Christopher Bennett

Memoir Reflections

Chris Bennett

Fitzroy Football Club’s Grandstand

Here’s a photo I took of the Fitzroy Football club’s grandstand.

The shot was taken from the Brunswick Street end, just after dawn.

There was another grandstand on the right hand side of this grandstand but unfortunately it burnt down in the 1970s.

Between the two grandstands was a small open area, called the outer, and supporters stood there barracking for their team and of course, abusing the umpire.

I remember standing in the outer as a kid in the 1960s, balancing on two empty beer cans so I could see the game over the shoulders of the adults in front of me.

The empty beer cans were also handy to collect and sell so I could make a few pennies.

I also remember the great Fitzroy footballer Kevin Murray, nicknamed Bulldog,, bursting through packs and kicking the footy down field.

I did manage to sneak into the grandstand once and watched a game seated on a long wooden bench seats. It was a civilisation away from the outer.:)

1950s/60s: Fitzroy Kids

If you were a Fitzroy kid in the 1950s and 1960s then you;

  1. Swam at the Fitzroy Baths
  2. Watched a movie at The Regent Picture Theatre
  3. Visited the Fitzroy Library
  4. Attended George Street State Primary School
  5. Walked past the Marshalite traffic signals on the corner of Brunswick Street and Johnston Street
  6. Bought groceries at SSW supermarket
  7. Used or played with a phone in a phone booth at the Post Office
  8. Played in a cobbled blue stone lane way
  9. Collected and sold empty beer bottles to the bottle yard (corner of Fitzroy Street and Kerr Street)
  10. Returned empty soft drink bottles to milk bars and received a deposit back.

Can you think of any other activities you did?

Brunswick Street (near corner of Argyle Street). Photo by Chris Bennett

Fitz Roy or Fitzroy?

I popped into the library after a walk around Fitzroy taking photos recently and discovered this poster.

I’m not sure if Fitzroy, printed Fitz Roy in this poster is correct or it was a misprint.

I googled the spelling and discovered that Fitz Roy is a mountain in South America!

Does anyone know the correct spelling?

The Old Neigbourhood

May be an image of outdoors
Argyle Street, Fitzroy

I walked down Brunswick Street the other day and took this picture of Argyle Street.

The building on the corner was Mr O’Brien’s milk bar in the 1960s and it was where my mate and his family lived (behind the shop section).

I spent many hours playing in Argyle Street and the new buildings behind have greatly changed the street.

The white building replaced the one story garage where we scaled the brick wall to reach the galvanised tin roof.

We walked across the roof on a Sunday for a dare, taking care to step on the nail sectioned so we wouldn’t fall through it.

Between the white building and the corner building is a blue stoned laneway where we played cricket.

The neighbourhood has changed but there are still fragments of the old Fitzroy left.

Carn The Roys

I discovered this footy scarf at my sister’s place and couldn’t resist trying it on.

Technically it’s a Brisbane Lions scarf but to an old Fitzroy boy like me it still represents the Fitzroy Lions of my childhood.

The Fitzroy footy club played in the VFL and AFL leagues and was known as the Maroons (1883-1938) and the Gorillas (1938-1957). But I always knew the team as the Lions (1958-1996).

I can still remember the roar of the crowd on a Saturday afternoon when Fitzroy played at the Brunswick Street oval, a few blocks away from where I lived.

Fitzroy won seven premiership, the last one in 1944, and I waited several decades for the next premiership but that hope was dashed when they merged with Brisbane in the 1990s. Though the Brisbane Lions won three premierships, I never considered those as I was a Fitzroy tragic.

I never merged with Brisbane Lions. The Fitzroy the team did.

There are a few of us Fitzroy tragics still around and there still is hope for another premiership in the form of the Fitzroy Reds, formerly the University Reds. It was formed in 2009, and plays in the Victorian Amateur Football Association and it almost won a premiership in the D grade competition.

I was never a fanatical supporter of the Fitzroy Lions but I still miss them.

They disappeared just like my childhood.

Footnote: Carn the Roys translates to Come on Fitzroy and was used by supporters to encourage the team.