Did you know that two of our alumni from Brigidine Primary and Secondary School, and St Joseph’s College, Subiaco, used to live in a flat which was in the WA National Football League grandstand at Subiaco Oval?
Bill Hoyne, father of Gale O’Brien (Hoyne 1956) and Michael Hoyne (1961), was the bar manager for the WANFL from 1945 to 1967, and the Hoyne family lived there the entire time, moving in when Michael was two and Gale was six. The two walked the short distance to Brigidine Primary School on the corner of McCourt Street; then walking further west along Salvado Road in time, as each got older, to attend Brigidine Secondary School and St Joseph's (Marist) College.
Though the grandstand, and the amazing flat, is long gone, their memories of living there will never fade. Recently Michael described it for us:
“You came in the front door [on Subiaco Road] and walked upstairs to go to the grandstand. There was a door on the first floor, then four or five steps and there was a lounge and three bedrooms, a kitchen, toilet, and bathroom. Out the back [at the side of the grandstand] there were some wooden steps that went down to the turnstyle and you looked out over Subi Oval.”
What an idyllic family home!
Their mother, Rona, who catered for the senior staff of the WANFL, often got up early in a race with their neighbour, Charlie Tranter, to pick the dinner-plate-sized mushrooms which sprang up; sheep sometimes grazed there; Shirley Strickland often trained there; and they had all the football they could possibly have wanted to watch. The Queen Mother even visited, walking right past them!
For a really fascinating glimpse into the Hoyne’s home at Subi Oval, see here. Video well worth watching!
https://thewest.com.au/.../childhood-memories-of-subiaco...
Courtesy The West Australian; Michael Hoyne (1961) and Gale O'Brien (Hoyne 1956).
