[Seia Ibanez]

Outside Dunny​

Who remembers the old outside dunny? Backyard life in the 60s often meant a trek down to the bottom of the yard for the loo—complete with a chain pull cistern, old newspaper or phone book pages for toilet paper, and maybe even a redback or two under the seat!

Credit: Australia Remember When / Facebook

Did your family have one of these? Share your stories with us!

 

[Choff5]

What CHAIN?

 

[Mikev]

Yes, when I was growing up, we had an outside dunny or toilet. I hated having to go out into the backyard after sunset. Dark and Creepy.

 

[Leenie]

Yes, when I was growing up, we had an outside dunny or toilet. I hated having to go out into the backyard after sunset. Dark and Creepy.

I think we all did , I remember once how they would pull the full one out from under you and shove the empty one in ,that was before the chain one came in , night times in those days were scary.

 

[Choff5]

Re:- travelling parcels. I have just received a parcel :- went from mt waverley, melb,west wodonga,melb,euroa,melb,seymour,melb,west sydney,melb,seymour,melb seymour,melb,preston,melb,seymour,melb,sydney,melb,seymour,melb,seymour,melb,seymour, melb,Dingley in Melbourne.

 

[Benny's Light]

My grand parents loo was down the back yard. It was a little shed like appearance was nicely painted and decorated always with fresh flowers. It was not a flush loo but a can that was collected by the can man regularly. It was not until the late 1960s that it was replaced with a modern loo - one inside in the bathroom and one in the toilet shed down the backyard.

 

[goatwhisperer]

Chain? That's a bit fancy! Long drop was our toilet we grew up with! Always took a sibling with us in case the boogie man was around at night time..

 

[HelenB55]

I use to pay my 2 younger brothers a penny each to wait outside at night when I had to go to the toilet.
As soon as I shut the door, they would both bolt back inside the house.

I usually waited in the toilet till someone else wanted to use it…then I would bolt back to the house. I’m one of 6 children, so I didn’t have to wait too long.

I’m still scared of the night (and I’m 70)… so I don’t think I will grow out of it ..

 

[Mars]

Yes we had a dunny outside as well. No chain. I was Pregnant at the time and ended up having a fall coming back from it. My Son was born 2 weeks early .

 

[HelenB55]

Re:- travelling parcels. I have just received a parcel :- went from mt waverley, melb,west wodonga,melb,euroa,melb,seymour,melb,west sydney,melb,seymour,melb seymour,melb,preston,melb,seymour,melb,sydney,melb,seymour,melb,seymour,melb,seymour, melb,Dingley in Melbourne.

Lucky for you that you didn’t have to pay all the Postage Costs for your parcel to go to all those places

 

[Still Ebby]

My sister had one including red back spiders

 

[barrymacca]

I grew up on a remote farm. Our outside dunny was a tin shelter with a couple of planks mounted over a hole in the ground. When it became uncomfortable, a new hole was dug and the tin shelter and fittings relocated. The old hole of course was filled in.

 

[Gus]

I grew up in Erko (Erskineville, a suburb of Sydney<NSW) and we were one of the few which had a toilet in the bathroom. The neighbours had their potties in a separate "room" accessed from the back yard.

 

[Still Ebby]

I grew up in Erko (Erskineville, a suburb of Sydney<NSW) and we were one of the few which had a toilet in the bathroom. The neighbours had their potties in a separate "room" accessed from the back yard.

We had one under the bed when we were young we called a gazunder .
Reminds me of when l worked in this big hotel in my teens as a chambermaid. l knocked on the door of a bedroom and saw this woman sat on one .l made a hasty retreat.

 

[Leenie]

I remember my grandmother having one under the bed .

 

[Wandiwa]

Outdoor bogs, UNISEX .... 60 years before it became trendy.

 

[Leenie]

I remember when I was about 12 years old the people on the corner ,we were about 5 houses up the road the daughter of the old couple would stand in the doorway and hurl the contents out even when they had clothes on the line . It was low set home and the line was no more than about two metres from the back door, they weren’t normal people I believe inbred.

 

[marni]

For a young couple in the sixties, we purchased a house like that. Still glad, as it let us step into the real estate ladder. Then slowly saved up for the plumbers to come when sewerage came into the district

 

[Viellarde]

What CHAIN?

Oh, did you not upgrade from the bucket to the chain before moving indoors? I went through all 3 in Melb, then moved to Perth and back to the bottom of the backyard with The Chain!