What’s In A Name delves into the fascinating stories and personalities behind some of the city’s best known street names. This week the Journal looks at Orish Road named after one of the Dandenong’s first industrial families.
WILLIAM Percival Ordish was one of Dandenong’s pioneering business identities.
When he died in 1930, the Frankston and Somerville Standard paid tribute to Mr Ordish and his entrepreneurial spirit.
“Mr Ordish, who lived at Dandenong, set out one day with a barrow and a shovel to prospect for clay. In what was then a large open paddock on Stud Road, he found that for which he sought, and the digging of that first barrow load of clay laid the foundation stone of what was destined to become a flourishing business.“
From humble beginnings in the early 1890s, the business flourished when Mr Ordish secured a contract to supply bricks to the Victorian Railways. It eventually became the best known fire-brick manufacturer in Victoria.
“Today it is one of the leading industries of Dandenong, and no traveller along Stud Road has passed without being impressed by the great line of kilns which have grown upon that spot where a young man delved for his first barrow load of clay.”
The Ordish Fire Brick Company became a family business, with William’s son Rowland and then grandson Joseph also among the Ordishes to work there.
Rowland had two sons Thomas and Joseph. Tragically, their mother died when the boys were very young and the siblings were separated, with Joe sent to live with family friends, the Fosters.
Joe attended Dandenong Primary School. He worked in the family business before volunteering for World War 1. He enlisted on 2 February 1916. He was 21 years old. He served on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
He was wounded in action at Amiens on 8 Aug 1918. He re-joined his unit on 3 November 1918, just weeks before the war ended.
Joe returned to Australia in June 1919. He married wife Florence in 1919 and set up home in McPherson Street. Joe died in 1961.
Journal columnist Jack Johnson remembers visiting Joe and Florence’s home as a boy in the 1930s.
“Their house in McPherson Street was on a corner and used to go there when we were little kids.
“They had a fabulous cactus garden and rockery that went around the whole front of house.
“They used to quite often put on open days raising money for the hospital. People would pay a penny to go in there.“
William Ordish sold his business in 1922 but the works continued production to about 1975.
Want to know the history behind a street name in Greater Dandenong. Let us know and we’ll find out! Email journal@starnewsgroup.com.au
