Photos 3, 4 and 5 of 100 - 1920's, 30's and 40's: Old Freddy

Frederick Rhoades (aged approx. 68), Isabelle (a friend of Doreen),
Jessie Doreen Rhoades (nee Whittet) and Edison Rankin Rhoades circa 1925

Old Freddy was a remarkable man. He firmly believed that he and his family were a superior breed, an attitude which was passed on to his three sons. He was the original male chauvinist despite being a very well-educated man. He wrote 2 books and had many of his short stories published during his lifetime. He was also an accomplished cartoonist and counted among his friends many of the leading artists and authors of the day including the brothers Norman and Lionel Lindsay.

The old man in his late sixties, acquired a mistress half his age.

Old Fred at Terrigal (note Skillon)
Date unknown.

In his eighties and nineties, with his great mop of white hair, bushy eyebrows, large moustache, deeply tanned hawk-like face and cultured English voice he was indeed an impressive figure. Even at the age of 81 he was an expert swimmer, boxer, fencer and a competitive rifle shooter. I can recall him at the age of 88 - tall, slim, suntanned and remarkably fit, his long white hair and handle-bar moustache streaming in the breeze as he sprinted along the beach at Terrigal with few in the family able to keep pace with him.

Ted Rhoades - son of Edison and Jessie Doreen pictured above (excerpts taken from his book "Taim Bolong Masta" 2012)


Freddie, after his wife died in 1932, employed a minder for Gordon. Winifred Cuthbert was half his age however they got together and it lasted until he died. "He was a virile old bugger". They used to come to Terrigal and stay in a little hut called "The Cabin" which was quite near "The Fibro". 

Ted Rhoades via Tara Copeland Rhoades on Facebook (1 December, 2014)

Raymond Edward (Ted), Freddy, Brian Ashton,
Gerald Frederick, Winnifred Cuthbert Gordon (son of Gordon Pegus)
Photo taken circa 1936 making Freddy 79.

"Winifred was very nice to us kids, she used to take us to the beach".

Story has it that Freddy was still chopping down trees when he was 91. He apparently taught Gerald to build radios when he was a kid and later got him his first job at Ludo's where he helped research the leather products and alternatives to replace the tannery at Lane Cove.

Dorothy and Gerald Rhoades via Jocelyn Bates on Facebook (1 December 2014)

Photo 1 of 100 - 1935 The Fibro at Terrigal

The Fibro - taken from the Scenic Highway, Terrigal 1935

The Fibro

This photo was taken in 1935, probably by Frederick Rhoades (Grandfather of Gerald, Ted, Brian and Jill) as he was probably the only person to have a camera in those days.

Taken from the road that is known today as the Scenic Highway, a busy road that runs along the cliffs around the back of Terrigal leading up to the Skilllon.

This is the original tiny house before the extensions were built on. The family had moved from Oakwood near Inverell in 1934 after a catastrophic 5 year stint on an allocated soldier settlement-farming block of 320 acres.  After a fire burnt the wheat crop, Edison sold the farm and moved his flat-broke family (wife, Jessie Doreen and the 3 boys, Gerald, Ted and Brian) to this little shack. Known as "The Fibro", the house had been borrowed from Grandfather Freddy who later gave the house to Granny Rhoades (not his son and in her name only).

According to my father, Ted, "it was an old, battered, fibre-ciment holiday house with a water supply from two 1000-gallon tanks". Extensions were added on when the fourth child, Jill, arrived in 1936. The house remained rather rudimentary until the day it was sold.

For all those years Granny Rhoades (Jessie Doreen) lived in this house until she became too ill and old to live on her own. In the 1970's she moved into a retirement village, Wesley Gardens, in Belrose, Sydney where she died in 1982.

During this time the house was lived in by Alan Rhoades, my cousin and son of Gerald and Dot, for a while and was eventually sold when Granny Rhoades passed away.

Today, with the improvement of the highway and the cost of real-estate in Sydney, Terrigal has become very populated and expensive. The Scenic Highway is a now a road with million dollar mansions. This house was torn down in order to construct a massive modern home. (I stand corrected - see Alan's comments below).

Linda Blochet (nee Rhoades) 1 December 2014

This was the little house we all lived in....I'm not sure when it was built, but I'm sure Ted would know! 

I think the family moved from the farm out of Inverell just before I was born - in 1936! I think shortly after that it was added to....a verandah, another bedroom and a bathroom, also 3 big tanks, our only water supply, an outdoor "loo" down the hill a bit, and near by a bar where my father and the three boys (and sometimes me!) would hang like monkeys....the boys performed all sorts of tricks on that bar! Ted would be able to describe them better! 

Just beside the house was a big copper where my mother boiled up the clothes! I remember how she had to stoke up the fire...the wind whistling round our ears, and then the clothes were hung on the line....a rope between two poles. Later, my father built a chook house, so we had fresh eggs, and a smoke house where he smoked fish that he caught - absolutely delicious!  I think we had a very happy life, although there was certainly a lack of money. We seemed not to need much though, my mother made sure we were all well fed and looked after. She sewed a lot ... For me anyway!

Jillian Greeves (nee Rhoades) 20 November 2014

What a great photo!

I have a lot of happy memories from the time I spent at the "Fibro" beginning when we were growing up and having regular summer holidays with the family right through to the time that I had permanently moved to the Central Coast and lived in the home from 1979 to 1985.

I loved our holidays and catching up with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins and Granny while we were there. I remember Jill teaching me to swim and taking me in the surf for the first time and I vividly remember having to manually pump the water from the tanks to be able to shower etc. The structure of the house remained basically the same throughout the time that I knew it and I am pleased to inform you, Linda, that the house was not torn down to be replaced by a new home. The new owners had renovated the old house and added rooms, a second story and garage etc. but the "fibro" is still the heart of it. It remains one of my biggest regrets that i did not buy it when I had the chance.

Alan Rhoades (son of Gerald and Dorothy Rhoades) 26 November, 2014