The latest in our series of Benalla Stories is autobiographical.
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Many in the Rose City will be aware of Rob Roach. Even more might have visited his local shop, Piccadilly Laneway.
Rob has led an interesting life and it can’t all fit in one edition
This is part one of his three-part story. Keep an eye out next week for part two.
Born on November 19, 1945 my first 12 months were living in a tiny three bedroom railway house in Wallan directly opposite the railway yards where my father worked as a signalman.
(My parents) Eric and Joan Roach were married in March 1942 and six weeks later Dad was on a ship headed for the Middle East where he and a group of friends stayed.
They were together in a transport division during the unknown times of WWII.
On returning to Australia in 1944 they were stationed in the Northern Territory and drove trucks from Alice Springs to the rail head at Larrimar, sometimes in a 1000 truck convoy all along unmade tracks of red dust.
After my brother Glenn was born we shifted to Kew where Dad worked in a Bus company which was owned by his brother-in-law.
It operated all around the Footscray and North Melbourne areas.
In 1950, our family of four shifted into the family home in Blackburn which was owned by my father's parents.
But being a large house it had been divided into two home and was set in a large garden.
This is where my passion for gardening began.
I attended Blackburn Primary School until 1958 and still to this day we have a reunion once a year at the Blackburn Hotel.
We created a schoolroom theme, though I must admit our numbers are now starting to dwindle.
In 1958, I started my secondary education at Box Hill High School, which was within easy walking distance from our house.
Halfway through year 11, in 1961 my father who operated a butcher shop in East Doncaster asked me to join him in the business.
So, at the end of the year, and just turning 17, I started my new pathway in life which I followed for 40 years.
During the summer of 1964/65 a group of friends and myself headed off to Rosebud on a camping holiday which turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.
A few of us had been invited to a private tennis afternoon in a wonderful garden setting.
As I was watching a doubles match, a girl with whom I had seen on a couple of occasions previously took my attention.
During her doubles match her partner unfortunately twisted his ankle and on a request from someone in the group I had a racquet in my hand before anyone had time to think.
The rest is history, and Maxine and I were married in February 1968.
Our first retail adventure was a dry cleaning and giftware shop in East Doncaster, which Maxine ran while I was still in the butcher shop.
Our first child, Cassandra, was born in October 1969 while in the shop. Our unit upstairs was very small.
At the time, a very close friend had just returned from the Army in Vietnam.
He and his wife moved in as well, so things became certainly overcrowded.
We were able to buy our first home in East Doncaster in early 1973, a new three-bedroom house on an estate for $17,200 which at the time was a lot of money.
Our second child, Christopher arrived in early 1974.
So our family of four started to plan for our future.
In 1976, we moved house again to Donvale and the children had well and truly started their school years.
But still, there was that desire to move to another lifestyle.
Maxine was now running a home-grown business selling indoor plants on a party plan and owning a florist and plant shop in East Camberwell.
It was very successful. I was still in the butcher shop, but I assisted Maxine in her business until we decided what to do next.
One of our thoughts at the time was to immigrate to Canada, which we always said we might do.
But following an extensive protocol system, we failed in our bid.
One day, in early 1980 we were reading the Weekly Times, and we found a property for sale at Molyullah near Benalla.
– Rob Roach