June 16th, 2026Life all about family for Dorothy Rodda

When I suggest Dorothy Rodda sit next to the log fire to have a photo taken with her wedding portrait she retorts she’ll “look like an old lady”.
Dorothy tells me she has a mobility walker reserved for carrying firewood from the back door to the lounge, which she happily demonstrates, quipping on the way “you go mouldy if you’re just sitting around!”.
The spritely 96-year-old mother of five and grandmother to many was raised in Daylesford by her parents, Alice and Harry Dyson, alongside her younger brother and a cousin nurtured by the couple.
“I was born in 1929 at Nurse Jackson’s on Vincent Street North…that’s where you went to have your babies back then,” she said.
“My cousin, Ken Robson, was reared with us from the age of three or four, his mother died in childbirth, they were living in Melbourne at the time but then polio came and that’s when Ken’s father brought him back to live in Daylesford.
“I remember Mum took Ken down to Doctor Peter Harper for something and he was cross to think that Ken had come from Melbourne to Daylesford during the polio outbreak because it was so contagious.”
Dorothy understands Doctor Harper’s stance but also believes growing up in a home where family fiercely cared for each other shaped her.
“The four front rooms here are the original home of my maternal grandparents, bit by bit it’s been added on to and changed, it’s been passed down through the family. Four generations have lived here.”
Dorothy moved her growing brood of children and infants into the family home to help her mother look after her grandmother and has lived there ever since.
Brenda Johns, Dorothy’s youngest daughter, said her mother had always cared for others.

“Mum helped care for my great-grandmother, then was carer for my grandmother and her cousin who was brought up as a brother, then cared for Dad when he had dementia, refusing to put him into a home,” Brenda said.
Brenda passes Dorothy an exquisite music box with twirling ballerinas, before placing a gold locket in her hand.
“This is my grandmother Louisa’s music box, she was born into the Bell family in Musk Vale but I knew her as Grandma Robson. Ron gave me the locket with his photo inside when I was 18, for my birthday I think.”
The love match between Dorothy and Ron sparked at Daylesford Town Hall.
“They used to have late-night shopping on a Friday and after that you went to community singing conducted by Jack Oglethorpe in the town hall,” Dorothy said.
“Ron Rodda was there singing The White Gardenia, and he was a bit of a catch!”
Dorothy and Ron were married in 1950 and remained united through a shared passion for family and bowling.
“Ron bowled for a number of years and then in 1969 I started off with indoor bowls. Then Ron said ‘if you don’t get down there and play on the greens I won’t pay your membership’.”
Dorothy worked her way up to the top division and was part of a state fours team.
“Daylesford Bowling Club was our second home,” she said, passing me a life membership badge to pin to a dress she pulls from her wardrobe.
“Everything had to be just right. White shoes, white stockings and white dresses measured 13 inches from the ground up. They look like a circus now,” Dorothy teases, before adding she played indoor bowls until Covid hit in 2020.
“I was president three times, did the gardening at one stage and was the purchasing officer. I had to purchase the goods for the catering, I knew how many loaves of bread were needed to make any given number of sandwich points.”
Measuring hems and working with figures was a comfortable fit for Dorothy who studied dress making and commercial studies at the technical school which today serves as the Daylesford Museum site.
“After school I went to work at Foy & Gibson for 12 months. I earnt 17 shillings and 2 pence per week in the Vincent Street retail store which sold haberdashery, ladies’ wear, everything except hardware,” Dorothy said.
“From there I went on to work as a mender at the Woollen Mills in East Street because I could get two pounds plus and overtime. As the worsted fabric came off the loom they came to the mending room and we had to repair any faults in the fabric.
“Some of the rolls of material would just come across the table but others came up over a frame so you could see the faults better – a knot you would have to remove or where a piece of yarn had broken you would mend that.
“At the mills they did spinning, weaving, mending, dying at one stage I think, but I was in the mending room.”
While Dorothy enjoyed her time on the mill floor, she said she found joy and contentment at home, caring for her children while managing bookwork for the family timber business.
“I loved getting out in the garden and making a mess for someone else to clean up. I had garden beds filled with flowers everywhere.”
Brenda said her Mum was also a wonderful cook and “it was nothing to have 12 around the table for Sunday roast”.
The family still gather around the table each weekend, though the cooking is shared these days.
“It’s all been family, it really has.”

Above, Dorothy with her bowls whites, below left, with her grandmother Louisa’s music box, and below right, the locket given to at the age of 18 by her husband Ron

Words & images: Kate Foulds