Barber in Melbourne’s west says farewell after six decades
Long-time barber Raffaele Mucilli in his Sunshine barber shop. Picture: Warren Kirk.
A Sunshine barber shop that operated for 60 years is set for a new chapter.
The former Gents Continental hairdresser is one of three shopfronts within a single building at 74 and 76-78 Hampshire Rd that went under the hammer with a $1m-plus asking range on the weekend.
Although it was passed in, the site will remain on the market for private sale.
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Fourth-generation barber Raffaele Mucilli, now aged 88, opened the barber shop in 1959.
He also ran a woman’s hairdressers in the back for about a decade.
Mr Mucilli, whose father taught him the art of hairdressing, migrated from Italy to Australia when he was 20 years old.
He worked as a builder and for other barbers, before opening his own business.
Mr Mucilli’s late wife, Lucia, was a dressmaker who occasionally sold Italian-imported shoes from the barber shop.
Individual touches at the address include barber’s chairs featuring footstools with an image of the Italian flag on them.
The three shopfronts are located across two titles at 74 and 76-78 Hampshire Rd, Sunshine.
The barber shop has remained the same for six decades.
Some of his customers included three generations of the same families, from grandparents to grandkids.
Legendary Footscray footballers, father and son duo Ted Whitten and Ted Whitten Jr, were among Mr Mucilli’s clients.
In addition to his sporting career, the elder Mr Whitten ran a food store and milk bar in Sunshine.
“He had a little grocery shop one shop after mine,” Mr Mucilli said.
The site is 400m to Sunshine train station, which the Victorian and Australia governments are planning to upgrade to a “superhub” in a project to link to Tullamarine airport.
Raffaele Mucilli at his business as a young man. Picture: Supplied.
He recalled how Mr Whitten and Collingwood icon Lou Richards, who often appeared on television together, would make bets between themselves based on football results.
One of these wagers involved Mr Richards cutting grass with nail clippers, near a house attached to the shop, when Footscray won a game.
“The street was full of people,” Mr Mucilli said.
The father-of-two is well-known in the local community.
“If I go shopping in Sunshine or any other place even further away, people recognise me and scream at me, ‘You’re the barber, you’re the barber,’” he said.
The property is 493sq m in size.
Football legends Lou Richards and Ted Whitten in 1991. Picture: Genevieve Edwards.
Mr Mucilli’s daughter, Pia, described her father’s barber shop as “like a time capsule” from the 1950s and 1960s.
The premises were used to record scenes for a 2018 short film titled The Widow, set in 1965 and starring Matrix Reloaded and Underbelly actor Steve Bastoni.
The building’s other two shopfronts are currently leased to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio and a pilates studio.
Douglas Kay Real Estate Sunshine director Peter Kay has the listing.
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