Suburban dreams and local lingo

Writing about my great grandfather’s purchase of his property, Ikerrin, had me thinking about the origins of the common phrase, the ‘Great Australian Dream’. I wanted to know if it stemmed from the post war period in the 1950s, or was an earlier concept.

Scouting about online, Wikipedia noted some key books published in the 1950s parodying the Great Australian Dream, and I took it upon myself to read them, ‘Nino Culotta: They’re a Weird Mob’ by John O’Grady published in 1957 and ‘My Brother Jack’ by George Johnston published in 1964.

Australian jackpot

As it happened, I borrowed* the 2012 edition of ‘They’re a Weird Mob’ from the library, which included an introduction by Jacinta Tynan describing how this book was born from a £10 bet between her grandfather and his brother. The book was a great read, and it had me laughing out loud in a café, in my lounge room and on the train. I especially loved the back story describing the bet, and how the book came to be published. The publisher, Sam Ure Smith had given a slush pile of manuscripts to his secretary Janet Venn-Brown who would read them when she went to the hairdresser in her lunch breaks. She instantly recognised the best selling qualities of O’Grady’s book and implored her boss to read it.

Venn-Brown is a name connected to the Meaghers by marriage. I first became acquainted with who Janet Venn-Brown was a couple of years ago when I went to Sydney to meet the descendants of my grandfather’s eldest brother, Leo Carden Meagher. I stayed with Janet’s niece, my second cousin. Leo’s daughter, Patricia Meagher married Felix Venn-Brown (Janet’s brother) and moved to Sydney.  Janet went on to have a wonderfully avant-garde life as an artist in her own right, and one of her paintings was in the room I was staying in. There was also a book about her, which I promptly started to read, Janet Venn-Brown: A Life in Art, by Peter Manning.

Janet did pick a bestseller; the book went on to become an Australian classic and remained in print for thirty-eight years. The book is written in what is self-described as ‘Australianese’ and captures, with great humour, extensive use of Australian slang in everyday language. Often to the complete incomprehension of an outsider.  Earlier examples of colloquial idioms featured in Australian literature include Henry Lawson poems, for example, ‘While the Billy Boils’ published in 1896 and C.J Dennis’s ‘The Songs of A Sentimental Bloke’, published in 1915, among others.

A local Hawthorn tale

All of this reminds me of a story my great grandfather, John Sheehy Meagher, wrote in a letter to his son, Lux, in November 1910, about the escapades of Jasper, the family dog.

John delightedly described the local shenanigans that took place in the front garden of his house in Manningtree Road to Lux, who was working in Western Australia at the time.

No we could not part with Jasper, the lives of our tradesmen would become dull & commonplace if our sturdy dog were to go away. I think that in some respects Jasper is an atavism he has traits which have descended to him from his remote wolf ancestors; e.g the milkman is not molested until he has filled the jug & slapped down the lid upon his can and then the treacherous one rushes forth to battle with the intruder he does not valiantly assail the man as he comes into the yard, not he, he rather sets an ambuscade & on my life Jasper enjoys the battle.  You remember too what fierce toll he takes of the baker’s basket what time the bread man thrusts it forth to fend off a murderous wolf from his unprotected legs-. The other morning some small boys were looking over the gate longingly at the loquats ripening in the sun. One kiddy I heard say “There’s a savage mong here he might cop us” to which a crafty Ulysses of the party replied “I’ll rattle the gate a bit that’ll fetch the mong if he’s about”. The gate was accordingly “rattled” noisily but Jasper who was lying on the verandah hidden behind the bamboos made no sign save for an almost inaudible angry cat-like growl – Thrown off their guard the privateers rapidly stole in to plunder and had just got under the tree, when the avenger with an angry scream – like bark hurled himself down the steps with a furious rush upon the marauders – These latter panic stricken yelled for mercy. I rushed out almost doubled up with laughter; Meanwhile one chap more agile than the others was half over Keog’s fence, but one leg was hanging for the fraction of a second temptingly downward, business like Jasper attended to the vanishing leg first and a ripping slash from leg to ankle did completely for that Kiddy’s trousers, the second chap had stumbled over the tiling & him the dispenser of Justice neglected to collar the third who was nearing the gate & who, in a moment would be on the outside of its friendly protection; the gates were against the fugitive for just as he put out his hand to swing the gate open Jasper leaped for him, caught his coat pockets and hung thereto with the tenacity of a bull dog; believing his end to be approaching Ulysses uttered the most heart rending screams which did not cease until I freed Jasper’s teeth from the cotton lining of the pocket – It was a most glorious victory for Jasper, no damage was done except to the Kiddies clothes, & not only do they not look upon the loquats but they walk on the other side of the road – A couple of Kiddies asked me the other day if that ____ dog indicating him was “the one as played football” alluding to Jaspers delight in playing any game with a ball – Altogether his “Mana” is great –

Manningtree Road, Hawthorn

The Meagher family rented 74 Manningtree Road, a double fronted, brick Victorian house, from 1898 until 1912. Mrs Mary Jane Keogh lived on the western side of the property, at number 72 and JS Meagher’s landlord, Watkins Williams lived at number 76 on the eastern side, adjacent to the Glenferrie State School. The property had a small space for a garden to the front, set back ten or so metres, clearly within good earshot of the local lingo.

 

I can’t resist smiling as the scene unfolds in my mind’s eye every time I read this dog’s triumphant story. I am sure my smile mirrors Lux’s, as he read the story in 1910 of the local happenings on Manningtree Road. The only difference, Lux would have heard his father’s voice telling the story as he read it, and other familiar  memories as the letter transported him back to his lived experience in the old family home in Manningtree Road. The domesticity of my great grandfather’s story speaks so distinctly to the localised scenes I enjoyed in O’Grady and Johnson’s novels of suburban Sydney and Melbourne in the first half of the twentieth century. However, I love how the story of Jasper the dog captures a sense of the local language direct from the streets of Hawthorn, and how it paints a vivid picture of an urban frontier and a prized suburban loquat.

Complement Suburban dreams and local lingo with A Veiled Tradition featuring a bridal veil weaving together the wedding and families of Patricia Meagher’s parents, Leo Carden Meagher and Rosa Lynne Wharton.

Postscript: *I borrowed and read these books before the pandemic. I am still yet to return George Johnson’s book to the City Library (closed since March 2020) and have since managed to borrow a different book, A History of The University of Melbourne by Ernest Scott from the Prahran Mechanics Institute via postage between stage 3 and 4 of the lockdown restrictions for this post: Bachelor of Arts: a means to an end?