125 stories for 125 years

Rex Goble

After finishing school in 1932, Rex Goble’s father took him around to local pharmacies to find him an apprenticeship. Rex enjoyed ‘messing around’ with chemicals at home, and became an apprentice for John Nobbs at his pharmacy in Footscray.

During his four year apprenticeship, Rex worked every day the pharmacy was open. He swept floors, polished windows and eventually made mixtures and ointments under supervision. He attended the Pharmacy College at Swanston Street, two nights a week in his first year, in second year his classes increased to every morning and in third and forth year dropped back to a couple of mornings a week.

After completing his study in 1938, the Nobb’s Pharmacy which also housed Mrs Nobbs’ hairdressing salon, came up for sale. With help from his family and a Felton Grimwade Duerdin loan, Rex purchased and ran the shop with skills and knowledge gained from Mr and Mrs Nobbs and advice from his pharmacy assistants.

Located in an industrial district of Melbourne, the pharmacy was often an emergency room for minor accidents. Factory workers with cuts, grazes, splinters for example would come to Rex for treatment, which he learnt on the job from Mr Nobbs.

The pharmacy sold photographic chemicals and paper for home developing. Eager to understand every area of the business, Rex enrolled in a three-year part time photography course at Melbourne Institute (now RMIT) and it became a lifelong hobby. Rex invested in a huge range of photographic supplies and equipment. He formed a group with six other photographic dealers to bulk buy stock; the group is now Camera House, which still operates nationally. Rex was the first Chairman of the group and remained and active member for his whole career.

On Friday nights the pharmacy became a cinema. They would put up a big screen at the back of the shop and locals would gather to watch movies through the windows. Rex’s love of photography also spawned the creation of the Footscray Photographic Society, which he formed with people who would come into the shop to talk about photography.

During the second world year, imported supplies were limited. Rex began to make up some of his own products to make up for the shortage. Shaving cream, nail polish remover and lotions all sold well.

In the early 1940s Rex took a chiropodist into the salon. She had trained students in the UK, so the pharmacy began taking in chiropody students. In partnership with a former lecturer at the Australian Chiropody School Rex established the National School of Chiropody and the National Society of Chiropodists, which later joined with other chiropody groups around the country. Over a 25-year period more than 900 students graduated from the school. The college closed in the 1970s when the government took over training for the profession.

'Things were busy. I was still running the pharmacy, which by then was 50% involved in photographic supplies, and administering the school at night. I was also married with three sons.'

Apart from being busy with the pharmacy, the chiropody school and his photography, Rex continued to play spoprt year round. He was captain of the Footscray Cricket Club, playing cricket in summer and tennis during winter.

‘Pharmacy today is quite different. I don’t think I would have the same opportunities to diversify as I had in my day. But we didn’t learn things like anatomy and physiology, which are so important in diagnosing aches and pains. Computers, too, are a great help in assessing the compatibility and interaction of different medicines.’