In the Spirit of ’26 & the riddle of Dunbar’s shop…

Nigel Dawe

WHEN I think back, so many of my personal life highlights have related to historical moments, albeit moments resurrected, or rediscovered and brought back to life in some way. Another equally recurring consideration of mine has been the actual word ‘history’, and how it should be more referred to as ‘ourstory ’ – because it is thanks to the efforts of so many people, that we know anything at all about the stories that have occurred prior to our own lifetimes.

Having won a competition 20-years ago to name East Darling Harbour – Barangaroo, I can honestly say that full credit for the name goes to the historian Inga Clendinnen, who wrote a book called Dancing with Strangers, in which she devoted a whole chapter to this fascinating Gadigal woman.

A woman who once struck a soldier with a stick in defence of a convict who was being whipped by the aforementioned soldier. But if not for Clendinnen’s book I would never have known of Barangaroo, or this defiant inter-racial story that truly captures the essence of a person that I then made it my outright mission to get celebrated in such a way.

About 10-years ago I again experienced a similar ‘shared’ development, whereby thanks to an information request I lodged at my local Clarence Valley library for the address of the law firm that the early colonial poet Henry Kendall worked at while he lived in the Grafton area in the 1860s. A period that coincided with his most productive one as a poet.

And to all of ‘our’ surprise, a week after my request I was informed that Kendall had worked at the site of the modern-day Heart and Soul café, the same café that I held regular monthly book groups in! Fittingly, with the aid of a fellow book group member, we created an antique framed tribute for the café to feature, which included the following passage by Kendall from a poem of his titled, The Old Year:

“There begins a something that time cannot break.
The past and the future are joined by a chain,
And memories like that must ever remain.”

Which leads us nicely into the connection now with our Melbourne Demons, or more-so the premiership celebrations on the day of our side’s victory against Collingwood on 9th October, 1926.

Over the years I’ve heard much mentioned about how our drought-breaking art deco boys ventured from the ground that day after the official celebrations – singing ‘It’s a Grand Old Flag’ – all the way to Hugh Dunbar’s shop in Bentleigh. Which is straightforward and dandy, you might say, until you endeavour to find the location of Dunbar’s said commercial abode – he of course being the star Centre Half Back in that premiership-winning side.

The trail becomes rather destination-less thanks to street numbers not being assigned to shops in that era (and they subsequently were not assigned until the 1930s), thus the exact whereabouts of Dunbar’s shop (which was a dry goods and confectionary store) has long since drifted from living memory. As such, it has remained unknown to club history enthusiasts for decades, seeing the last member of that premiership-winning side – Stan ‘Bunny’ Wittman, died in 1994.

Until now that is, and all largely thanks to Anne from the Glen Eira Historical Society, whose exhaustive trawling of myriad different resources and source materials, was able to ascertain for us that Hugh Dunbar’s shop was located at the modern-day address of 377 Centre Road, Bentleigh.

Which is currently the location of a Laser and Skin clinic called – The Skin Boutique. There being more than a ‘layer’ of irony to this, should this business have been there 100 years ago, they would’ve surely had their work cut out, trying to freshen the appearances of a football team that were still gloriously caked in the grand final mud of the MCG.

That said, I can see a framed commemorative team photo of Melbourne’s 1926 glory boys, gifted and raised somewhere in our Bentleigh Boutique come the actual centenary on the 9th of October… so our team might once again fill this space with their spirit of place

 

1926 links on Demonland

“The players ended their night at the Dunbar family milk bar in Bentleigh. Hugh Dunbar had been preceded as a Melbourne player by his older brothers Edgar and Harold.”

“1926 – A Stirring Success” – Ian Munro – Demonland

1926 – Contenders Again – Ian Munro – Demonland

The Spirit of Twenty-Six – WJ – Demonland