Thomas Tobin and Alice (O’Dowd) Tobin
Thomas and Alice in Kilmore Victoria – 1900 and 1901?
One can presume that Alice found life in Fremantle very difficult and it stands to reason that she would have been homesick for her family in Melbourne. Sometime before 1902, Thomas and Alice with Winnie, John and baby Mollie, sailed back to Melbourne.
Thomas Tobin’s addresses for the years 1900 and 1901 are not shown on any postal records in WA or Victoria and no shipping records are available to show his movements. It’s feasible to believe that after the recorded Fremantle years, they lived in the Kilmore/Wandong area in Victoria in 1900 – 1901 before Leo was born in March 1902 in South Melbourne.
As Alice’s Death Certificate states, she’d lived in WA for 2 years which supports this assumption.
However, contradicting that time frame, on Thomas’s Death Certificate, it states he lived in WA for 7 years. As he’d only been there for 3 years before Alice joined him, it’s feasible that the details on Alice’s Death Certificate are the accurate ones. By the time their father died in 1953, Thomas’s sons, on giving the details for his time in the West, probably only guessed his time spent there.
On their return to Melbourne, Thomas and Alice went from there (Fremantle) to Wandong – I think he was a powder monkey there – because Uncle John Tobin said to me when I was at Kilmore ‘I went to Kilmore when I was a boy…’ and Alice was pregnant with Dad (Leo Thomas). [Leo James Tobin (1932 – 2010)]
Thomas and Alice in South Melbourne – 1902 – 1916
Thomas and Alice Tobin’s years in South Melbourne were fraught with financial hardship. They struggled to pay the rent so would simply leave and find another place to live. ‘Midnight flits’ were a common occurrence in those days apparently. The boys’ birth certificates are testament to the hardship, each having been born at a different South Melbourne address. On one occasion, they moved next door. Thomas worked at Sharp’s Timber Yard as well as Johns and Waygood during the South Melbourne years.
| Year | Child | Address on Birth Certificate | Thomas’ Occupation on Birth Certificate |
| 1902 | Leo | 48 Gladstone Street | Labourer |
| 1904 | Joseph | 417 Coventry Street | Labourer |
| Joseph’s Death | 415 Coventry Street | Labourer | |
| 1905 | Alphonsus (and Bernard) | 415 Coventry Street | Labourer |
| 1907 | Noel | 108 Clarendon Street | Undertaker’s Assistant |
| 1909 | Thomas O’Halloran | 188 Park Street | Wharf labourer |
| 1912 | Kevin | 223 York Street | Labourer |
| 1913 | 224 Ferrars Street |
Funerals
Sadly, Thomas was no stranger to undertakers. He buried his first born, Ellen (4 weeks) in South Melbourne in 1891 and his first wife, Maria and stillborn daughter in Fremantle in 1897. A few years later on returning to South Melbourne, Joseph (10 weeks) died in 1904 and Bernard (2 days), twin of Alphonsus, in 1905.
After her seven sons, Alice miscarried with a little girl (Catherine) near full term or she was stillborn. For Alice, we can only image her terrible heartbreak, as she looked perfect. The timing of this pregnancy is unknown. But we do know she worried about the baby throughout the pregnancy. Alice must have been living in Flemington because Dr Cahill, who practised in the Flemington area, assured her it was OK. Alice would have been 45 years old. [Margaret Murray]
On Noel’s Birth Certificate, at 108 Clarendon Street South Melbourne, Thomas’s employment was given as an undertaker’s assistant.
Family anecdotes relate that Thomas and Alice worked for Charles P. Frilay. Apparently Alice manned his phone and sewed the linings for coffins. An old newspaper funeral notice dated 27th June 1908 gives Frilay’s addresses in South Melbourne at 108 Clarendon Street (next to City road) and 313 Clarendon Street.
Did the Tobins live in an undertaker’s residence or did Chas.P.Frilay use their home as an ‘office’ for his phone line?
Move To 38 Farnham Street Flemington – 1916 – 1922
Thomas and Alice moved the family from South Melbourne to Flemington during WW1, sometime in 1916. Phonse’s tale of his truancy, while living in South Melbourne mentions starting a new school when his family moved to Flemington. We presume he’s speaking of St Brendan’s Flemington.
With his family moving to Flemington, Grandad attended a new school. He decided that he would attend school regularly, but after a couple of weeks his old urge was too strong to resist and he started wagging again. Now, instead of going to the movies or the wharves, he used to visit the Melbourne show-grounds or go to Broadmeadows.
My father, Phonse, rarely mentioned his time at the orphanage and although my brothers and I thought he was sent to Geelong, until I obtained his records, we were never certain and thought he’d only had 6-12 months there. It was a shock to know that he’d been banished from his family for so long. The experience cured him of his truancy. [Denise]