This article by Roger Sanders appeared in The Sun on 11 June 1975 and features Patrick Francis ‘Tock’ Maher (1903-2000), son of Rody Maher and Annie Buckley.

Pat “Toc” Maher, Kilmore’s landmark blacksmith, has hung up his apron for the last time.

“I’d say that 58 years in the game is long enough,” he said as he looked around his earthen-floor shop in the town’s main street.

“I’ll still potter about a bit and look after some stud horses, but generally I’ll take things easy.”

Toc, 71, has had the smithy’s shop with the plaster horse’s head over the door for 40 years.

He left Kilmore College at 13 to work for the previous owner Charlie Stray, a general blacksmith and wheelwright.

“In those days we charged seven shillings to shoe a horse and four bob for removes (removing shoes, trimming hooves and replacing the same shoes),” he said.

“Nowadays the charges are $12 and $10 for a pacer or trotter and a little bit less for a hack or pony.”

Toc, who can still swing a hammer with the best of them, can remember when up to 20 horses were waiting in the yard for shoes.

“We used to get a lot of customers of the highway before trucks and cars took over,” he said.

“A lot of them were furniture drays on their way to the bush from Melbourne.”

A big man, Toc is as well known in Kilmore, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Melbourne, as his white cement smithy’s shop.

He has been a member of the town fire brigade for 45 years, 20 of them as captain, and a member of the Kilmore Water Trust for 30 years.

He is also on the committee of Kilmore Racing Club and Kilmore Agricultural Society.

Although retired from his old forge and anvil, Toc still tends horses one day a week at Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Levitt’s Willowmavin Stud, near Kilmore.

One of his charges is the New Zealand-bred filly Philomel, which won the Hallam Handicap at Moonee Valley on May 31.

He also keeps a close watch on the 100 other thoroughbreds on the stud.

Toc has never shod a Melbourne Cup winner in the thousands of horses he has handled, but he has looked after horses for visiting royalty.

And until recently he and an assistant kept many of Melbourne’s milk cart horses on the road.

Now Toc will have more time to spend with his wife Hilda and their two dogs.

The busy ring of his anvil will still be heard in Kilmore, but from now on it will be a younger man wielding the hammer.

This article appeared in the Weekly Times, 3 July 1974 and features Thomas Michael Maher (1902-1978), son of Rody and Annie (nee Buckley) Maher.

Tom Maher, a groundsman for Kilmore Turf Club, would be tipped as a good stayer in anyone’s book. He started work at the race club in 1916 when only a lad and he’s still working there, 58 years later.

During that time, Tom has helped out as time-keeper and assistant judge, among other things, and he used to ride in pony races at the club years ago.

He worked on the scratching board until 1926, then took over as Clerk of Course, and continued in this position for the next 44 years, missing only one meeting during that time because of an operation. He did the job in an honorary capacity for the first 30 years. He retired in 1970, and the club had reserved a job for him on the gate in the mounting yard.

Tom was born at Springfield, near Kilmore. His father carried the mail from Kilmore to Lancefield for 33 years in a horse-drawn vehicle. Tom’s mother died when he was five, and at 14 he started work in Morrissey’s hardware and timber shop.

Tom rode track work for his boss, who had an interest in Synvanmore, and who owned several other race horses. The first race he won was a hack race at Kilmore. Other wins included the Richmond Cup at Caulfield, Coongy Handicap and Bagot Handicap.

Tom later trained as a hobby and rode as an amateur around the central district of Victoria, and thinks he would have been the last amateur to ride among the pros at Hanging Rock.

“I never accepted payment or pulled a horse,” Tom will tell you. “I once had to put up 42 pounds dead weight. I was nine stone and had to make up three stone, so I bought a lead weight.

“When I used to ride at Heathcote in the depression years I had to ride 30 miles home after the race, as there was no other means of getting there.”

A highlight of Tom Maher’s long association with Kilmore Turf Club came in 1973, when he was made an honorary life member in recognition of his service to the club.

Mr Maher owned a horse called Molineaux at one time. “It won at Moorfield three years in succession, and also won the Sunbury Trial Hurdle,” he recalls.

He’s a 50 cent bettor, and says he has a good bank balance from betting. “I keep my sporting kitty separate from my housekeeping money. My longest odds has been in doubles,” he saus.

“A lot of chaps who are riding now – well, I knew their fathers as apprentices. I’ve led in some famous jockeys too – including Billy Duncan, Bill Williamson, and Jack Purtell, who is the most gentlemanly man I’ve ever met on the turf.”

Mr Maher remembers the days when they used to have picnic races at Springfield, a big steeple-chase with a water jump at Kilmore, and a Kilmore Grand National run over four miles.

“There’s a lot of talk about women riders these days, but they’re not new,” says Mr Maher. “We had some jolly good women riders back in the old days, the most notable being the late Mrs Violet Murrell, and Mrs Spiers.”

Mr Maher is proud of his pink coat, which he thinks must be 100 years old. It was given to him by Mr Ernest Middleton, who was the Whip of Local Hounds in the days when Kilmore had a hunt club, before the turn of the century.

“Mr Middleton’s father wore it before him, so that would make it about 100, and it’s still in good condition,” said Mr Maher. He is also the proud possessor of Mr Middleton’s whip.

This article appeared in the Kilmore Free Press on 7 July 1838 (page 2) on the retirement of Rody Maher (my great grandfather) as mail contractor between Kilmore and Lancefield.

On Wednesday afternoon last week at the residence of Mr and Mrs Stockfeld, at “The Gap”, on the Kilmore-Lancefield Road, there being a gathering of residents of the Springfield, Mt William and Lancefield district, who met to do honour to Mr Roderick (“Rody”) Maher, who was making his last trip on the mail route from Lancefield to Kilmore, via Springfield. Despite the cold and showery nature of the day, there was a very representative attendance of about 50 persons present – a definite testimony to the popularity of Mr Maher.

Mr M. Clement, of Springfield, referred to the wonderful services and many kindnesses rendered by Mr Maher during his term, in which he travelled about 250,000 miles; and he then called on Dr Wilson to speak on behalf of the residents.

Dr Wilson said they all felt a certain amount of regret at parting with the services of their old friend Rody Maher, but he was pleased to have the honour of making the presentation. He was possibly the oldest friend of Rody, as they were boys together about 60 years before at Tickawarra school. His recollections of Rody were the happiest and most cheerful, and he recalled the Rody was a magnificent footballer. He had been on the track for 30 years, during which time he rendered services which would never be equalled for the courtesy, consideration, kindness and many little acts done for the people along the track. He had done wonderful service. In wet, sunshine or shadow, he was always punctual, and every obligation was always cheerfully carried out. He (Dr Wilson) had the pleasing duty of handing him a wallet of notes subscribed by the residents, not as a reward for many kindnesses, but as a token of regard felt for him, and as a slight recompense for all he had done for them. (Applause)

Mr Maher said that when he started on the job he fully intended to carry it out to the best of his ability. His work had never been questioned by the Postal Department. He also tried to do all he could to oblige the people on the route. He thanked the residents of Springfield, Mt William and Lancefield for all the kindness they had shown to him, and all postal officials for their treatment. He specially thanked Mr and Mrs Brazier, of “High Park”, who always had a warm lunch for him; the business people of Lancefield, who had never delayed him; and Mr and Mrs Heald who had treated him as one of their own. A lot of respect was due to Mrs Stockfeld, who looked after the goods for the Mt William people. If ever she left, he hoped the residents would gather as they had that day, and he would be there. He thanked them all sincerely. (Applause)

Prior to the above ceremony, an excellent afternoon tea was enjoyed by all present; and, afterwards, all stood and drank the health of Mr Maher, with musical honours.

“Mercury”

Esteemed local historian James Alipius Maher penned a series of articles entitled ‘Reminiscences of an Old Road’, published in the Kilmore Free Press in March 1939 about the Kilmore-Lancefield Road. Part one discusses Rody Maher and other mail contractors who carried out the service before the advent of the railway.