Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop pictured with former prisoners of war Eric Hooper, Jack Roe, Jack Flannery, Albert 'Alby' Macklan, Bob Cope, and Benalla RSL secretary Tim Cogger. Year unknown. Photo courtesy of the Benalla Family Research Group.
This is the first in a series of articles submitted by the Benalla Family Research Group.
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There is a connection that sometimes endures between houses and people long after they have separated.
Such a bond survives between Alby Macklan and the house at 13 Carrier St, Benalla.
It was there that he dealt with the dual traumas of having been a prisoner of war of the Japanese in World War II, as well as the encroachment of dementia.
Alby lived at 13 Carrier St from 1949 until his death in 1992.
He had joined the 8th division in 1941 and endured four years of the horrors of the Burma Railway, including the deaths of his two brothers.
On his return to Benalla, he became a participant in what might be called the ‘village-mentality’ in a community that cared for its members with practical and emotional support.
He met and married Betty Straughen and had two daughters, Jill and Chris.
Jill recalls him working at Lewis’ stores and Noel Brown’s Foodland.
After a heart attack, the village rose to Alby’s assistance and a job was created for him as Benalla’s first parking officer.
Albert 'Alby' Macklan lived at 13 Carrier St from 1949 until his death in 1992. Photo: Matt Weaver.
He became a famous identity in the Rose City due to this employment, but he continued to struggle with his wartime experiences and the onset of dementia.
He returned home each day for lunch and would often simply lie on the floor and sleep for an hour.
This was a practice that developed from his POW days, when being able to simply lie on the floor was seen as a luxury.
He often needed community support to return to Carrier St each day.
He would become confused and would be sighted heading out of town towards Wangaratta or Shepparton.
Locals would give him directions or a lift home.
In return, the community got a parking officer who always carried a pocket full of sixpences with which to supplement expiring meters, particularly if he recognised the car in question.
As the years passed, his dementia advanced.
According to Jill, he would spend hours seated at the kitchen table shaving.
He suddenly gave up smoking after a lifetime of very heavy smoking, and he struggled to recognise people he had known all of his life.
But his cheerful and caring disposition didn’t change.
He was famous for his loud and melodious whistling, and the family would hear this as he came home from the Victoria Hotel of an evening.
When Alby died in 1992, Benalla and specifically 13 Carrier St, lost a much loved and respected member of a community but more precisely a member of the ‘village’.
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