Sunday History Photo / Au

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The long running Australian cartoon strip, ‘Bluey and Curley’ was based on two residents of Elwood. Alex Gurney, creator of the strip was a long-time member of the Elwood Angling Club. The balding Alex was known in the club as ‘Curley’. ‘Bluey’ was the nickname of his red-headed mate, Len Anderson, a council linesman. They shared a boat called ‘Bluey and Curley’ on innumerable fishing trips off Elwood Beach. Len ‘Bluey’ Anderson lived in an Edwardian villa at 9 Rothesay Avenue, Elwood from about 1937. Gurney was born in England in 1902. He migrated to Australia with his widowed mother taking up residence in Elwood at 7 Merton Avenue in about 1937. He became a prolific cartoonist for newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, creating enormously popular Australian characters such as ‘Bluey and Curley’, ‘Stiffy and Mo’, “The Daggs’ and ‘Ben Bowyang’ . Bluey and Curley were initially based on two larrikin diggers, and readers followed their Aussie adventures from Britain to the army’s occupation of Japan, to attempts at civvy life as wharfies, lion tamers and private detectives. Gurney also designed emblems for the South Melbourne Football Club and other clubs. He died in 1955 but his cartoon was continued by other artists for several more years
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