Frank Mollica has been a hairdresser on Watton Street for 36 years.
The well-known Wyndham identity speaks to Adem Saban about four decades on the town’s busiest street.
Have you always been in Werribee?
No, I’m a city boy. I came to Australia from Italy when I was a little kid.
I lived in North Melbourne until I met my wife.
We met at a dance, I was working in Pascoe Vale and she was working in Footscray.
Her boss offered me a job. My wife and I have worked together for 42 years.
When we got married, we opened this shop.
On September 10, we’ve been working on Watton Street for 36 years.
We spent 13 years in the shop next door and the rest of our time here.
What was it like coming to Werribee from North Melbourne?
I lived at the corner of Morris Road and Pannam Drive when I first moved here.
At that time, at 6.30pm you could hear a pin drop.
I thought I’ve come to a cemetery … it was a real shock.
I thought, what have I done? But these are the things we do for love.
So it was a very different place?
Yes, we didn’t even have street lights.
The locals would come on horseback down the main street.
As they’d come, you’d see the council guys coming up behind them picking up the horse droppings, which was funny.
Then we saw the first set of traffic lights coming up.
I imagine you would’ve seen a lot of change over the years?
A lot of things have changed.
We had a Bristol petrol station just up the road here, which was pulled apart and made into shops.
Behind us was a chicken farm.
It’s grown from 20,000 people living in the Shire of Werribee … now it’s over 200,000 and it’s just growing.
It’s gone from a country town to a city.
It’s mind-blowing how many people and shops there are now.
Have many identities come through the shop?
Absolutely. We’ve had a lot of the mayors of Werribee, radio personalities.
Sam Newman has even come in as part of Street Talk on The Footy Show.
We used to see Julia Gillard coming up and down the street before she was prime minister.
A lot of people … there are too many to think about.
What’s your favourite part about working on Watton Street?
You get to know everyone.
I can’t walk down the street without being stopped.
The worst thing though is trying to remember names.
What’s the secret to staying in business for almost 40 years?
Being an honest, family oriented salon.
We’ve always welcomed everyone and we never rip people off.
How do you spend your spare time?
With family. We have a son and a daughter (Luca and Chiara) and two grandchildren – with another on the way in the next couple of weeks!
