McDougall’s mark on Scottsdale
• Heather McDougall looks back on a busy and fulfilling life
By Daisy Baker,
August 17, 2022
If you ask Scottsdale’s Heather McDougall, nursing is one of those things that some people are born to do.
She had a dream of becoming a nurse from the age of seven, an aspiration that potentially came from her aunty Laura Killworth who was a nurse working on the mainland.
She didn’t know her aunty very well but was told by family members that she was the living image of her.
Mrs McDougall was the second oldest of seven children, born in the old Scottsdale Hospital on March 26, 1937 on Good Friday.
“I’ve never had a birthday on Good Friday since and it won’t happen again until 2027, my 90th birthday, so I’ve got five years to wait,” she laughed.
Her earliest memories are of the hardships of war years, her mother taking them to buy second-hand clothes from Mrs Gofton in Gofton Street, and her dad returning home from service.
She and her siblings attended the West Scottsdale school, until high school when they would ride their bikes along the gravel road into Scottsdale.
The family moved to Scottsdale when she was around 13, and after school she worked at Dinham’s Hardware (where the Reject Shop is today), dusting the fine China.
“I bought six cups and saucers and plates in blossom time, the Royal Albert one and they were thirty-five shillings and sixpence each and I had them on layby so by the time I finished there I had them all paid for.
“I wish now I’d got six different ones because they’re all discontinued patterns now. I’ve still got them.”
Her boss was Dodger Squires from Bridport, and also working at Dinham’s was an 18-year-old Tony McDougall.
“When I turned 14 that’s when I started seeing Tony, much to my father’s disgust,” Mrs McDougall said.
Their first date would be a dance at the school gym, but Mrs McDougall’s dad did not approve.
Her mum was in hospital after delivering her last baby.
“I had to look after Dad, the house and everything while she was in hospital which would be 10 days at least in those days.
“Dad said ‘no, you’re not going out with a boy at 14’.
“I said ‘if I’m old enough to look after you and six kids while Mum’s in hospital for 10 days, I’m old enough to go out with Tony’.
“So he said we’d have to go over to the hospital and ask Mum.”
The young couple raced over to the hospital, where Mrs McDougall’s mum agreed without a second thought.
That was the first of many country dances they attended together.
“He was a really good dancer,” she said fondly.
They danced everything from the old ballroom dances, through to the barn dance, the gypsy tap and the foxtrot.
Tony was the MC at many of the Debutante Balls which were held in the Lyric Theatre.
“White gloves, bowtie and tails – you don’t even see them these days,” she laughed.
Mrs McDougall’s dream of becoming a nurse was still strong and she embarked on her four-year “hands on” training in 1954.
“I loved theatre and I did about three stints in theatre and some night shift as well, on call. I liked it all really.”
She completed her training at old Launceston General Hospital, graduating in 1958 and married Tony the following year on Valentine’s Day.
Mrs McDougall worked at the old Scottsdale hospital, including some relief night shift and one day a week in theatre assisting surgeon Edgar Heath when he was in town.
Mrs McDougall scaled back her nursing when she and Tony started a family, welcoming Peter, Cathy and Jim.
When Tony’s boss Arthur Barber was ready to retire from the business, which was mostly grocery with a little bit of hardware, the couple took over and it became known as McDougall's Hardware.
They later built a federation-style house just up from the shop in Alfred Street, and extended the shop to include kitchenware and crockery.
“I didn’t know how I would go being a shopkeeper but I liked it.
“I liked everything about it. Buying especially. I always overspent, of course,” she laughed.
“I always had China and stuff like I used to dust years before.”
After 22 years, Becks made an offer to buy the business, which the McDougalls accepted, despite having no intentions to sell at the time.
They took their glass cutting services and kitchenware and bought Alf Dent’s little greengrocer shop in King Street, where D and Me is today.
They sold the business a few years later but not long after, Mrs McDougall said she got itchy feet.
In the late 1980s they bought a block in King Street, and built a shop, which today houses Goodsports.
Future Generations was the town’s first baby shop, complete with pink carpet, cots, prams, car seats and clothes.
There was a room out the back where mothers could change and feed their babies, and make themselves a cup of tea.
Mrs McDougall said despite offering competitive prices, the store just didn’t take off and many locals still shopped in Launceston so they sold up several years later.
She still has a visitor book filled with words of praise from visitors around the state and overseas.
When Cathy got married, and their son Peter was tragically killed in a car accident at 20-years-old, Mrs McDougall said the energetic atmosphere their home once had, was gone.
They decided to buy the old Gofton House, however when Tony later got sick the maintenance became too much so they built a smaller house.
“We built an early settler’s cottage with the upstairs attic windows. I loved that little house,” she said.
Tony’s health went from bad to worse and he then required care at James Scott, Mrs McDougall decided to move to Northbourne to be closer to him.
He sadly passed away two years later.
Almost 20 years on, the walls of Mrs McDougall’s light-filled Northbourne home are adorned with photos of her family.
Her face is filled with pride when it comes to her five grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Archie and Evie.
Mrs McDougall’s days are filled with gardening, crocheting knee rugs for nursing homes and knitting for charity.
Throughout her busy and fulfilling 85 years, she has always called the North-East home and no doubt she has left a mark on the region for the years to come.
