WHEN reading of the 30 year anniversary of Tillermans restaurant, I was taken back 80 years to when it was known as the Paragon.
Len and Lal Holbert opened their café in 1936 and extended the building with a large living area on the left. Fortunately, most of the original building has been kept.
Len Holbert, known as ‘Doc’, was a fisherman and Lal was the cook – they would have hired a local girl to help in the café.
I have fond memories of occasionally being there to enjoy a special treat, an icecream sundae or a milkshake.
Out the front of the Paragon was a gravel road and often a timber drogher was moored in the river.
The area was the centre of town, with the hotel on the corner and two general stores not far away along the street. The hotel has now been replaced and the grocery stores have gone, but the Paragon has survived.
I admired Mrs Holbert, who was an efficient cook.
When I was 16 my mother asked if I could help out at the local hotel during the school holidays.
I helped prepare the food, peeling the vegetables etc. and washing dishes as well as waiting on tables where the guests ate in the dining room.
Mrs Lal Holbert was once again the cook!
I really admired how well she coped.
They must have moved on from the café as this was January, 1953.
My other most memorable occasion was celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 1980 at Tillermans.
By Anne JOHNSON, Tea Gardens Family Research and Local History.
