Matilda Margaret (Mittie)
Fitzgerald  (nee Lalor)

Lloyd was a cartage contractor and delivered parcels.  He used to collect them from the railway station and deliver them in a horse and cart. Then he got a job with the metropolitan waterworks and ended up the supervisor of the Maroondah Dam. He worked hard and Mittie remembers taking him cold tea to drink. 

Mary and Lloyd were both strong labour party supporters and Mary often hosted meetings in their lounge room.  Mary was a good cook and always managed desserts like baked custards.  She made sure all the kids did their jobs.  The worst job was scrubbing the table with sand soap.  

When Mittie was 4 or 5 Mary’s brother won money and he visited with a car.  He took them for a drive.  Mostly they walked or rode their bikes.  They played in the pine trees and there were horses in the paddocks. 

Sadly Mary died of Hodgkinson’s disease in Oct 1956 and Lloyd died of a heart attack in 1967. They are both buried at Healesville.

While Mittie was at school, she worked in a guesthouse as a waitress and when she left school, like Monnie, she got a job at Dowd’s making bras.  After that she worked in the Children’s Hospital and the Footscray Hospital in Melbourne.

During this time she met a handsome young John Fitzgerald (through her brother Pat) and they fell madly in love.  They were married on 23rd April 1955 at St Brigid’s Catholic Church Healesville. This photo shows (from left) Bob Matheson and Monica Cassidy with John & Mittie.

First John & Mittie lived in a flat in Roseanna, Melbourne.  John worked at Standard Cars. After Bryan was born, they moved in with Julia (John's mother) at Pascovale. Next they lived in Nana Oakley’s boarding house and John worked at the drive-in. Just before Robert was born, they moved into a 2 bedroom house in Broadmeadows.  Before long they had 5 strong healthy sons. So they built a house in Camberfield where they stayed from 1967 to 1969. They sold their house for $13,000, but found in Sydney a block of land was $11,000. In 1969 John was transferred to Sydney with Hoyts, so they all moved into John’s one bedroom flat at Collaroy.  Mittie settled Bryan and Robert in at Narrabeen Boy’s High and Mark, Alan and Buster in at North Narrabeen Primary School. They rented a house from Enid and Noel Dwyer in Sydney. In 1974 they bought their own home in Sydney for $52,000.  They borrowed $30,000 and paid it off in 7 years.  How did they do it?  By working 7 jobs all at once!  All of the family pitched in, but here are the jobs:
1. Snack bar at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club
2. Jolly Roger restaurant at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club. Mittie ran the food and John was the Bar Manager and the boys helped. When the restaurant came up, Mittie knew nothing of running a restaurant.  The first night there were 100’s of people and they ran out of food, but they learned quick.  John the chef, one of the barmen’s brothers, came in with them and that was the best thing ever as he was a great chef. (Later, he moved to Portugal where Mittie & John visited him.) The restaurant was booked out by Thursday night.  There was a band playing on Tuesdays,  Fridays and Saturdays. It was like a big happy family.
3. The Restaurant was only open for private functions on Mondays and Tuesdays which kept John & Mittie very busy.
4. They bought a milk truck and delivered the milk and the Manly Daily in the mornings from 4.30 to 5am (the boys did it before school). John also used the truck to deliver groceries.
5. John was the night manager at a petrol station.
6. Mittie worked in a pencil factory (I’m not sure when).
7. They had a mobile food van that they took to Oran Park and Curl Curl Beach selling ice creams and drinks. They also did 2 circus tours with the German circus.

In 1980 they gave all that up.  They needed sleep!  Mittie took on a nice quiet job in the kitchen at Mona Vale Hospital where she made many good friends.  John took on Secretary Manager’s job at the Manly 16 ft Skiff Club where he stayed for 20 years. The boys left school and got their own jobs.  Bryan, Alan and Robert started off in the Bank, Mark was a mechanic and Buster took on plumbing.

Aussie rules football was a family passion and they were instrumental in starting up the North Shore AFL club.  All 5 boys played and Mittie loved to go and watch the games.

Thanks to Girlfriend’s night, the boys all married lovely girls and Mittie and John have 12 grandchildren. Now John works with Mark at Castle Hill Toyota.  They still live in Sydney with 2 dogs and regular grandchildren. 

John Fitzgerald
John was born on 15th October 1932 in North Melbourne to Julia Sarah Rose Driscoll and Charles William Fitzgerald. His siblings are Julie, Charlie and Margaret.

John's father was a merchant seaman and he was away a lot.   During the war years his boat was torpedoed off the coast of Australia and he survived.   In his later years he was very sick with emphysema from the coal in the ships.  John was 17 when his father died. 

John left school at 13, he didn’t like it.  He made it to the 8th grade, but he didn’t sit for the certificate.  He worked in the Lincoln Mills for about 3 months, and then got trucking jobs with a removalist firm, then other trucking jobs…


In Qld he met Pat.  He went with Bob Matheson clearing soldier settlement blocks for cotton near the Dawson River. They were driving bulldozers.   Pat was building houses for the permanent staff.  At home, John and Bob went to Healesville to visit Pat. That’s where he met Mittie.  Bob met Betty then too.  That day in Healesville they went to a football game and then a dance at night.  He was back the next weekend.  Mittie was working in the children’s ward at the hospital in Footscray, near Pascovale.  They went out for about 8 or 9 months, then got engaged on Moomba Day (then called Henley on the Yarra). This was Feb, they were married at Easter…. True love!

(L to R) Robert, Alan, Bryan, David & Mark (L to R) Liz, Jean, Gill, Wendy & Leanne

15 October 2007—John Fitzgerald turns 75 years old

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