Saving...
5 October, 2017 10:27
Do you have or know someone who still has a thunderbox in their backyard?
In a bid to preserve the iconic backyard dunny, Queensland Urban Utilities has mounted a search to track down the last remaining outhouses in Australia before they disappear.
To showcase this quirky but important reminder of how times have changed, we’ll also be setting up Australia’s first ‘Pooseum’.
Queensland Urban Utilities spokesperson, Michelle Cull, said they’re asking residents to help them flush out as much local dunny history as possible.
“We want to hear from anyone who still has an original thunderbox in their backyard,” she said.
“We’re also on the hunt for old photos, memories and funny dunny stories, from braving the elements to warding off creepy crawlies.
“The most interesting submissions will feature in our ‘Pooseum’ – a one of a kind mini-museum which we’re setting up at our Innovation Centre at Luggage Point Sewage Treatment Plant.”
Construction of Brisbane’s sewerage network began in the inner city in 1914, but many of the outer suburbs weren’t sewered until the late 1960s, so going to the loo meant a long walk to the backyard dunny.
“These outhouses were emptied by night soil men, who made their rounds every week to collect and dispose of each household’s waste,” Ms Cull said.
“The very first night soil men travelled by horse and cart, before dunny trucks were later introduced.”
Ipswich resident, Lyle Barlow, worked as a night soil man for Brisbane City Council during the 1970s, collecting night soil for the township of Mount Crosby each weekend.
“Every Saturday morning I would jump in my truck and visit around 50 homes and businesses to collect their waste and take it to the local landfill depot,” he said.
“I did the job for around five years and learnt pretty quickly how to avoid spills when transporting the pans.”
Stories like Lyle’s will be preserved in our ‘Pooseum’, which will showcase a number of dunnies restored to their former glory with the help of Wynnum Manly and Districts Men’s Shed.
The ‘Pooseum’ will be an important reminder of how far south east Queensland’s sewerage network has come since the early 1900s.
“These days sewerage is a hidden service that we don’t tend to think about, but a lot goes on behind the scenes so you can flush and forget,” Ms Cull said.
“We have around 9,000km of sewer pipes in our network and 29 sewage treatment plants which treat around 44,000 Olympic swimming pools of waste every year.”
For more information on how to submit your backyard dunny photos, memories and stories visit www.urbanutilities.com.au/backyarddunny.