Photo 1 of 100 - 1935 The Fibro at Terrigal

The Fibro - taken from the Scenic Highway, Terrigal 1935

The Fibro

This photo was taken in 1935, probably by Frederick Rhoades (Grandfather of Gerald, Ted, Brian and Jill) as he was probably the only person to have a camera in those days.

Taken from the road that is known today as the Scenic Highway, a busy road that runs along the cliffs around the back of Terrigal leading up to the Skilllon.

This is the original tiny house before the extensions were built on. The family had moved from Oakwood near Inverell in 1934 after a catastrophic 5 year stint on an allocated soldier settlement-farming block of 320 acres.  After a fire burnt the wheat crop, Edison sold the farm and moved his flat-broke family (wife, Jessie Doreen and the 3 boys, Gerald, Ted and Brian) to this little shack. Known as "The Fibro", the house had been borrowed from Grandfather Freddy who later gave the house to Granny Rhoades (not his son and in her name only).

According to my father, Ted, "it was an old, battered, fibre-ciment holiday house with a water supply from two 1000-gallon tanks". Extensions were added on when the fourth child, Jill, arrived in 1936. The house remained rather rudimentary until the day it was sold.

For all those years Granny Rhoades (Jessie Doreen) lived in this house until she became too ill and old to live on her own. In the 1970's she moved into a retirement village, Wesley Gardens, in Belrose, Sydney where she died in 1982.

During this time the house was lived in by Alan Rhoades, my cousin and son of Gerald and Dot, for a while and was eventually sold when Granny Rhoades passed away.

Today, with the improvement of the highway and the cost of real-estate in Sydney, Terrigal has become very populated and expensive. The Scenic Highway is a now a road with million dollar mansions. This house was torn down in order to construct a massive modern home. (I stand corrected - see Alan's comments below).

Linda Blochet (nee Rhoades) 1 December 2014

This was the little house we all lived in....I'm not sure when it was built, but I'm sure Ted would know! 

I think the family moved from the farm out of Inverell just before I was born - in 1936! I think shortly after that it was added to....a verandah, another bedroom and a bathroom, also 3 big tanks, our only water supply, an outdoor "loo" down the hill a bit, and near by a bar where my father and the three boys (and sometimes me!) would hang like monkeys....the boys performed all sorts of tricks on that bar! Ted would be able to describe them better! 

Just beside the house was a big copper where my mother boiled up the clothes! I remember how she had to stoke up the fire...the wind whistling round our ears, and then the clothes were hung on the line....a rope between two poles. Later, my father built a chook house, so we had fresh eggs, and a smoke house where he smoked fish that he caught - absolutely delicious!  I think we had a very happy life, although there was certainly a lack of money. We seemed not to need much though, my mother made sure we were all well fed and looked after. She sewed a lot ... For me anyway!

Jillian Greeves (nee Rhoades) 20 November 2014

What a great photo!

I have a lot of happy memories from the time I spent at the "Fibro" beginning when we were growing up and having regular summer holidays with the family right through to the time that I had permanently moved to the Central Coast and lived in the home from 1979 to 1985.

I loved our holidays and catching up with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins and Granny while we were there. I remember Jill teaching me to swim and taking me in the surf for the first time and I vividly remember having to manually pump the water from the tanks to be able to shower etc. The structure of the house remained basically the same throughout the time that I knew it and I am pleased to inform you, Linda, that the house was not torn down to be replaced by a new home. The new owners had renovated the old house and added rooms, a second story and garage etc. but the "fibro" is still the heart of it. It remains one of my biggest regrets that i did not buy it when I had the chance.

Alan Rhoades (son of Gerald and Dorothy Rhoades) 26 November, 2014