What’s In A Name delves into the fascinating stories and personalities behind some of the city’s best known street names. This week the Journal looks at Tharle Street, named after one of the district’s pioneering families.
Tharle Street, Dandenong, named after a family who settled in the area, runs off Cheltenham Road, between Sinclair and Bennet streets.
Barton Barnaby Tharle and Louisa Jane Bradley migrated to Australia shortly after they wed on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England in 1863.
They settled on acreage in Dandenong-Frankston Road, Dandenong, in early 1864 and later moved to McCrae Street.
They had nine children, including Barton Barnaby junior who became a farmer and auctioneer.
He had seven children with wife Emily Jane Hunt and ran slaughter yards in Power Road – now Doveton – and a butcher’s business in Dandenong.
In 1919 they brought their home in Macpherson Street from Mr Macpherson who had run his private Dandenong Grammar School from the premises.
Their eldest child Barton – known as Bart – married Alva Sayers, who played with the Dandenong Croquet Club for 40 years.
Bart started in the meat trade at age 14 and with brothers Frank and Victor (Vic) ran a butchery business in Foster Street after their father and uncles sold their butcher’s business in Lonsdale Street.
When Frank and Vic decided to leave the business, Bart carried on and at one stage operated four shops.
Vic served on the Dandenong Council for several years.
Frank helped his son Bill run a butcher shop in Kirkham Road and their brother Leslie (Les) also worked at the butcher’s shop in Foster Street.
Their sister Mabel Louise (Mabe) was an enthusiastic knitter and made baby clothes for Wallara’s opportunity shop.
In her early life Florence (Floss) was employed at Alf Owen’s Hardware Store in Lonsdale Street and as a cashier at the family butcher shop in Foster Street.
She cared for her mother in their Macpherson Street home until she died.
Brother Brad Tharle ran a taxi service and delivered the first patient to the new Dandenong hospital.
Edwin (Ted) was a keen footballer with the early Dandenong KSP Football Team and became an apprentice carpenter with Bob Boote when he left school, building many homes in the district.
He married Elva and settled in Hammond Road a few doors away from Frank before moving to Macpherson Street. At one stage there were five Tharle family homes in a row in Macpherson Street.
Rodney, the only child of Elva and Ted, used to shoot rats at the tip across the road from school with an air rifle and learnt to swim at the Dandy Baths.
He met his wife Judith at a dance at Dandenong Town Hall. They married at the Presbyterian Church in Dandenong in 1962 and set up in Cornelius Street, Dandenong.
