Living History

Your First Home

Housing design and the way we live in our houses has changed a lot over the years. While everyone shares similar memories of certain events in Australia’s history, ‘your first home’ is a topic that is different for everybody. It may be the home you were born into, or perhaps the first home that you purchased, or the home where you raised your family.

Houses varied depending on where you lived, and the era in which they were built. Many will remember the enormous verandahs of the ‘Queenslander’ houses, or the slate fronted bungalows of South Australia and Victoria. Can you remember the infamous ‘fibro-cement’ houses that became the staple for housing design in the 50’s and 60’s?

What about interior design? Did you have a set of ducks hanging in formation on the wall or a lazy-susan in the middle of the dining room table? Did you have some ‘crazy paving’ on your patio or some 'tyre swans' in your garden? These are the things that make our houses unique, and represent different eras and 'tastes' in interior and exterior design.

Tell us about your first home. How was it designed? How does it compare to the new houses of today? For the months of March and April please send in your memories, photos or stories about your first home, and help us to build a living history of this interesting topic.

More Information

Want more information on this topic? Check out the following links?

Ian Evans World of Old Houses

The National Trust

Department of Environment and Heritage

Contributions

Contribution Title		Date Posted
The House that Bill Built		9/05/2006
My earliest home(s) in Rosewood and Coolangatta		29/03/2006
Life in the city		2/03/2006
My crazy 70's house		2/03/2006
Our house in the 1920’s		2/03/2006