Our History
Who’s Who
Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown
Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown, was the Honourable Medical Officer for the Baby Health Centre Association and Victoria’s first Director of Maternal, Infant and Pre-School Welfare (1926-46).
Stanley Melbourne Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, was the eighth prime minister of Australia.
Victoria Cascajo
Victoria Cascajo was born in Madrid and began her dressmaking career at fourteen in the fashion house of Balenciaga, the famous Spanish haute couturier.
Henry Cawkwell
Around 1860, Henry A. Cawkwell established a large tile and terracotta works close to the northwest corner of High Street and Tooronga Road, Malvern, where the clay was ideal for tile making.
William Chandler
William Chandler built one of the earliest brick houses in Malvern using the clay from his property to make the bricks. The wood used for the fires in the kilns was also cut on the property.
John Mark Davies
The Hon John Mark Davies MLC, built his new home, Valentines, on 25 acres (10 hectares) of land fronting Burke Road, Malvern East in 1891-92. The 40-roomed mansion was designed by architect Thomas Watts.
Annie Dorrington
Artist Annie Dorrington was born in England. After her father died in 1887 Annie and her mother and siblings migrated to Victoria.
Karl Duldig and Slawa Horowitz-Duldig
An internationally recognised sculptor, Karl Duldig and his artist-inventor wife, Slawa, arrived in Australia from Vienna in 1940.
Oliver Gilpin
Oliver Gilpin, born in 1874, is credited with creating the first major drapery chain store business in Australia. Gilpin opened his first drapery store in Korumburra in country Victoria in 1895.
Sir John Grey Gorton
On 10 January 1968, John Gorton became the 19th Prime Minister under unusual circumstances. He was elected Liberal Party leader after he defeated three other candidates for the Liberal leadership after Harold Holt’s disappearance on 17 December 1967.
John Heywood
John Heywood was born in England in 1829 and arrived in the colony in 1853. He followed agricultural pursuits for several years before he became involved in the hotel business, becoming the second licensee of the Wattle Tree Hotel, Malvern in 1861.
Henry Bournes Higgins
Judge Henry Bournes Higgins lived at his residence Doona, Glenferrie Road, Toorak, from 1884 until he died in 1929.
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt was Prime Minister of Australia from January 1966 to December 1967. He held the Federal seat of Fawkner from 1937 to 1946, and then switched to the seat of Higgins, which he held through eight general elections, from 1949 until 1966.
Agnes Betty Jeffrey
Betty Jeffrey was born in Hobart. She came to dislike her first name, preferring to be called Betty. Her father, an accountant at the General Post Office, was often transferred interstate to implement new accounting methods.
Anthony Edwin Bowes Kelly
Anthony Edwin Bowes Kelly, company director, migrated to New South Wales between 1854 and 1860. He worked as a jackeroo on Riverina sheep stations, a drover, and a station manager.
John Landy
John Landy was born in 1930 and in 1937 moved to Central Park Road, Malvern East, directly opposite Central Park.
Lowe Kong Meng
Lowe Kong Meng was a Chinese merchant with an interest in mining. He married Mary Ann Prussia in 1860 and had a large family of sons and daughters.
Alex McKinley
Malvern resident Alex McKinley was first elected to Malvern Council in 1885 and as MLA for Toorak in 1892. He was the proprietor of several Melbourne newspapers including Punch and “The Bulletin”.
Sir Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Menzies was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1939-1941 and then from 1949-1966.
Donald Munro
The Victorian Italianate villa, Northbrook, was built in 1888-89 to the design of architect Charles D’Ebro, who was also responsible for Stonington, Prahran City Hall and Prahran Market.
Hubert Opperman
The first Malvern Star bicycle was made in Glenferrie Road Malvern by champion cyclist Thomas Finnigan in 1903. In 1920 the business was sold to (Sir) Bruce Small.
Thomas W. Pockett
Thomas Pockett was born in 1857 in England. He started gardening at the age of 10 and did farming and market gardening work for his father, a market gardener.
Joan Richmond
Joan Margaret Richmond was an accomplished equestrian and an experienced car driver. In 1921 she twice drove from Melbourne to Camooweal, Western Australia, in a Citroen.
Sister Mary Tilton
Sister Mary Tilton worked in the public hospital in Launceston before volunteering for the Australian Army Nursing Service.
Keith Tough
One hard-working young man was 16-year-old Keith Tough. Three times a week he would rise at 5 am and drive to Queen Victoria Market with his father Joe.
Fred Williams
In the 1940s, Fred Williams, renowned Australian painter and print-maker, lived in Malvern Road just east of Glenferrie Road, above his family’s gift shop ‘Shipways’.
Ernest Willis
Cr Ernest Willis and his wife devoted their time to raising money for charity during World War I. The Patriotic and Red Cross Society was inaugurated under the presidency of Mrs Willis after the war broke out.