Australia’s first meals on wheels service celebrated its 50th birthday on 24 June at the South Melbourne Senior Citizens’ Centre. The first meals were delivered to older citizens in the former South Melbourne Council on a tricycle painted in the South Melbourne Council colours of red and white.
Photographs of Mrs E Watts riding the tricycle to deliver a meal to 82 year old Catherine Meehan, of Dorcas Street, appeared in a Melbourne newspaper when the service was officially launched. The three course meal cost Mrs Meehan 1/3d (13 cents).
City of Port Phillip Mayor, Liz Johnstone, said the former South Melbourne Council and local volunteers who established the service were way ahead of their time. South Melbourne was the first Victorian Council to employ a social worker, in 1947, and the needs of older citizens were raised by a remarkable band of women who formed the Home Help Auxiliary. The Auxiliary provided emergency housekeeping for sick or frail aged residents on an hourly basis.
“This was the springboard for the meals on wheels service in South Melbourne, which became the model for Local Government throughout Australia,” Liz Johnstone said.
In 1947, Council and the South Melbourne Community Chest (which is still operating) purchased two military huts from an army camp near Albury and transported them to Ferrars Street, South Melbourne, to establish a Senior Citizens’ Club. For the next 12 years, Mary Kehoe ran the canteen, which charged a shilling (10 cents) per meal for frail and older people. In 1981 she was awarded the British Empire Medal for ‘outstanding service in many charitable fields and, in particular, to the older residents of South Melbourne’.
By March 1950, a cook and 60 volunteers were serving meals to about 50 people, with the Community Chest donating £500 a year to the service. Kath Kehoe, one of Mary’s six children, recalls that many of the older people were World War One or Boer War veterans who lived in rooming houses and spent their days on park benches.
“Meals were delivered on a pushbike or in a baby pram to people who were too sick or frail to come into the canteen.”
In January 1952, the Canteen Auxiliary sent a letter to the Town Clerk of the South Melbourne Council proposing a formal meals on wheels service.
The Auxiliary advertised for ‘a fit gentlemen pensioner’ to ride the tricycle but nobody applied so a young woman, Mrs E Watts, took on the job. In 1954, the Red Cross agreed to supply a car for volunteers to deliver the meals.
Frances Donovan, who was the South Melbourne Council social worker for five years from 1954, said the service provided much more than meals.
“It was a vital community link. For some older people, the only person they saw was the one delivering their meals,” she said.
From May 1971, meals were purchased from the Southern Memorial Hospital and transported to the Club, where they were served for delivery. From 1970 to 2000, a group of young women known as the ‘Middle Park Mums’ helped deliver the meals.
Muriel Arnott, a young mother and physiotherapist, organised the group. “The Middle Park Mums just didn’t deliver meals – they brightened the lives of hundreds of lonely people, especially with their special Christmas Day and Easter Sunday deliveries.”
In 1998, the City of Port Phillip introduced an á la carte service – offering soup of the day, and a choice of three main courses and two desserts.
Liz Johnstone said Council had decided to review the meal service, looking at vegetarian options, salads, and low fat, low salt food, and food cooked according to ethnic or cultural traditions. Council delivers about 240 meals a day for $4.20 each (the unit cost to Council is $9.24). Last financial year, Council delivered 110,826 meals to homes and 8,085 to community centres. The service is contracted out to Kingston Catering and costs Council $1.24 million a year.
