Bertha Kitts (her real name) was looking for a place to start a small shop in 1914, and she found one, in Hawksburn. The railway station of this small suburb, between South Yarra and Toorak, had just been rebuilt and the line quadruple-tracked; small rows of red-brick double-storey shops were built on either side. Kitts took one, opening a dairy produce and fruiterers’ shop, essentially a fresh grocer.
The three other tenants — estate agents, tea rooms, dressmaker — would have known her as a modest fellow shopkeeper.
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