Frank Dunshea

Past Resident of Acton Workers Cottage no. 4
Born: 1926, Acton
Interview: Community session, April 2011

"My name is Frank Dunshea. I was born in the Acton cottages in 1926 and lived there until 1946. My family actually lived in Acton before the cottages were built in a lean-to sort of shack in the area and moved into the cottages when they were first built in the early 1920s. The heart and soul of the Acton that I knew consisted of fifteen small weatherboard cottages in a single row with galvanised iron roofs, known as Acton Cottages. They were situated in an area extending from the present wharf on Acton Peninsula, near Sylvia Curley House [no longer there], heading west in the direction of Springbank Island. This area is now covered by the water of Lake Burley Griffin.

The house my family occupied, number 4, originally consisted of two bedrooms, a sitting room (always referred to as the front room), kitchen, combined laundry and bathroom and a toilet. There was no hallway. The front door went straight into the front room with the main bedroom off it, then through to the kitchen with the second bedroom straight off that, and the backdoor with the laundry outside. The toilet was attached to the house with the door to it being outside at the rear of the house, so you would have to go outside via the backdoor and down the back steps and walk past the laundry windows to go to the toilet. But, we considered ourselves lucky as we were connected to the sewerage system and had both running water and electricity, which is something our grandparents in Queanbeyan did not have.

The laundry/bathroom consisted of a fuel copper, concrete tub and a flat bottomed tin bath with a cold water tap and no shower. In later years the baths were fitted with wood fuelled bath heaters. These heaters consisted of a heavy steel cylinder with a removable conical fuel feeder also used as an air intake in the top in which the fire was established. It was surrounded by a water jacket fed in at the bottom and coming out the top. They were known as Puffing Billys as when they were really going (especially when fed with pine cones from the pine plantation behind the cottages) they puffed like a steam train and seemed to be rattling the whole house. The water coming out would be almost at boiling point..."

Read Frank Dunshea's very detailed memories of life in Acton (pdf download)

Frank Dunshea sadly passed away in January 2014. A long-standing and enthusiastic advocate for old Acton, Frank was an early and ongoing inspiration for this project, for which we remain indebted. His son Kevin has generously provided Frank's detailed written memories of old Acton between the years of 1926-1946, excerpts of which we have added throughout the site.