A 9ft. octopus seized and overpowered a heavy Airedale dog in 18 inches of water at Mordialloc today. The dog was rescued by its owner Mr Harry Leah, an elderly man, who fought the octopus with a garden fork. He dragged the octopus ashore, still wrapped around the dog, and killed it.
After the dog had run into the shallow water, chasing seagulls, its barking led Mr Leah to run in to see what the matter was. Then he ran to his home, which faced the beach, and got the fork. Fishermen said the octopus was the biggest they had seen in the Bay for years. They had never found one in such shallow water.
Apparently some unusual combination of tide and wind had denied the octopus its usual food, and it came in scouting for beach scraps. It weighed about 40 lb. The picture shows all the actors in the drama - and the pitchfork. (1)
Harry and his Airedale, and the octopus and the pitchfork.
This photo is from the Weekly Times, but the same photo accompanied The Herald article, but this one is clearer.
Weekly Times, August 19, 1939 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224431961
This wasn’t the first time the Leah family had an unusual experience, as on October 29, 1936 the following article appeared in the Sun News-Pictorial –
35 ft. Tree Shattered Mysteriously In Storm. Fragments Fly 400 Yards. Fence Torn Down, But House Undamaged -
After a loud clap of thunder, a tree in the front garden of a house in William Street, Mordialloc, was uprooted and shattered into hundreds of pieces, just before 4 p.m. yesterday. Fragments of the tree, which was nearly 35ft. in height, were hurled over an area of 400 yards. The house is occupied by Mr. Jackson.
Two heavy red gum gate posts and a section of cyclone fencing were torn down, but no damage was done to the house itself, which was only 35ft. from where the tree stood.
No Lightning Seen.
“There was no flash of lightning at the time - just a terrific clap such as is heard during blasting operations, and the tree was blown into hundreds of pieces,” said Mr. Jackson later. Mrs. Eva Jackson, his wife, and her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Leah, were in the house at the time. Mrs. Leah, who has been ill for some time, was in bed in a front room when the incident occurred. She suffered a severe shock. (2)
Shattered in a sudden storm about 4 p.m. yesterday, a large honeysuckle tree at the home of Mr. E. Jackson, in Williams Street, Mordialloc, was distributed in pieces over an area of hundreds of square yards. Large fragments of the wood were found 400 yards away. No one was injured, and there were no actual eye-witnesses of the occurrence.
The Suns News-Pictorial, October 29, 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article277599099
Fragments of a large honeysuckle tree which apparently was struck in a storm in Williams Street,
Mordialloc, yesterday afternoon. These were found 400 yards from the trunk of the tree.
The Suns News-Pictorial, October 29, 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article277599099
Harry Leah was born in Macclesfield, in Cheshire England, in 1869 the second last of the eight children of Martin Leah, a carpenter, and his wife Mary. Harry took up the occupation of a blacksmith and in 1889 he married Elizabeth Hannah Stanley. Elizabeth, born 1867, was the eldest of the seven children of John and Nancy (nee Holding) Stanley. She was born in Gorton, Lancashire. Her father had various and varied occupations, as listed in the England Census – an iron turner; a Publican and in 1891 a dress skirt maker. (3)
Harry and Elizabeth’s marriage took place at Droyslden, near Manchester, and their only child, Eva, was born in next year in Openshaw, which is two miles from Droyslden. In the 1911 English Census, Harry, Elizabeth and Eva were living at 14 Half Moon Street in Dunkinfield, a town four miles from Openshaw. Harry was recorded as operating a Shoeing Smith. (4)
In 1912 the family moved to Melbourne to Glebe Avenue in Cheltenham, where Harry carried on the trade of a farrier. On June 11, 1913 Eva married Enos Jackson at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Cheltenham. Eva was 22 years old and Enos, who had been born in Hurst in Lancashire, was a 25 year old clerk. (5). Enos was later listed in the Electoral Rolls and a draughtsman, and later still as a Clerk of Works; he was employed by John S. Metcalf & Co., Engineers, who specialized in designing systems for the bulk handling of grain and grain elevators. (6)
Application for copyright of plan entitled New South Wales Country Grain Silos. No 5 - Formation plan. Enos Jackson of Wilson Street, Cheltenham is listed as the author; the applicant being John S. Metcalf & Co.
National Archives of Australia, Series A1336 - see full document here - https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3437767
Harry, Elizabeth, Eva and Enos moved to Wilson Street Mordialloc around 1915 (7) and this was, as we saw, where they were all living when the tree shattered and when Harry’s dog was taken by the Octopus. If you are wondering why William Street can no longer be found in Mordialloc, in the late 1940s the name of the street was changed to Bowman Street. (8)
William Street shown in the 1945 Collins' Melbourne and suburban street directory, on map 6
State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections
Bowman Street shown in the 1949 Collins' Melbourne and suburban street directory, on map 6
State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections
Elizabeth died only two months after the shock of the tree incident from heart trouble on December 29, 1936, at the age of 69. She was buried at the Cheltenham Memorial Park. Harry died on April 5, 1943, aged 74, and is buried with Elizabeth. Eva and Enos did not have any children and they died in 1964 and 1962 respectively and were both cremated at Springvale Crematorium. (9)
Footnotes
(1) The Herald, August 12, 1939, see here; Article: Weekly Times, August 19, 1939, see here; Image: Weekly Times, August 19, 1939, see here
(2) Sun News-Pictorial, October 29, 1936, see here; images - Suns News-Pictorial, October 29, 1936, see here.
(3) From Ancestry.com - Census Records, England; England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915; England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
(4) From Ancestry.com - Census Records, England; England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915; England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
(5) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com; Marriage certificate of Eva and Enos;
(6) Copyright application from John S. Metcalf & Co., National Archives of Australia, see here; John S. Metcalf & Co. - The Argus, March 29, 1916, see here; The Argus, March 30, 1916, see here; The Age, January 19, 1917, see here; The Argus, January 31, 1917, see here; Adelaide Register, April 30, 1918, see here; Maryborough Chronicle (Qld), September 23, 1921, see here.
(7) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com
(7) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com
(8) Listed as Williams Street in the 1945 Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory as as Bowman Street in the 1950 one.
Harry Leah at No. 18 - 1945 Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory
State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections
Enos Jackson at No. 18 - 1950 Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory
Harry Leah's death notice
The Age, April 7, 1943 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20684331
