Alf Tallon – from shearer to real estate agent By Peter McCullough HASTINGS identity Alf Tallon died on Tuesday 15 October after a long battle with cancer. His loss will be felt by a wide range of friends and community organisations. Alfred Dominic Tallon was born in Carlton on 15 September 1937, the son of a cobbler. He left school at an early age and went up north where he became a member of a shearing gang. This resolved a dispute with his father who wanted him to become a priest. His early experience in Queensland engendered a love of the Outback that never left him. It led to a lifelong interest in hunting and, more particularly, fishing. Trips around Australia were never complete unless there was the opportunity for a spot of fishing; if it was the Murray River, all the better. After a few years in the bush, starting as an assistant cook and then as a shearer, Mr Tallon returned to Victoria and found a job as a cutter and designer with Toronto Ladies Wear. He met and married Susan Alexander and the couple moved to Warragul where he managed a dairy farm. When working on the farm, he rolled a tractor and broke his back, which put an end to farming. For a time he worked at a milk-testing plant in Warragul and then one of his friends said to him: “You have the gift of the gab, Alf. Why don’t you try real estate?” He approached John Crowder and Sons and at age 30 started selling real estate in Dromana. By this time he and Susan had two sons: Ben, born in in 1965, and Toby, born in 1967. During the Dromana years, his marriage to Susan ended.
Mr Tallon moved with the company to Hastings and, in the mid-1970s, started his own business, A D Tallon Pty Ltd. He later sold his business to John Crowder and Sons but continued to manage it along with the new Somerville branch. On an overseas holiday in 1984, Mr Tallon met Susan Rolida. The couple married and a third son, Dominic, arrived several years later. Mr Tallon returned to Hastings and set up a second real estate business, initially with Michael Cole. In April 1985, Alfred Tallon Real Estate was established, a business he operated for the rest of his life. The business will continue to run under the management of his youngest son, Dom. Interest in real estate runs strongly in the Tallon family as eldest son Ben, who was trained by his father, also has a real estate agency in Hastings. Toby Tallon followed a different path and works in the fields of information technology and telecommunications. Mr Tallon was a Justice of the Peace for about 35 years and for much of this time was a bail justice until he reached the age of compulsory retirement at 70. He served as a magistrate in the children’s court when it was held in Hastings. For more than 30 years he was a member of the Western Port Chamber of Commerce, serving on the executive on a number of occasions. In 2003 he joined the committee of the Western Port Oberon Association and was a vice-president. When Western Port Tourism was reformed last year, Mr Tallon was treasurer. He was a board member of the Hastings branch of the Bendigo Bank shortly after its establishment in 2008.
Western Port News 22 October 2013
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