Newly elected Federal Member for Stirling, Doug Cash, and family to Canberra for the Opening of 23rd Parliament. Back at home, life as a local MP is busy with many community engagements.
Category: Perth
In 1958 Doug stands as Liberal candidate for Stirling in the Federal Election. A family effort and a close-fought battle but Doug narrowly wins against C H Webb. Congratulations all round.
Yokine (1954) It was in 1954 that Joan’s father, Arthur Moore, applied for a Returned Soldiers Housing Loan. He was a World War I veteran and had served in Egypt. Arthur and Lucie chose Yokine as the place to live and on July sixth moved into 6 Fletcher Street, Yokine.
Arthur and Lucie open a shop in Wembley, four generations in a two bedroom house. Choc tops. Grandpa P C McKenzie dies. All move in with Doug’s parents in Belmont. Then a new home back in Wembley. Ken and Merle wedding. Sarah Cash dies in a tragic accident. Move to West Perth and then the wheatbelt town of Bullfinch.
1946, first Christmas as a married couple, rations still in force. In early 1947 first daughter Lynne born and in late 1948 Pam born. Cecil, Roly and Alice also welcome new arrivals. Mistaken for John Bottomley. Doug joins the Freemasons. In 1949 the Moore’s sell their 21 Victoria Square house.
Doug takes up an idea he had in the RAAF and gets approval to import stamps from the USA and sell to collectors. Maybe not the way to become a millionaire and Doug gives no indication this was anything but a small hobby.
In late 1946 Doug purchases a newsagency on busy St George’s Terrace in Perth from Laura O’Hara. Over twenty years and through multiple renovations by their landlords, Zimpels the furniture store, Doug and Joan open a separate greeting cards store within Zimpels and a chocolates store.
1944 and Doug meets Joan and the Moore family at 21 Victoria Square home in Perth. Doug and Joan get engaged via post in June 1945 while Doug was serving on Manus Island. They are married in May 1946 and tales of kitchen teas, could the bride have changed her mind (of course not) and happy celebrations followed by a honeymoon in Bunbury.
VJ Day, war in the pacific is over. Roly married. Off to 2MRS where Doug learns to drive. Xmas dinner at Madang. And then the long journey home before being discharged.
Doug gets posted to Air Defence HQ, Madang via Bradfield Park (Sydney), Townsville, Cairns, Port Moresby and Lae. Promoted to Flight Sergeant. Football accident. Moved to Admiralty Islands, a tour around Manus, Lorengau, Lombrum and Seeadler Islands.
January 1941 and Doug is off to RAAF Pearce for six weeks training. Just ground crew as poor vision rules Doug out of flying. Meets Doug Kevan from Norseman days. Station parades, gas masks and surviving in the tropics.
Doug is enlisted into the War in April 1940 and in September is sent to 28th Infantry Battalion in Perth. Training, vaccinations, infantry battle practice and a big parade before call-up to the RAAF.
Doug’s cycling life starts in his early teens with the Malvern Star championships. Doug wins the Arrow Consistency Cup and gets his photo in local papers. In Coolgardie he races the Widgiemooltha-Coolgardie (75km). In Norseman it is the longer Norseman-Higginsville (129km). In Kalgoorlie as Secretary for the Eastern Goldfields Cycling Club helps organise the Menzies to Kalgoorlie. Many tales of Hubert Opperman, a later friend and political colleague of Doug’s. In later years Doug was patron of the League of WA Wheelmen from 1959-1976.
Doug’s dad gets Doug boxing lessons at Paddy Hubon’s gym in his early teens and Doug becomes a boxing fan. Doug joins the WA Band of Hope and the WA Temperance League, Doug becomes a lifelong non-drinker (apart from a few mishaps he tells later in his story). The League had a large role to play in junior football in the state. Doug continues his ties to the League when he moves to Coolgardie and he leads the Cobbers Club there.
In the days before TV, radio was the core of the family home. Doug talks about homemade crystal radios, Kriesler cabinet radios, the radio stations of the 1930s such as 6WF, 6ML, 6PR, and 6IX, and the ‘actuality’ broadcasts of sporting matches. Also radio in Kalgoorlie and Madang during the War.
Doug tells us about the films and music he watched and listened to in the 1930s and 1940s and also of his favourite actress, Alice Fay, and singer, Bing Crosby.
Theatres of Perth such as Grand Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre, Ambassadors Theatre, the Royal, Metropole Hotel, Piccadilly Theatre, Majestic Theatre, Plaza Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Embassy Ballroom, Regent Theatre (later the Metro). Suburban theatres such as Amusu Theatre and the Broadway in Vic Park, the State Theatre (later The Astor) in Mt Lawley, Rosemount in North Perth, Wests in Subiaco, New Oxford (now Luna) in Leederville and the Princess in Fremantle. In Norseman it was the Criterion Talkies.
In Canada and Australia Doug’s parents run/own many businesses. In Perth they had the Royalty Tearooms, Phar Lap Cafe and Adelphi Cafe in Hay Street, the Heather Tearooms and Queen of Hearts on Barrack Street, a shop in William Street and one in the northern suburb of North Beach. In Kalgoorlie they had the Teacup Tearooms and Mum’s Tearooms.
Doug recounts his memories about Perth in the 1930s and 40s. Landmarks like the GPO, Townhall, Palace Hotel. Local ‘characters’ known as Percy Buttons, Matches, Feathers, The Count and Giblets. Stores like Aherns, Boans, Economic Stores, Bairds, Foy and Gibsons, and Harris, Scarfe and Sandovers. Details on Perth trams with details on all the tram routes and where they could take you.
Aged 15 Doug joins the Postmaster General’s Department as telegraph messenger. Many of the messenger boys would go on to prominent positions in the public service. Passes exam and made permanent. Moves departments including to Tax. Then sent to Coolgardie, to Norseman and finally Kalgoorlie until the War. After the war asked to move to Leonora which he refuses and quits.
Thanks to the Boys Employment League and a bit of good luck after a careless mistake, Doug gets a job with C J McAlinden’s Display and Advert Service. Lucky escape from air tank refilling accident. Doug reminisces about the businesses of the day.
Doug starts as a newsboy and tells us about the local papers, their offices and staff like Mr Martin of the Daily News and the Mirror’s Ted “Cherry” Hancock and J J “Boss” Simons who founded the Young Australia Football League. We learn about how the boys would make extra money from the crossword competitions.
Doug tells of the comics he read as a child and of his time at Perth Boys School. We hear of headmaster Tommy Chandler, teachers Bill “Skippy” Skipworth, Hal “Tinny” McKail, Pud Stallwood, Jock Campbell and Ted Huck. Doug appears in the paper.
The family moves to Hay Street in the city, then Hay Street East. A change to farm life out at Muchea then back to Vic Park in Perth before Herdsman’s Parade, their home for several years. During this time we meet Madame Zingara-Phrenologist, and dentist Harcourt Ellis.
The family arrives in WA and lives first in South Fremantle and then to McMaster Street, Vic Park (McMaster Street was named after Joan’s grand-uncle) and finally to East Cannington. Doug starts schooling at Perth Boys School, stories of train travel and life at the Cash home.