The name Furphy is well known in Shepparton to both the young and old, as it’s a huge part of Shepparton’s history. Whether you’re ‘telling a Furphy’, driving passed the huge Furphy factory on the corner of New Dookie and Drummond Roads, drinking a Furphy beer, or looking through the history of the Furphy water cart in World War One; the history of Furphy is embedded into our lives.
But who was Furphy? John Hare Furphy made his way to Shepparton in the 1860s, setting up a blacksmith and wheelwright shop that was also the third business to open in Shepparton following Sherbourne Sheppard’s River Punt and Inn.
In around 1898, after the blacksmith shop had become Furphy Foundry and one of the major employers in the town, John Furphy built his family home on Hayes Street, Shepparton. On what was originally a larger block (and is now St Georges Rd Primary School), the brick Victorian villa features diapered quoining and a gabled roof clad in corrugated galvanised steel with a brick chimney. The design of the home is believed to incorporate ingenious evaporative cooling system through the roof cavity.
The Furphy family occupied the house until at least the 1930s.
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