Born and bred in Narooma, Bill Dudley wants people to know how much Ted Street, founder of Streets Ice Cream, did for the town.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Mr Dudley's father was the town's policeman and whenever people ran over wildlife with joeys they would take the joey to the police station.
"So we ended up with a baby kangaroo, Joey," Mr Dudley said.
Joey regularly dined on the fine plants in the Street's garden.
READ ALSO:
"Everything in the Street's place was five-star and when Joey was finished eating he would wipe his paws on the Egyptian cotton sheets on the clothes line."
Each time, the furious Streets would ring the police station and 12-year old Mr Dudley would be sent to collect Joey.
That was how he first met Ted and Daisy Street, in the late 1960s.
From mowing lawns to chauffeur
By the early 1970s Mr Dudley was quite the entrepreneur, pushing a lawnmower around town to mow more than 20 lawns, including the Street's.
"I wore out the lawnmower's wheels before the blades wore out.
"The average that people gave me for mowing their lawn was $4 or $5 but Ted gave me $25.
"I couldn't believe it. You felt like watering the lawn at night to make it grow quicker," Mr Dudley said.
By the age of 17 Mr Dudley had earned enough to buy his first car - a Datsun 180B 555 - in cash.
"It was pretty flash - a 2-door coupe - and I started driving Ted around in my car."
That included occasional trips to Streets Ice Cream's head office and to the Illawarra Retirement Trust's Diment Towers in Wollongong.
No better place in the world
The Illawarra Retirement Trust started developing retirement homes in 1969.
In 1975, its first one on the NSW South Coast was built in Narooma, where Horizon Holiday Apartments is today.
"Ted paid for the land and put money towards the construction and insisted it was named after his wife so it was called Daisy Street Lodge," Mr Dudley said.
Ted had already built Narooma's ambulance station and the skating rink, now the Leisure Centre.
Money raised from the skate hire funded the ambulance service.
Ted was a multi-millionaire and well travelled and he said don't ever let anyone tell you there is a better place in the world than Narooma.
- Bill Dudley, Ted Street's young mower of lawns and driver
He also built Narooma's Olympic-sized swimming pool, plus ones in Batemans Bays and Moruya, among others.
"At the opening he threw handfuls of two bob coins for the kids to dive in for."
He bought a new car and sold 100 tickets for $100 each to raise additional funds for the ambulance service.
"Ted never flew his own flag but he did these wonderful things," Mr Dudley said.
Ted died in 1975.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark our website
- Follow us on Facebook
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters
