April A-Z Challenge – R is for RICHMOND

R is for RICHMOND, Victoria, Australia. my father was born in Lambert Street Richmond, in January 1926. Dad was born at the family home – a tiny 2 bedroom terrace house, which I’m sure would have been bursting at the seams, trying to contain the large family.

RICHMOND today is very gentrified, with many renovated terrace houses, but in the 1920’s when my Dad was born, Richmond was very much considered lower class, bordering on slum conditions.

Janet McCalman wrote an award winning book about Richmond in the early days:  Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900-1965 relating many stories of everyday life in the lower working class suburb of Richmond. Life in the struggling suburb was very tough back then, with families trying to cope and survive the depression, which caused high unemployment and much suffering. Richmond of course is also the home of my Dad’s beloved  Richmond Football Club.

Janet writes about the wild boys who lived in Lambert Street who were constantly getting up to mischief and stirring up the neighbourhood. No names were mentioned but there is every chance that these wild boys were my father and his brothers.