Looking Back - 1939 to 2011 - the Autobiography of Robert V. J. Padula, OAM

1949 - Australian Rules Football

Home
1941 - Bikes and Cars
1943 - Hiking - Hills and Coasts
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 1
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 2
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 3
1945 - Auburn schooldays - Part One
1945 - Auburn Schooldays - Part Two
1945 - Auburn Schooldays - Part Three
1945 - Upwey and the Puffing Billy
1945 - Gramaphones and Record Players
1946 - Flinders St Station
1946 - Astronomy
1946 - Beach and Swimming Adventures
1946 - Going to the Pictures
1947 - Adventures at the Altona Bungalow
1947 -The Listener-In Magazine
1947 - Balwyn WIldlife Sanctuary
1948 - Fishermen's Bend Aerodrome
1948 - Radio Australia QSL cards
1948 - Excursions
1949 - Australian Rules Football
1949 - Radio Monitoring at Auburn
1950 -Trains and Ships
1950 - Radios for Communications
1950 - Radio Listening Clubs in Australia
1950 - World Radio TV Handbook
1950 - Shortwave Radio Propagation Research
1950 - Medium Wave Radio Propagation Research
1950 - Radio and Hobbies Magazines
1950 - Discovering shortwave radio at Auburn
1951 - Photography
1951 - Competitions on local radio stations
1952 - Camp Buxton - YMCA Shoreham
1952 Tennis and Ten Pin Bowling
1953 - Stamp Collectiong
1953 Camberwell High School
1954 - Royal Visit to Melbourne
1954 - Shortwave Radio reception at Auburn
1956 - Melbourne's Olympic Games
1956 - Trainee Telecommunications' Technician
1957 - Trainee Technician - field work
1957 - National Service Registration
1958 - Laverton Air Show
1958 - MOOMBA Parade
1958 - Trainee Technician - field work
1959 - The move to Mont Albert
1960 - Working at Deepdene Telephone Exchange
1963 - Trade Unions, Staff Associations, Industrial Relations
1964 - Senior Technician work in the Melbourne CBD
1964 - Project support for Radio Australia
1964 - Project support for Radio Australia
1964 - Amateur Radio
1964 - Media Writing
1964 -Travels
1964 - Engineering Support for International Broadcasters
1965 - Professional Employment with PMG/Telstra
1967 - Professional Qualifications - Institution of Engineers Australia
1967 - Australian Radio DX Club Photo Gallery (to 1979)
1972 - Wireless Institute of Australia
1972 - Natural disasters in Melbourne
1980 - Australian Radio DX Club Gallery (to 1995)
1981 - Award of the Medal of the Order of Australia
1995 - Padula Books
EPILOGUE
LINKS TO AUTHOR'S PERSONAL WEBSITES
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEPENDENT BIOGRAPHIES
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Oldtime Australian Radio Drama from the 1930s
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Radio Monitoring Clubs in Australia - 1920 to 1949
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Melbourne Picture Theatres - History - 1906 to 1970

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This is Australia!

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1951 - Glenferrie Oval - Empire Day celebrations

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1961 - Premiers!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian Rules football club in the Australian Football League(AFL). The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernsey. The club's motto is "spectemur agendo", loosely translating to "let us be judged by our acts".

Its theme song is sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Statistically, Hawthorn is the most successful club in the modern era, having won a Premiership in each of the last five decades with a total of 10 Premierships in 50 years, including the 2008 Premiership and playing in seven consecutive AFL Grand Finals 1983 and 1989, a VFL/AFL record.

I first became interested in football in 1949, at Auburn Primary School. I liked the sport, and played in a school team in the position of "Rover". Our scratch games were held at the nearby Auburn Oval, in Victoria Rd.
 
In 1952, I began Form 3 at Camberwell High Shool, and continued on an intrahouse school team until the end of 1954.
 
During 1953 and 1954 I went to the training sessions of the Hawrthorn Football Club (VFL) at Glenferrie Oval, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and kicked a ball with the senior players.
 
Someone must have seen something in me, as i was invited to have a few games with the under-age Hawthorn Fifths, which competed in the Saturday morning junior league.

I found that I was far too lightly built to play in that League - I was barely eight stone at the time and was easily brushed away like a feather! 

So I didn''t pursue a playing career after that, preferring tennis instead.
 
In 1949, I used to walk down to the Glenferrie Oval and watch the Hawks play pre-season practice matches and their home games in the regular season.
 
In 1952, I was working after school at Landmann's chemist shop, across the road from our house in Auburn. One of the chemists was a sem-retired gentleman, who was a member of the Hawthorn FC Committee. He used to let me have a free ticket for each home game the Hawks played at Glenferrrie.
 
I left my chemist round in 1954.
 
Between 1950 and 1956 I attended nearly all of the Hawks' matches, but the games at Geelong were hard to get to!
 
Glenferrie Oval (still there!) is a long skinny ground with a maximum capacity of 35,000 spectators. I had a favourite seat in the main grandstand - sometimes I would stand at the eastern end behind the goals or in front of the stand..
 
In 1953 and 1955 I kept a scrapbook about all of our games, with the pages made of brown paper  stitched together. I cut out the stories from the Melbourne Argus newspaper and pasted them into my scrapbook - I still have that scrapbook!
 
The Hawks started out in 1902, and entered the VFA In 1914. In 1924, they entered the VFL as part of an expanded competition, when the number of teams was increased to 12, from the previous nine.
 
In the 1940s and early 1950s they quite often went through a season without winning a game. However, by the mid-1950s, successes started to happen, leading to our first premiership in 1961. Nine Premierships would follow until our most recent in 2008! 

We made the Finals for the first time in 1957 and finished third.
 
Between 1956 and 1971, the VFL conducted a midweek night-series competition, which was held at the Lake Oval, South Melbourne. The Hawks won the 1969 Grand Final!
 
I went to many of the night games in which we were playing - in the late 1950s I would take the train to Albert Park Station after leaving work, and visit my grandmother for tea. I would then walk down to the ground and watch the action!
 
In 1974, the Club left the cramped Glenferrie Oval in favour of sharing Prince's Park with the Carlton Club, just north of the city. This was not entirely satisfacfory, as our supporrt base was in the eastern suburbs. In 1992 we moved to the newly built Waverley Park (VFL Park) in Glen Waverley, where we played our home games until 1999, when the venue was closed down. We then transferred our home games to the MCG.
 
The original main grandstand survives at VFL Park, and we now use the facility as our main admiistration and training centre.
 
Glenferrie Oval is now maintained by Boroondara Council and is used for Family Days for the Hawks, sporting events by local schools, and as a multi-use training ground for nearby Swinburne University of Technology and other colleges. The goal posts are still there, but the eastern and southern "outer" spectator areas are now occupied by tall trees.
 
 
   

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1960 - Glenferrie Oval athletics meeting Swinburne

RECOLLECTIONS OF GLENFERRIE OVAL

The Peanuts Man!
At each game, a man would mingle with the crowd in the "outer" at the eastern end and sell peanuts. His well-known call was "Peanuts, peanuts, a shillin' a bag". The peanuts came in  brown paper bags, and emerged from a very large hession bag he carried on his back! 

Footballs lost in trains!
The railway line to Ferntree Gully is immediately adjacent to the outer side of the ground. As the ground was narrow, balls were frequently kicked on to the tracks. Passing trains would slow down to allow passengers a look at proceedings!
 
I recall one occasion when a wayward ball was kicked into the open door of the old sliding-door carriage of a passing train, never to be seen again!

The Kew Railway Line
This line passed very close to the western end of the ground, linking Hawthorn and Kew statiions. There would be several trains during the afternoons on match days. Kew railway station was the terminus, opened on 19 December 1887. The line ceased operations in August 1952, but the line and station were officially closed on 13 May 1957 and subsequently demolished. The headquarters of VicRoads now stands on the site
The Property Room
This was under the main stand, and on training nights, a couple of us used to borrow footies to kick around with the senior players. We were well known by the Property Steward, who made sure that the footies were returned!

The Bell
In the 1940s/1950s, the start and end of esch quarter would be done by the ringing of a large bell, located just outside of the timekeeper's little cubicle at the top of the main stand. In later years, this was replaced with a siren.

Hawthorn City Pipe Band
World famous, the band attended each home game. The players would run out between a guard of honour at the beginning of the game and after half time. At half time, the band would march around the oval, along the railway side, and play stirring songs!
 
Curtain Raisers
In the 1940s, curtainraisers were the matches played between the Thirds teams. These usually started at noon - the main game started at 2,10 pm. In the1950s, the curtainraisers were matches between the Seconds (Reserves) and the Thirds played at the "away" venue. In recent years, with the advent of the AFL and the disbandment of the former "Reserves", curtainraisers have been extremely few.I recall watching curtain raisers at Glenferrie in 1948 of baseball games!
 
The old open wooden stand next to the railway
This ran along the southern "outer" and consisted of a series of large wooden terraced platforms, with white-painted leaning rails. I recall an occasion in 1949 when I had become somewhat angry at the umpiring, and on that day I was watching the game from this wooden structure. I accidently kicked a gentleman standing in friont of me - he became very angry and said "Unless you stop kicking me I'll throw you over the fence"....!  
 
 
 
 

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1931 - Hawthorn City Pipe Band at Glenferrie Oval

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1910 - Glenferrie Station

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2011 - main grandstand

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May 11 1957 - we beat Melbourne!

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May 11 1957 - the Melbourne game!

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1957 - Hawthorn CIty Pipe Band leads team on to field

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May 11 1957 - the Melbourne game!

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May 11 1957 - after our win!

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