Lester Moves to the Big Smoke

Lester on board the boat to Tasmania

Lester's grandfather, Robert Canet, who jumped ship in Melbourne when he was 17. He vanished for 15 years and is believed to have been at the gold diggings.

Lester out walking with Diana and Merl

Lester and Tom during a holiday to WA. Lester went out of his way to avoid being photographed, particularly after his leg was amputated.

Lester After WW2

About the Diaries

Lester in Tallygaroopna

Lester in Shepparton

In the House of Women

Lester had planned to move to Melbourne with a place to live and a job to go to, instead he was jobless and living in a house full of women. Elizabeth Anne Canet (nee Montgomery), his 86 year old grandmother, suffered from dementia, and was cared for by her middle aged daughters Jessie Canet, Pauline Isabelle Canet (known as Belle), and Honorine Gardiner (known as Renee). Renee’s daughter, Pauline, also lived at the house at 53 Burnell Street, West Brunswick.

Once more Lester was without a room of his own and slept each night on a couch in the loungeroom which had to be folded up every morning. He could only go to sleep when the last person had gone to bed and he was frequently woken during the night when his grandmother wandered. The family was vegetarian, which Lester appreciated greatly as salads were his favourite meal.

More than two months passed before Lester received a job interview. This must have been a frightening time for him and he referred to his disability as a further hindrance. On January 14 he had an interview which involved much tramping around Melbourne streets but this came to nothing. Three days later he was interviewed by members of the Audit Office and began work three days later with the Public Service, Meat Control Accounts Section. Lester worked in Reliance House, Little Collins Street with a Mr Kerr as his immediate superior. Return to Top

Lester photographed in 1944 in the early days at 4 Flowers Street, South Caulfield.

A Place to Live

A week later Merl, who was working as a conductress on the trams while her husband Tom was overseas as a ground crew member of the RAAF, told Lester she knew of a room not far from her own lodgings in Caulfield. Lester moved into 10 Kambrook Road, North Caulfield, with Mrs Agnes Niddrie and her daughter, Leslie. A son, Ian, a year younger than Lester, had enlisted in the army on 3 October 1941 and occasionally came home.

The Kambrook Road residence was not far from the house where Merl boarded and Lester became a regular visitor there. The house, at 9 Chloris Crescent, South Caulfield, was owned by a Mrs Russell. It was around the corner from the South Caulfield tram terminus where Merl worked and where Tom, after being demobbed, was to spend his entire working life.

Within a couple of months Lester was working in Food Control, which had great powers during those war years, and was based at 339 Little Collins Street in the heart of Melbourne.

At Easter he went home to Tally to stay with his parents and his Easter trips continued until his death. After the death of his parents he stayed with his sister Daisy and her sons at the small township of Wunghnu, next stop up line from Tallgaroopna. Trips ‘back home’ were also a feature each xmas. Return to Top

During the year Lester saw Ulva on several occasions and when Ulva chose an engagement ring for Cynthia it fell to Lester to organise the payment and the resizing, communicating with Cynthia and Ulva as required. Ulva, now a Flying Officer with the RAAF No 75 Squadron, was based at Milne Bay in New Guinea flying kitty hawks.

Death

On January 5 an uncle, Charlie Canet, visited Lester at Kambrook Road to break the news that Ulva, who had taken part in a dawn raid over the Celebes [Borneo] was missing in action. At Lily’s request, Merl wrote to Cynthia and later it fell to Lester to receive Ulva’s effects. He meticulously noted the items in a diary entry.

In August Merl and Tom moved to 4 Flowers Street, South Caulfield and Lester began twice weekly visits there which continued until Tom’s death in 1989. For a time Valerie also lived at Flowers Street.

If you would like to read Lester's diaries for this period from December 8 1943 to September 18 1945 then please click here To continue on to the next section, which covers some of Lester's life after the war, please click here Return to Top