By CASEY NEILL
DES Morrish has called Marie Kean and Thelma and Allan Witham his neighbours for more than 60 years.
Oswald Street, Dandenong, was just a dirt road in 1954 when the now 95-year-old, his wife Sadie and their two children, then aged 7 and 9, moved in.
The arborist and his family had called Warburton home.
“The Upper Yarra Dam was being finished. There didn’t look to be any future for my children and it was a big property to look after,” Mr Morrish said.
“We came to Dandenong to give them a better education than I ever had.
“This street was being built at the time.
“We bought the block of land first, for 300 pounds, and then we had the house built for 3800 pounds.
“So the whole lot cost 4100 pounds, which is equal to about $8200.
“My back fence and the spouting’s still original.
“I can’t quote whether it’s still the original hot water service or not. I think it is.”
Ms Kean and her husband Frank moved to Dandenong from Fish Creek when he cut business ties with his brother.
“They had no proper financial arrangement and they’d just take money whenever they needed it. It was absolutely stupid,” she said.
“I said ‘this can’t go on. You’ve got to have some sort of wages’.
“So they took a wage from the business. But that didn’t work because the brother helped himself.”
“I’d had enough of it, so they decided then to split up.
“Dandenong was the last place that I wanted to come to. I thought it was a terrible place.”
But they soon bought a shop and moved into Oswald Street on 9 January, 1955.
Mr and Mrs Witham married in March 1955 and moved into the street on 1 April.
“I lived in Beaconsfield. Thelma lived at Narre Warren North and I was working in Melbourne,” Mr Witham said.
“We came here because it was suitable for me to go to work. We had three girls – one and then twins.
“They were able to go to primary school here and then go to the Cleeland high school. We were close to the hospital.
“When you looked out the kitchen window, we had two gum trees that we could see out here and about eight houses between here and nowhere.”
They paid Wes Leed 140 pounds for the block and 3000 for the house, or about $6280.
“I was only getting $36 a week and I had a wife to support as well,” Mr Witham said.
“He built all the houses here. You’ll find Leed Street over the corner here. He built that street after this.
“There was a narrow strip of land through here that used to be market gardens.
“These blocks were only 109 feet deep and 57 feet wide. It was 6013 square feet.
“The minimum block you had in Dandy in those days was 6000 so we just made it.
“The idea was that you bought the block of land off him and he built the house.
“If you couldn’t get the finance to build the house within three or four months, he got the block back.”
The road was sealed about five years after they moved in and they were without electricity for about six weeks.
“My wife used to bring her ironing up here to Thelma’s,” Mr Morrish said.
The neighbours have formed a firm friendship over the years.
“We have got a good friendship,” Mr Witham said.
“Marie’s son the other day was driving past and stopped in for a yarn.”
