Tom O'Dea

Bruce Pitts opened the first specialized exhaust workshop in Melbourne in the mid-seventies at 67 Johnson Street, Fitzroy where he still operates, making good use of the laneway system behind the building.

His vantage point, repairing neighborhood cars and motor bikes, employing mechanics and apprentices, allows him to acutely observe the local scene and his changing industry.

His wife’s first job was at Moran & Cato’s in the next block. Bruce vividly recalls the days when the pubs and cafés were run by Italian and Greek families, before the arrival of flash food and speeding bicycles, when the coppers had annual wind-ups in the lower Town Hall and the bank manager came to visit.

Chris Friday was a teacher at North Fitzroy and Fitzroy Primary Schools in the 1970s and later trained in Special Education. Chris talks about her time teaching in Fitzroy schools and also about the changes that have taken place in street-scapes and businesses and the general gentrification of the area, including housing and demographics, over the last 45-50 years. She was also heavily involved with the Fitzroy History Society from its inception in 1982 and has lived and owned houses in the area since the 1970s.

Dorothy McInroy’s mother left an unhappy marriage in the country and moved with her six children into Argyle Street, Fitzroy when Dot was eleven. She tells of her family, her schooldays and her working and social life, and of the local characters she met during her long and happy marriage to Mac – and the tragedy that exploded into all their lives in 1962.

Ivy Dawson has lived in Fitzroy for 74 years, moving into 62 Gore Street at the age of 12 (a house which she and her husband eventually bought for £1500). She left school at 12 and kept house for her father and by 14 was working in the first of a variety of jobs, including cleaning, cooking, child-minding and waitressing, until she retired at the age of 62. She speaks about raising her four children in Fitzroy and the positive changes brought to the suburb with immigration.

She also talks of some of the old Fitzroy characters, and the general hardness of life back when she was young. While she speaks about the men drinking and domestic violence, she feels herself fortunate to have had a good man, and raised their four children successfully where they could see “the other side of life” and realise that life for everyone “wasn’t all stars and roses”.

Laurie O’Brien lived at 35 Hanover Street from 1957 to 2002. Laurie is a foundation member of the Fitzroy History Society. The architecturally significant House at 35 Hanover Street with a National Trust Heritage Register State Classification BO 167, came under Housing Commission demolition orders yet it was saved. This is that story.

She also talks of some of the old Fitzroy characters, and the general hardness of life back when she was young. While she speaks about the men drinking and domestic violence, she feels herself fortunate to have had a good man, and raised their four children successfully where they could see “the other side of life” and realise that life for everyone “wasn’t all stars and roses”.