Frankston, Melbourne: Bounty Shop, Graham Kennedy, Whistle Stop
Your first shirt and tie came from the Bounty Shop, you had a part-time Myer job and weekends were spent playing the pinnies and cheering the Bears – yeah, you’re a native Frankston Generation X’er. But let’s make sure …
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From stealing a kiss at the drive-in to risking your neck on your trail bike at the old tip, growing up in Frankston was truly unique.
The beachside hub at the end of the line was a magnet for suburban tribes in the 70s and 80s ranging from the tough Sharpies to the laid back surfers.
Pinball parlours, foreshore carnivals and Frankston’s very own team in the National Basketball League gave locals plenty of reason to hang out in town.
Is this the Frankston you remember?
YOU’VE BEEN HELD UP AT RAILWAY GATES
Frankston actually stole a march on the current program of level crossing removals when the much-hated railway gates were removed in the mid-1980s. There was nothing worse than sitting in a huge backlog of traffic on Beach St on a hot day while the car’s temperature gauge crept toward the red as trains limped in and out of Frankston station. The new layout meant the end of Beach St as a thoroughfare with traffic redirected over a new Fletcher Rd overpass connecting to the Nepean Highway.
YOU’VE TRIED TO SPOT GRAHAM KENNEDY AT HIS HOUSE ON THE HILL
A trip down Oliver’s Hill in the 1970s was not complete without some know-it-all pointing out Graham Kennedy’s house on the hill. Australia’s King of TV regularly broadcasted from this home, and famously once live-reported his neighbour’s driveway disappearing in a landslide! Known as Chamfer House, the home went through an award-winning renovation in the 2010s and can still be spotted sitting precariously atop the cliff.
YOU BOUGHT YOUR FIRST SHIRT AND TIE AT THE BOUNTY SHOP
Speaking of Kennedy, a credit for Frankston’s Bounty Shop would appear after many of his TV appearances. Established in 1957, Alan and Dulcie Richards watched generations of young Frankston-ians flow through the doors of their iconic menswear business – whether to be sized up for a school uniform or for a shirt and tie prior to that first job interview. Alan passed away in 2003 while Dulcie, renowned for her charity work, passed in 2015.
YOUR FIRST JOB WAS AT MYER FRANKSTON
The opening of Myer was, along with the Dolphins’ VFA second division premiership triumph in 1978, arguably the highlight of the 1970s. The three-storey concrete edifice, which opened in 1972, included more than 50 specialty shops. Myer was a great source of local employment with many gaining their first taste of paid work for the retail giant. The complex was also home to radio station 3MP (the first to launch in Melbourne for more than 40 years), which first broadcast from Frankston in 1976.
YOU DROPPED COUNTLESS 20¢ ON THE PINNIES
Today’s consol-addicted teens would drop to their knees in devastation at the thought of having to leave the house for a fix of their favourite video game. For Frankston teens of the 1970s and 1980s, that meant a bike ride to one of a handful of juvenile “dens of ill-repute”. There was pinball galore at Electric Circus (near the corner of Playne and Young streets), Countdown and the AC (favoured by older kids and the occasional Sharpie), both located on the Nepean Highway.
YOU FOUND A BARGAIN AT THE SUNDAY MARKET
It’s hard to imagine now, but the space occupied by the Bayside Shopping Centre was once the Balmoral car park. This was no normal expanse of asphalt. Netball took over the bitumen on Saturdays, then it was the turn of the massive Dolphins Sunday Market. Cars would start queuing in the early hours to get a prized spot for the trash and treasure feast to go with the traditional doughnuts with jam hot enough to melt said-car park!
YOU HIT THE LOCAL TRAILS
It was the era of BMX and trail bikes, and it wasn’t hard to find like-minded souls in the 1970s and 1980s. BMX jumps were everywhere (with a particularly sweet set near Jubilee Park) while the venue of choice for the trail bikes was around the old Frankston Tip in an area affectionately known as the Shit Farm. Few conquered ‘The Cliff’ and the sand dunes mostly made for soft landings but more than a few brave souls finished their day in casualty at Frankston Hospital.
YOU’VE RIDDEN THE CHAIRLIFT AT WHISTLE STOP
It wasn’t quite Disneyland, well, it wasn’t quite Luna Park either. But it was our own fun park. Few of today’s Frankston residents will have even heard of the Whistle Stop Amusement Park, which only ran from 1966 until 1974. It featured a modest offering of rides – go karts, a merry-go-round, chairlift, steam train and pedal boats. For the next generation, finding remnants of the park offered long afternoons of entertainment until housing swallowed the area north of Skye Rd.
YOU HID IN THE BOOT
Until the opening of the Frankston cinemas in 1976 (featuring that slightly kitsch glowing ceiling that changed colours), local moviegoers either faced a long haul to the city to catch the latest blockbusters or a cosy night at the Frankston Drive-In on Skye Rd. Originally known as the Starlite Drive-in, it ran from 1956 until 1988, with the twins screens arriving in 1984. What made this drive-in special is that it also featured in a movie – 1973’s very colourful Alvin Purple.
YOU SPENT HOT SUMMER NIGHTS AT THE CARNIVAL
Before the redevelopment of the Frankston foreshore, the spot to be for the P-plate brigade was the Pier car park. Nightly burnouts were almost assured and once you’d had your fill of tyre smoke, the adjacent carnival and it’s ensemble of shady carney folk awaited. Many a souvlaki was regurgitated after riding the fearsome Octopus, Cha-Cha or Tilt-A-Whirl. Daredevils also tried their luck jumping from the box that sat at the end of the pier.
YOU CAUGHT THE HOVERCRAFT TO THE CITY
Speaking of the pier, beachgoers were greeted to a bizarre sight in the late 1980s when a short-lived hovercraft service operated between Frankston and the city. Passengers were deposited directly onto the beach on a concrete pad located between the pier and the mouth of Kananook Creek. A great idea in theory, the service suffered greatly due to the changeable weather conditions on the bay before a series of faults, including an on-board fire, permanently beached the craft in 1987.
YOU CHEERED BURDEN AND THE BEARS
Organised basketball arrived in Frankston around 1960, with the hometown Bears hitting the big-time in 1983-84 when they joined the National Basketball League. Coached by Tony Gaze, Bears’ home games were the hottest ticket in town while local fans couldn’t get enough of Wayne Burden, the star US guard. The Bears won 16 of their 46 NBL contests over two seasons before the club bowed out of the national competition due to the high costs involved.