THREE MARGARETS
Updated: Oct 28, 2023
In his post:
MARGARET O'DOHERTY (1924 - 1995)
HERBERT FARNEY (1918 - 2009)
KAZIMIERZ LAGOWSKI (1921 - 1977)
DENIS FARNEY (1946 - 2023)
Margaret to date, is the longest running resident at Corio Bay Villa, having lived there for twenty years from 1946 to 1967, first as Mrs Farney, and then as Mrs Lagowski.
One reason for starting this page was to research the women who lived at Corio Bay Villa, as women often get overlooked and under-seen. As women historically changed their name upon marriage, they are particularly difficult to find, and Margaret was no exception. There was little publicly available information on Margaret's life and most of what is known is via documentation of the men in her life, being first her father and then her two husbands. Margaret married twice, after being abandoned by her first husband.
Interestingly Margaret was not the first woman to live at Corio Bay Villa who had been deserted by her first husband. Sadly there was not one, but two women who preceded Margaret. They were Olive McCullough and Emily Henry.
MARGARET O'DOHERTY (1924 - 1995)
No records of Margaret O'Doherty birth or death could be found, however, she was born around 1924 to Claude Vincent O'Doherty (1896-1979) and Mabel Jane Forbes (1900-1943) in Mortlake, Victoria. She was one of four children and together they lived on a farm in regional Victoria. At the age of 17 she fell in love with a roustabout named Herbert Farney. She didn't know it then, but Herbert was evading his military service whilst doing odd farm work in southwest Victoria. Once Margaret discovered she was pregnant, her father encouraged her to travel to Herbert's home town of Perth where the couple were to marry.[1]
By 1942, when she was just 18 years old, Margaret had given birth to their first child in Perth; a son named Evan. A few years later, after the birth of two daughters (Claire and Derith), Margaret and Herbert were officially married. The couple then moved back to Victoria, presumably to be closer to Margaret's family. Looking at the marriage certificate it strikes me that both of them had lost their mothers before they were married.
Image: Margaret & Herbert's marriage certificate, 1945.
Source: Western Australia Births Deaths Marriages.
With the help of Margaret's father, the couple bought Corio Bay Villa in 1946.[2] By this time they had had another son called Denis. At the time they moved in, the area around Corio Bay Villa was still mostly unpopulated. The house was one of the only houses in the street which stood on a dirt road.
Less than a year after they moved into Corio Bay Villa Herbert, did a runner, leaving Margaret alone, as the single mother of four young children aged four and under. Margaret's youngest child, Denis, was just six months old. Margaret, fortunately, was close to her father, from whom she received some financial support.
Margaret was known to her neighbours as Peggy or Peg. A neighbour called Rhonda, who was a child at the time, lived one street behind Corio Bay Villa and recalls playing with the oldest daughter Claire occasionally. She recalled entering the house from the back door up some steps and seeing that the "wide dinning room had a long wooden table in the centre of it and ...the kitchen was off to one side." This was the lean-to structure that was added to the rear of the house in the 1920s in which stood the kitchen and was connected to the main house via a doorway and another step.
Rhonda also recalls of that time swinging on the swings in Wattle Park and the Farney children playing in the street.
It's hard to know what state the property was in at this time. Prior to the Farneys, the house had remained in the family of the original owners since 1890, but had been leased to many tenants over the years, and had been unoccupied for short periods. Without a husband Margaret was not flush with cash and we may assume that property was not overly cared for. Certainly by the time Margaret sold the home in 1967 it was quite run down.
Interestingly around this time, documents show Margaret living at a different address: an address that does not exist. There are no other tenants listed at Corio Bay Villa during this time. There may have been some confusion over the street numbers which had only recently been allocated. By the time Margaret remarried in 1957, she was listed as living at the current street address for Corio Bay Villa.
After Herbert's departure, Margaret found love again with a Polish immigrant named Kazimierz Lagowski (aka Ken), who had arrived in Melbourne in 1950. How they met is unclear, but Margaret's son, Denis, believes they may have met through a neighbour or friend. They married in 1957 at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (shown below) which had been recently established less than 500 metres from Corio Bay Villa.
Considering Margaret had been married before, it is surprising that Father John Kelly allowed them to marry in a Catholic Church. The marriage certificate (shown below) shows Margaret as being divorced in 1956, which was not something the church condones. It also shows that Margaret and Ken were already living together, as they listed the same street address for Corio Bay Villa, which has been blacked out for the purposes of this blog.
Left image: Corio Bay Villa land titles 1889-1967, sourced from Landata, https://www.landata.vic.gov.au/
Centre image: Margaret & Kazimierz's marriage certificate, 1957, sourced from Births Deaths Marriages Victoria, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/.
Right image: Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, circa 1954-1964, Source: Victorian Collection, accessed 1 May 2022, https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5b27339921ea690720f7ee74
Margaret's youngest child, Denis, recalls witnessing many changes in the area over the twenty years that he lived at Corio Bay Villa. A few years after moving in, the street was dug up and pipes laid to provide sewage to the area.[1] There was a flurry of residential building during the 1950s to 1960s. In 1960 the potholed dirt road was finally covered in bitumen. Denis also recalls the large vegetable garden in the backyard that Ken maintained with precision, scolding the children if they failed to pull out even the tiniest weed.
Where Ken was strict and short tempered, Margaret was relaxed and warm. Denis describes his mother as a stylish woman who did a lot on a small budget. Her only downfall may have been her choice in men.
Image of Margaret abt 1950, provided by her son Denis.
In 1964, aged around 40, Margaret finally obtained full ownership of Corio Bay Villa as Mrs Lagowski.[2] By 1967, her three older children had moved out, so Margaret decided to sell Corio Bay Villa and downsize to a nearby unit where she lived with Ken. Ken and Margaret lived together until the 1980s, after which they parted ways. Margaret lived in Hawthorn until her death in 1995, while Ken lived in Elwood.
Image of Margaret abt 1982, provided by her son Denis.
Margaret's four children grew into adulthood and most started their own families. Her son, and two da have since passed away. Margaret's youngest child Denis is now a grandfather himself and resides in Ballarat with his wife. You can read more about Denis's life and artistic career below.
HERBERT FARNEY (1918 - 2009)
There is a lot of public information available on Herbert Farney. He was born in 1918 to immigrant parents Joseph Farney & Millicent Huntley, who had seven children in Leederville, Western Australia. Herbert was known affectionately as Bertie as a child, and later went by Bert. Bertie enjoyed reading the local paper, as he and his sister Sylvia wrote multiple letters to Perth's Daily News. In February 1928, Bertie was awarded the best children's letter-writing prize when he was not even 10 years old. Later that same year his mother passed away, aged 37 years, leaving Bertie to be raised by his father Joseph and his older sisters.
After finishing school, Bert worked in a factory and applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force as a technician in 1940. After numerous illegal absences, Bert was discharged from the R.A.A.F in January 1942, his services no longer being required.[3]
After moving to Surrey Hills with Margaret and purchasing Corio Bay Villa in 1946, Bert soon disappeared from local records. He pops up in Tasmania in 1954, married to Betty, although I found no official record of their marriage. Bert had a restless soul and the couple moved around a lot. By 1963 they were living in Western Australia, after which they moved to Queensland, where he & Betty were eventually laid to rest.
Image: Betty & Bert Farney's tombstone in Queensland
Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/223441438/herbert-farney
KAZIMIERZ MACIES LAGOWSKI (1921 - 1977)
Kazimierz Macies Lagowski was born in Wilno, Poland (later Lithuania) in 1921. After spending some time in Estonia, Russia during the war, he arrived in Australia in 1950, aged approximately 28. By 1957 he had become an Australian national, was married to Margaret and living with her four young children at Corio Bay Villa in Surrey Hills.
Kazimierz was known in Australia as Ken. He was one of many Europeans to immigrate to Australia after the Second World War. While most arrivals in the 1950s came from countries such as Italy and Greece, there were also people who came Poland and Hungry. Ken was from Poland, the next couple to live in Corio Bay Villa were from Hungary.
After arriving in Australia, it is not known how Ken ended up in the suburb of Surrey Hills. He may have met Margaret through a friend or perhaps he responded to an advertisement for a room to let. He was employed as a crane driver and waterside worker and must have had to travel some way by tram to his place of employment at the docks. In the 1960s he purchased his first car which would have made his commute to work easier.[1]
After his separation from Margaret he moved to the St Kilda area, perhaps to be closer to his work. He never had children of his own and died in February 1997 near Burwood, Victoria.
Image: Incoming passenger card for Kazimierz Lagowski
Source: National Archives of Australia https://www.naa.gov.au/
DENIS FARNEY (1946 - 2023)
Denis was born on his grandfather's property in Mortlake, during the interlude between his parents moving from Perth and settling in Surrey Hills. He was the youngest of four children and was only six months old when his father left. He never saw his father or even knew what he looked like until later in life.[1]
Denis grew up at Corio Bay Villa with his siblings, mother and step-father Ken. He and his siblings attended Our Holy Redeemer Primary School which was a 30 minute walk which they undertook in rain, hail or shine.
Image: Denis in the backyard of Corio Bay Villa, date unknown (likely early 1960s)
Source: photo supplied by Dennis Farney.
Years later when Denis was around 20 years old, he moved out of Corio Bay Villa with Margaret and Ken, into a neighbouring street. It was around this time that Denis met and married the love of his life, Patricia.
Denis and Patricia (aka Trish) went on to have a family of their own. At the age of 40, Denis decided to quit his day job and fulfil his dream of being an artist. He was a student of the late Ron Crawford who taught in the style of Max Meldrum (1875–1955). Max Meldrum was a well-known artist and art teacher, who is credited as the founder of Australian tonalism. Tonalism focuses on the realistic representation of light and dark.
Denis loved to paint still life with oils but also painted landscapes and other subjects. He was most interested in capturing light. During Dennis' artistic career, Trish worked as an accountant and supported Denis both financially and emotionally during his less lucrative periods.
Image left: Denis' painting, oil on canvas, 59cm x 47cm. Image right: Denis with his dogs, 2021.
After Margaret and Ken's separation, Denis stayed in contact with Ken until his death in 1977. He also managed to track down his father in Brisbane and met up with him a couple of times as an adult. Denis strived to provide his children with a father figure that he himself did not know. He credited his positive attributes, including his creativity, to his late mother Margaret.
Margaret died of emphysema in 1995, when she was 72 years old and Denis was 49 years old. Denis passed away in 2023 after a battle with cancer. He leaves behind his wife Trish, his children and his dogs.
REFERENCE:
[1] This article was written with the assistance of Denis Farney who was interviewed in May 2022. He is references throughout the whole post.
[2] Corio Bay Villa land titles 1889 - 1964. Sourced via Landata, https://www.landata.vic.gov.au/
[3] Herbert Farney's military service record, care of the National Archives of Australia, https://www.naa.gov.au/.