Penshurst-raised Russell Anderson reflects on former country football career

Born in Penshurst on July 11, 1938.

Wife: Veronica. Children: Clare, Brendan, Graham and Jan.

Parents: Ernie and Kath. Siblings: Doug, Valerie, Ronald, Lawrence and Graham.

Education: Penshurst State School before going to St Joseph's Primary School Penshurst.

Sporting highlight: Just love watching sports like racing, football and lawn bowls.

Russell, I note a few weeks ago you celebrated your 85th birthday. Was there any big celebrations to acknowledge the milestone?

It was pretty low key. There was a small family gathering which was pleasant. The other milestone Veronica and I have coming up is our 60th wedding anniversary which happens on April 18 in 2024.

I've been a very lucky person to have been married to such a wonderful person. Veronica has been the backbone in our family on so many occasions. Sadly, (daughter) Jan passed away in Africa as a result of a car accident in 1998 and Veronica was the glue that held our family together at such a tragic time.

How did it come about that you transferred schools in your primary education. Namely, Penshurst North State School to St Joseph's Primary School Penshurst?

My dad Ernie was a station-hand out on Blackwood which was a homestead about three kilometres out of the town. We were out there for about three years before we moved into Penshurst so I went to the catholic primary school.

It was when we moved into town that I started following footy. I'll never forget our neighbours were the Olle family. Tim Olle was one of the children in their family and he went down and played footy at St Kilda.

I took a keen interest in following St Kilda and he was one of my early footy heroes. Tim went on and played a handful of games with the Saints and I've followed St Kilda ever since.

Did you play footy when you were growing up in Penshurst?

Yes. I would have been 14 years old when I started playing in the under 18 side. I ended up being the vice-captain of the under 18 side after two years.

We used to play against sides from Dunkeld, Casterton and Coleraine in the old Western District Football League. I booted 37 goals in one season but I struggled when I started playing in the seniors. I just wasn't good enough much to my disappointment.

When I moved down to Warrnambool I had a few games with West End Football Club. They used to play up at the Warrnambool showgrounds. The ground used to be really rough. My brother Doug was the captain-coach.

My footy career came to an end when I did my left knee. I had to have a cartilage operation and I'll never forget I had to go up to the Hamilton Hospital and players back in that era never came back if they had an operation.

Can you remember much about your first job?

I started work in the parcel office at the Penshurst railway station for three years before moving to Warrnambool. I began work selling cars for E. A. Wright at 137 Kepler Street which then became Nu-Brent Ford.

I worked for them for seven years and then joined Mitchell Motors who were based on Raglan Parade. They used to be near where Beaurepaires were. I worked as the sales manager at Mitchell Motors for seven years.

I started to do work as a painter and decorator around Warrnambool and did that for about a year.

I would often go into Brebner Paint Shop at 216 Timor Street and then out of the blue one day I asked the owner Don Brebner if he was interested in selling (and) I would be interested in buying the business.

The business had been in the Brebner family for 70 years. Don gave me a call one day to say he was interested in selling and as they say the rest is history.

Veronica and I took over the business in 1976 and ran it for 26 years. Over those 26 years we sold a lot of paint and wallpaper.

I'll never forget we used to have a sale once a year and we often would sell 100 rolls of wallpaper at the sales compared to the 30 to 40 rolls of wallpaper we used to sell each week.

People used to love wallpaper in their houses and then out of the blue I saw water-based paint become the next big thing.

We ended up selling the business in 2002.

Russell, I take it growing up in Penshurst you would have gone to the local race meetings. The meetings used to attract big crowds, were you among them?

Yes. I fondly remember going to the Penshurst races as a youngster and I can still remember back in 1949 I went to the Port Fairy races which were staged at Southcombe Park in 1949.

They had four races and one of those was for amateur riders. There were four bookies and a good sized crowd.

Penshurst used to have four meetings a year back in the old day. Boxing Day and Easter were huge meetings not only for the race club but also for the town.

I only have a little gamble but I'm more interested in the horses and the people involved in the sport.

I'm a member of the Knights Of The Southern Cross. The group is an organisation of Catholic layman who assist local parishes and through that support they help various groups that may need financial assistance to help local vulnerable people.

I've worked closely with the Warrnambool branch of the Knights Of The Southern Cross for many years and in that role we've been able to raise funds for scholarships at Emmanuel College. One of the fundraisers which we used to organise was during Warrnambool's May Racing Carnival.

I'll never forget we had the late and great horse trainer Bart Cummings speak at one of our functions on the Tuesday night of May race week.

We had a huge crowd in attendance to listen to Bart speak and another year we had the late champion jockey Scobie Breasley. They were wonderful nights we used to have - great speakers and they all gave up their time for no financial change.

Another sport I've loved in the later years of my life is lawn bowls. I'm a member of the Warrnambool Lawn Bowls Club and love it.

It's a wonderful club and offers great facilities. I've been very fortunate to have played in four premiership sides with the club.

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