  old stables were great for us to play in with its loft and hay etc. I remember the orchard with its old almond, apple and plum trees etc.

I don't have a great recollection of the house interior except I remember a large cellar which opened in the hall and also the bedrooms were in a wing where you could call out and no one would hear you, which we hated. I also remember looking through the blue glass surrounds of the front door. Even though I was only three at the time I can still remember seeing Grandpa Morison in bed at "Laluma" and he giving us each a penny and rushing down through the orchard to a corner shop to buy some lollies.

After James' death Jessie Morison continued on at "Laluma" with two of her unmarried daughters, May  and Marj. Mernie had married in 1926 and was living at Box Hill and Jessie was a qualified nursing sister living at the Children's hospital. George was living at Mangalore running the farm which, due to some financial problems in 1937, had been transferred to him and refinanced by Sir Robert Gillespie of the flour milling family ( Anchor Flour Mills), who was a cousin of James Morison. The earlier generation of the Gillespie family, prior to moving the flour milling to NSW, lived in one of the grand old  Essendon houses which is now a school [St Columba's]. In 1939 George married Gertrude Nott the only daughter of Alfred Nott  the Collins Street, optician who lived at 5 Kia Ora Street, Essendon and who was a stalwart of St Johns.

In the early 1940's May and Marj, who were both teachers, were sent by wartime Manpower to the Orbost State School and so their mother Jessie went with them to Orbost,  and then later to Cobden, and the house at Essendon was leased. During this time there were some legal problems with it  as the lessee was using it as a brothel for American servicemen.

 
Jessie and  the three unmarried daughters purchased a house at 20 Arkaringa Crescent, Black Rock and when they returned from Cobden they lived at Black Rock, leaving Laluma leased. During this time their solicitor Rex McKenzie arranged the subdivision of a number of housing allotments from the estate. Jessie died at Black Rock in 1945 and the Laluma house and what was left of the land was sold for approx 3500 pounds.

I can remember my mother saying North Essendon at the time was a very poor area and some of the children didn't have much, one time a boy who always worn a large ill-fitting coat held together by a big safety pin tore it and the teachers asked him to take it off so they could repair it for him.  It was all he had on.

 

Ian Reiher

4 Oct  2015

 

James Morison in the garden at "Laluma", c 1937.  He died at Laluma in 1938.  Morrisons owned "Laluma"

from 1918 to 1945.  Courtesy of Ian Reiher.

 

Grandchildren of James and Jessie Morison in the courtyard of the Morison home, "Laluma", circa 1937.    Children of Silvius Thomas Reiher and Agnes Marion (Mernie) Morison.  Mernie taught at Essendon North Primary School from 1923 to 1926.  Back, Alan, left Graeme, right Marjorie, front Ian.   Courtesy of Ian Reiher.

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