Just one of the wonderful images: Workers in the main sewing room at the then-newly opened Fletcher Jones factory at Pleasant Hill, Warrnambool, in 1948.
By Carol Altmann
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A[/dropcap] treasure trove of rare images capturing the lifespan of the Fletcher Jones story is poised to be the focus of a series of artworks by noted Warrnambool artist, Glenn Morgan.
More than 100 images are contained on three CDs given to Glenn by the late David Jones – son of Sir Fletcher – about eight years ago when the pair were sitting on the Warrnambool Art Gallery Advisory Board.
“I’d made a couple of pieces around the Fletcher Jones theme and so David turns up with these three discs of images that he said I could have, so I put them to one side thinking I would take a proper look one day,” Glenn explains.
“I have always been interested in doing a sculpture reflecting the Fletcher Jones’ floats in the Florado festival (an annual Warrnambool street festival that started in the late 1950s) and so I started browsing the images on the discs and thought, bloody hell, there is some good stuff in here!”
“A dash of Cold War spy”: a Fletcher Jones’ fashion parade in the 1930s, possibly staged at the Warrnambool Town Hall?
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]G[/dropcap]lenn is not exaggerating.
The photographs provide a literal snapshot of the growth and the hey-day of the Fletcher Jones story, from Sir Fletcher’s humble beginnings as a hawker, to the beginning of the last great years of the Pleasant Hill factory the late 1980s.
There are images of window displays, fashion parades, staff parties, the legendary Christmas picnics, the construction and opening of the Pleasant Hill site, family shots, staff shots, FJ sports teams, samples of early advertising and some of the many social and community causes that the Jones’ family supported.
“There is some really interesting stuff and it takes in not only Warrnambool, but Fletcher Jones in Adelaide, in Hobart, in Collins St,” Glenn says.
“The more you delve into it, the story just gets richer and richer.”
The Fletcher Jones basketball team from 1946. Do you recognise any of these faces? If so, let us know in the comments box below.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]G[/dropcap]lenn has already started to seek private and public funding to build a new body of work from a series of images he has selected from the 100-plus.
“I would, ideally, like to spend a couple of years just working purely on this project – an FJ project – leading up to an exhibition at the factory itself, and then touring to Melbourne and Sydney,” he says.
“Funding, of course, is always the issue but I am applying for grants as we speak and hope to get some funding on board.”
Artist Glenn Morgan, known for his quirky sculptures, hopes to produce a body of work around the rare Fletcher Jones images.
“It is such a great story, a very Warrnambool story, and I would love to be able to tell a part of it,” Glenn says.
Glenn and fellow artists Barry Tate and Jenny Altmann all run individual art classes at the former Fletcher Jones factory, with Jenny and Barry recently launching the Outlaw Gallery in the same space.
Anne Skepper Van Bakel back at the scene of the “crime”, where as a little girl, she was caught red-handed trying to fish coins out of the wishing well at the Fletcher Jones Gardens, Warrnambool. These stories are now being collected as part of a social history project.
By Carol Altmann
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T[/dropcap]hey are words that will send a chill into any child’s heart who is up to a bit of mischief: “Oi, what do you THINK you are DOING?”
Anne Skepper van Bakel still remembers the sound of the booming voice, and what she was “doing” was leaning into the wishing well in Warrnambool’s Fletcher Jones gardens, helping her older brother, Bob Markwell, as he tried to pull the coins through the protective grid using a sharp stick topped with a lump of chewing gum.
“As if it was ever going to work,” Anne says, laughing at the 44-year-old memory of getting caught red-handed by Fletcher Jones worker Allan Jennings.
The pair, however, came up with the perfect excuse as to why they were both “fishing” in the wishing well, which is still a feature in the garden’s today and is still used to collect money for charity.
“We told him we were trying to get our chewing gum back!” Anne laughs.
The daily dispatches at Fletcher Jones, written by Eric Tonkin, captured all manner of happenings, including the wishing well “incident” which caused great laughter.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] N[/dropcap]either Anne or Bob managed to retrieve either a 20 cent or 10 cent piece which, in 1971, was enough to buy a sizeable bag of lollies and maybe even a pie from the Flaxman St milk bar about 100m down the road.
But their ingenious attempt was enough to warrant the attention of the late Eric Tonkin who, as part of his duties at Fletcher Jones, compiled the daily staff newsletter.
In his recording of the event, Eric describes the culprits as two little girls (young Bob had longish hair) and praises them for their quick comeback line.
“What would a poor silly male say if caught in this impossible situation? He would be absolutely stumped!” he writes.
About 400 of these newsletters have been passed on by Eric’s family to the Fletcher Jones: Stories from our Community project that will kick off later this month in an effort to collect the best of the many thousands of community stories and memories around the Fletcher Jones factory, Pleasant Hill gardens and silver ball water tower.
Generosity of spirit: Tim Carlton’s bun bag, kept from when Sir Fletcher had fruit buns flown in from Adelaide for morning tea. Image courtesy Julie Eagles/Tim Carlton.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] P[/dropcap]roject coordinator Julie Eagles says it is stories that bring history to life and make a community care about its built heritage.
“The strong community connection to the Fletcher Jones site is what has saved it, in the end, from demolition by neglect,” she says.
“There is something very special and very interesting about this site and it is really a part of people’s lives – not only from the past, but today – so it is not just about telling a story, but making those connections.”
Anne’s wishing well story is just the sort of gem that the storytelling project is hoping to uncover when it holds two sessions at Archie Graham Centre later this month and early September (see full details below).
Another of Julie’s favourite stories is that of Sir Fletcher organising to have freshly baked fruit buns flown from Balfours, in Adelaide, to the Warrnambool factory for a staff morning tea. Thanks to her work with former employee Tim Carlton, who is now 95, there is even a surviving bun bag to prove it.
The project has also uncovered the little known fact that Sir Fletcher converted a school bus that sat on a beachfront block at Port Fairy and was made available free to staff and their children for school holidays.
“We are now at the point where we are ready to start gathering these stories, to see what’s out there, and then we can look at how those stories will be presented,” Julie explains.
Ideas so far include an online archive, a book, and an exhibition, while plans are also afoot to install a 6m photographic panel on the side of the Fletcher Jones factory, showing some aspect of its past.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A[/dropcap]nne, who has just recently returned to live in Warrnambool, has a few more tales of her own, and says growing up on nearby Barkly St meant almost daily visits to the Fletcher Jones gardens, which “we thought of as our backyard”.
“There was one time when I thought it would be a good idea to take a goldfish home from the Fletcher’s goldfish pond – I really wanted a goldfish,” she says.
“So I wrapped it up in my jumper and ran all the way home with it, but when I got home, it was dead as a doornail. I was so disappointed!”
One of Anne’s best stories, however, is from the day the silver ball was hoisted into the sky in 1967 – an event that changed the landscape of Warrnambool.
“A worker told me that it was going to be filled with Coca Cola and I thought, ‘wow, I’ve got the scoop here!’ so I didn’t tell a soul.
“I then kept going back to see if I could catch any drips, but there was never any drips and there certainly wasn’t any Coca Cola.”
The stories project has been funded by a grant from the Gwen and Edna Jones Foundation and by the family of the late Sir Fletcher Jones.
The stories of the people – workers, families, visitors and all those who have had a connection to the Fletcher Jones site – are now being collected for a new project. Image: Save the Silver Ball and Fletcher Jones Gardens.
[box]What made Fletcher Jones special or interesting? Did you, or someone you know, work there? Bring along a photo or an object or just come and share stories over morning tea – the best stories will become part of a collection and yours could be one of them! Wed Aug 26 and Wed Sept 16 @ 10am, Archie Graham Centre, Timor St, Warrnambool. Bookings essential: (03) 55594892. To keep up to date with this project, join the Silver Ball and Fletcher Jones Gardens Facebook page here.[/box]
[button link=”http://the-terrier.com.au/subscribe-2/” type=”icon” icon=”heart” newwindow=”yes”]Bluestone is aiming for at least 500 subscribers in 2015. If you enjoyed this story, please click here to become one![/button]
You can read more Fletcher Jones related stories here…
The pristine Fletcher Jones gardens as they were in the 1960s (together with the blue buildings that we later painted white). Image: Weston Langford, via Save the Silver Ball and Fletchers Gardens.
[box type=”bio”] Fletcher Jones gardens spring picnic celebration is on Sunday, September 14, from 3pm-6pm, with the movie screenings from dusk.[/box]
[dropcap style=”color: #a5cecd;”] T [/dropcap]he Fletcher Jones gardens in Warrnambool will play host this month to a spring picnic, market and twilight film screening to celebrate the beginning of a new chapter for the much-loved landmark.
The arts collective, The F Project, which took its name from the late Sir Fletcher Jones, is the driving force behind the community event on Sunday 14 September (3pm-6pm), having gained approval for it to go ahead from the site’s new owner, Dean Montgomery.
September 14 marks 70 years to the day since Fletcher Jones started his first company, FJ Trousers Pty Ltd, with the inaugural meeting of the board of directors. The Pleasant Hill site was bought three years later, when the company morphed into Fletcher Jones and Staff.
The day will include an afternoon picnic and high tea with food stalls and live music, together with a spring market featuring work by artists from The F Project.
Bluestone Magazine will have its very first market stall, with limited edition Bluestone tote bags for sale at $10 each. We will also be selling copies of “Warrnambool – This is Home” and have a free car sticker for each person who drops by to say hello.
A twilight film screening is also planned, starting with Last Man in the Ball, a short film by Julie Eagles/Colleen Hughson, followed by the main feature of Fabric of a Dream, a 55-min documentary about the life of Fletcher Jones.
The annual Fletcher Jones Christmas parties were legendary in the 1960s and 70s. A little of that feeling will be revived next month. Image: Courtesy of Lost Warrnambool.
[dropcap style=”color: #a5cecd;”] I [/dropcap]t will be the first time in many years that the Fletcher Jones gardens have been opened up for a large community event and taps into the history of the family Christmas parties held in the gardens each year during the 1960s and 70s.
The fact the event is being held at all is something of a minor miracle, given the bleak outlook for the property up until its sale to Mr Montgomery in May this year.
Since then, preliminary work has started on repairing the iconic silver ball water tower and re-roofing of the buildings and Mr Montgomery has indicated he plans to repaint and restore as much of the original garden furniture and features as possible.
An impromptu opening of the site a fortnight ago, including tours of the derelict factory and sandstone tunnels, gave some indication of how popular the factory remains with locals and ex-pats, with more than 100 people taking the opportunity to see inside.
Factory Arts – housed within the old building – will open their studios for the day to give visitors a glimpse of the changing tide within the complex. There is much to celebrate!
More than 100 people turned up for an impromptu tour inside the derelict Fletcher Jones factory. Image: Mitch Stansfield, Save the Silver Ball and Fletchers Gardens.
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