AT 102, Hazel Donald is more than a remarkable centenarian and Lister House Medical Centre’s eldest and longest-serving patient, she is a living witness to nearly a century of Shepparton’s history. Her recollections of 110 Corio Street, the original home and surgery of Dr Reginald Mills, offer a window into the entwined stories of family, community and place.
Hazel remembers Dr Mills simply as a “nice man,” yet the house he purchased for his practice became far more than a site of medical care; it became a multi-generational home imbued with lasting memories of family, comfort and security.
During the upheaval of World War II, Hazel’s parents, William and Edith Donald, purchased the property. Faced with the prospect of sending their grandchildren—two young boys whose parents also lived with them at the time—to the countryside, they brought their extended family from Melbourne back to Shepparton, establishing Dr. Mills’ former home as a new centre of domestic life. Wartime petrol rationing, however, meant a long wait for their furniture from Melbourne. Acquired for £900, the house was the only one on the market at the time, but it soon became a lively household, accommodating five adults, five children and numerous boarders over the years.
For Hazel and her niece Marjorie, 110 Corio Street is inseparable from the rhythms of daily life, social gatherings and family milestones.
Marjorie recalls with vivid clarity the layout of the house in which she and her siblings grew up, even noting Dr Mills’ original wash basin that remained in her parents’ bedroom, a tangible relic of the home’s previous incarnation as a medical practice.
Though the Donald family sold 110 Corio Street in 1999, Hazel’s memories endure as a living chronicle of Shepparton’s rich past, connecting people and place with history.
