The First House Doug Built

In his lifetime Doug built four houses almost all by his hand. Each of these houses was unusual in both design and implementation.

The first was in 1957/58 on a large block off Newnham Road in Mount Gravatt where he had already started a strawberry farm. Newnham Road was not paved until 1963. He was working full-time for Bearing Service at the time.

This photo was taken from where the back of the house would be looking across to the strawberry fields. The building was a pump house with a single-cylinder diesel. Later he dug a drainage trench along the side of the property down to that shed. He cut up an old Mercedes and used it as fill. I asked what would happen when it rusted.

Turning the camera 180 degrees, we can see where the house was to be built. I don’t think the car was his. As far as I know, he had a rollover VW when I was born and old Mercedes until he bought his first Citroen in 1964. The early VW was called rollover because it had independent suspension that, when cornering hard, allowed the outside wheels to fold under the car causing it to roll over.

How do you like the wheelbarrow? I think I still have that shovel :). It looks like he hand-dug the hill to build the lower level of the house. It seems like a lot of hard work. Seeing my father without a shirt or hat is revealing in more than one way. In later life, he always had long sleeves and a straw head ornament. He also had a few skin cancers removed, probably from this period.

Yep – those marks are made by a mattock. I wonder where the dirt went? It was probably used for the strawberries. It was during the building of this house that he hurt his back. He misstepped from a ladder and fell against a wall. His labours did not stop at digging. He made his own concrete bricks. The final wall was plastered with what looked like dripping thick paint.

Looking left to right, we have the laundry, a downstairs room, the steps up to the main house (where Doug is) and the double garage currently full of gravel. When complete, you would drive into the garage from the off-image right. The hole in the rear of the laundry was a shute from the bathroom above, while a similar space in the next room was blocked off to make an open storage space. I had my model train set (given to me by Peter Warner) in that room. On the far side of the garage was a small workroom.

We are standing in the living-room closest to Newnham Road. The third bedroom would be to our right when build, followed by the bathroom and kitchen. The detritus to the upper right of the cement mixer is where the kitchen table would be. The slot to the left of that is the rear stairs. The covered part of the garage is an open walkway (under the roofline) to the main two bedrooms. My parents were furthest out, and I was closest to the dining room. Notice the dam for the strawberries on the far upper-right.

I don’t remember living there before we went to Townsville when I was three. I do remember it as my home from when I was five until we left six years later to live at Jones Road, Capalaba. Since there doesn’t appear to be any more photographs, I will draw images from my memory.

I saw Newnham Road being sealed in about 1963. My father must have sold the strawberry farm around them. I remember him commenting on them pumping out the dam, filling it and building a house on it in the space of a few months. He was of the opinion that the house would crack up.

There was a swing in the back yard. I remember Teddy – my father’s youngest brother – pushing me on it. His mother, my grandma (Emma) had an illness (possibly Rubella) during his pregnancy. Teddy was born with brain-damage. He looked much older than my father but was patient enough to push a swing for as long as I wanted.

We had a Sausage Dog – called a Dachshund these days. I am sure it was ostensibly for me, but I think my father liked having animals around. It was called Boots for its brown feet. It was otherwise all shiny black with big floppy ears of course. It also loved to escape. Our yard looked like a war zone with chicken wire covering almost every exit. The inevitable happened and Boots was hit by a car. My father called me out to say goodbye. Boots was in the back seat of the Mercedes with no visible injuries and looking at me with sad eyes. In hindsight, I imagine he had a broken back.

On the side of the garage closest to the road, my father had installed a water softener. He had to reload with salt and flush it every few months. Next to it was a Monstera Deliciosa. We all enjoyed the fruit – which Dad said was like a fruit salad.

I was in the bath at around age five when a large hail storm hit. The bulb in the bathroom exploded. My mother told me it was nothing to worry about. I doubt she felt that way herself. Many tiled houses had roof damage but I think we suffered worse because our roof was fibro – a kind of bonded asbestos. The hailstones went through it like it wasn’t there. My father came home and arranged a canvas to cover the whole roof. I image he replaced it with corrugated iron.

I started school at Mount Gravatt East. My mother walked me the first day but after that, I went alone. It was quite a distance but it did not cross any major roads. I stayed there until part-way through grade five.