Sooty Of Brooke Street Reserve

We are delighted to be able to bring to you a colour photo of Sooty, a fine plump goat who assisted the stewards of Brooke Street Reserve maintain a user-friendly communal space.

A black and white photo may not have done justice to this fine cloven-hooved browser, who kept the blackberries and gorse in check.

Sooty's reward for helping with the parkland maintenance included being part of the family Xmas festivities. Here she is decked out with a Xmas bow on her collar, courtesy of John's sister Judy (the photographer) on Xmas Day 1955.

Readers who scan beyond these uber-informative pages may remember the mainstream media was abuzz recently with news Melbourne City Council was recently using goats for weed control around Royal Park.

So dated, so gauche, so copy-cat, so......Melbourne.

And I warrant none of their Satan's Assistants could hold a candle to the handsome Sooty of Eaglemont.

The message accompanying the photos:

OK John
I get the message from your last “Eaglemont Voice” that I have not fulfilled my commitment.

So I have searched the house for the family Kodachrome slide collection and finally found them and dusted them down.  

Lo and behold there are two photos of Sooty the goat (and me) taken by my sister Judy on Christmas Day 1955.  

I also found our old slide viewer which to my amazement still works so took the attached photos with my phone.  These will suffice as an interim measure.  

I am very happy to make the slides available if you have access to equipment that will produce higher quality images.

You will see that Judy has adorned Sooty for the occasion with a Christmas bow and that the photo was taken in the garden rather than deep amongst the blackberries and gorse bushes in the Brooke St reserve where she was tethered at other times.

And in this context the attached image of the “canoe tree” in the reserve off Summit Drive taken in winter 1958 might also be of interest.

Best wishes too you all
John