3 bedroom, weatherboard, high off the ground with timber lattice. Outside dunny for a good number of years until sewerage came. Chip wood heater in bathroom and a Lux stove in the kitchen plus electric range, plus an ice chest as it was John's job to go up the street to get the ice, until electric fridges came in.
John remembers during the war his father building an underground air raid shelter in their back yard. The State School would blow the sirens and all the kids had designated air raid shelters to go to - they would go down the shelters until the all clear siren sounded - when they would return to school - not as speedily as they left.
There was a gun battery located at the back of the old swimming pool to protect the power stations, as it was thought that these places would be the first places to be attacked. One day a plane flew over, unidentified, and the guns started up - you could see the gunshots blazing in the sky. All the kids climbed onto their roofs to watch the plane scoot for its life. During this period there was an arms storage down Eastern Road in the old Scout Hall. The place caught on fire and all the kids raced down to the old Scout Hall grabbed guns - some had machine guns, John had an Owens gun without a butt, and the Police later had to try and round them all up and get the guns back. John had already greased the gun and got it going - without ammunition though - and put it in a bag - after some time he got worried about it and told his father, who gave the usual growl and arranged for the disposal of the gun! As a boy he can remember kangaroos and wallabies at the bottom of our street - this was before the Fairfield Guest House was built. After one of the bushfires the police asked several men, including Hugh Graham, John's father, to help them with the burnt and injured animals. He can remember going with his father and seeing kangaroos with burnt feet which had to be destroyed - it has always stayed in his mind.
Neighbours:
1 - Farmer; 2 - Lobley; 3 - Mrs Warren; 4 - Fuller; 6 - Johnston; 10 - Benson; 11 - Scanlon; 12 - Humphries; 13 - Mathison; 14 - Morrison (YTS teacher); 16 - Collins; 17 - Tibball; 18 - Apps; 19 - Cox; 20 - Horsefield