Coo-ee: 1949 in Benalla

This small factory manufactured reinforced concrete drainage pipes.

These were much in demand during the post-war building boom.

Metropolitan housing subdivisions were springing up all over Melbourne and these pipes were needed to provide the supporting drainage and sewerage infrastructure.

Mr Nash estimated that he could produce 500m of these large pipes per week if he could get the materials that he needed.

Unfortunately the post-war building boom also came with a serious shortage of materials.

The pipes the works produced were stored in Waller St beside the old tip.

The old tip is now Churchill Reserve. The park has many users and previously was also an off-leash dog park.

That year also saw the opening of Apex Joinery, owned by Frank Ford, in Mary St.

By 1953 it had 13 staff supplying joinery product mainly to Melbourne’s building boom.

The carpet factory of Latoof and Cahill, ICI Fertilisers, Reynold Chains and J.A. Terrett & Co all commenced business in Benalla in the years following.

None of these survived the march of time.

Loombah Weir on Ryan’s Creek, 30km from Benalla, and its pipeline were under construction in 1949.

The 682 million-litre weir project was finished in 1952. It had no formal opening. The opening of the project supplying Benalla’s water was cancelled because of the death of King George VI.

Also in 1949, Alan Morrison Chester was living on a small farm near Benalla.

A returned digger from the Great War, Mr Chester had enlisted in Melbourne on August 12, 1915 but was accepted for service in January 1916.

Initially, he was allocated as a reinforcement for 14th Battalion.

However, once in France, he was transferred to 2nd Division’s Ammunition Column as a driver.

His task was to drive the primitive trucks that moved ammunition from railheads up to the artillery of Australian 2nd Division located just behind the front line.

He returned safely to Australia in July 1919.

Thirty years later, aged 58, Mr Chester was blind. The cause was not known.

It was not from war service. It might have been something as mundane as glaucoma or a side-effect of diabetes.

Despite this, Mr Chester was determined to continue his normal lifestyle on the farm — such as milking cows and chopping wood.

However, it was his determination to continue one daily activity that was alarming.

Although blind, he continued to ride his bicycle around the streets of Benalla.

His youngest son, beside him on his own bicycle, guided him with calls such as ‘a little left, Dad,’ or ‘coming to a crossroad now’.

The sight must have been terrifying for those sharing the roads with him, even if roads were much quieter then.

Mr Chester died in June 1974 and is buried in the lawn section of Benalla cemetery. His wife, Ruby, joined him there in 2000, aged 93.

– John Barry.