'My life and a suitcase'
The first formal exhibition at the Maling Heritage Centre used suitcases and trunks to tell stories of migration, travel, work, education and hobbies. All were connected with people in Boroondara in some way. John Butler Maling’s tool chest was the oldest item displayed, but it was a brown Globite case – of the type used by thousands of school children of the 1950s and 1960s – that struck the greatest number of comments. Our thanks to the contributors of the stories and the volunteers who assisted. The exhibition was opened by the Mayor of Boroondara, Cr Sophie Torney on 24 September 2025 and attracted about 300 visitors.
John Butler Maling’s Tool Chest
The rather battered wooden chest was made in England in the 1850s by John Butler Maling. On its side is painted: “John Butler Maling Emigrant To Sydney Ship Joshua”. At the age of seventeen, John Butler Maling took this chest from Shepreth in Cambridgeshire to Southampton and boarded the Joshua as an assisted immigrant, with the stated calling of sawyer. The ship sailed on 30 December 1857 and berthed in Sydney on 6 April 1858. For his first night in Australia, Maling slept on the post office steps. He stayed in Glebe for a few months before he then walked to Melbourne along the Sydney Road, with this chest, calling at farms along the way and offering to work in return for food and shelter. In 1861 he leased and then three years later bought 13 acres of bushland on the south side of Whitehorse Road and built a two-roomed cottage of mud brick, where he lived for the rest of his life, in time building a larger house, known as The Willows. Part of Maling’s farm land is now Chatham Primary School and Shepreth and Meldreth Streets recall his birthplace and the adjacent village of Meldreth, south-west of Cambridge.
The history of the Globite brand
The Globite brand was created by the Ford Sherrington Company of Kippax Street, Surry Hills, Sydney. Established in 1911, this company sourced trunk makers from Great Britain to develop a skilled workforce and develop a brand with a reputation for producing quality goods. The company initially marketed its suitcases under the name Fordite and was able to expand during the First World War, not only because of the withdrawal of German competition, but because their patented fibre was used to manufacture the gaiters worn by Australian soldiers. Following the war, the company again expanded – into the manufacture of sporting goods and, from c1930, it created the now famous Globite school cases, which thousands of Australian children took to school. See: https://globite.co.nz/pages/our-story
