Rodney Hurley

Past resident of Acton Workers Cottage no. 15 (with his grandparents)
Born: 1933, Canberra Community Hospital (building now part of the ANU)
​Interview: December 2013

“My name is Rodney Hurley. I was born in Canberra in 1933 at the old Canberra Hospital - the weatherboard hospital on the hill, known then as the community hospital. My parents were Bede and Olga Hurley. Bede Hurley was the son of a pioneer - another pioneer in Canberra - old Bill Hurley, who was then later the chairman of the Canberra Hospital Board. We lived in Wise Street in Braddon. We never had the modern appliances early in the piece. We had an ice chest in Wise Street and the ice-man would do ice deliveries. And of course the milkman would deliver milk. In wintertime you would know how fresh your milk was because of the amount of ice on top of the milk on the front step. Too much ice - too much water in the milk!

My Grandparents Bert Gardiner and Ellen Gardiner lived in 15 Acton Cottages, which was the one closest to Acton Hall. When they moved there I’m not too sure, but I can recall growing up there as a lad. I used to ride the pushbike down to Acton cottages every Sunday morning - it was a ritual going down to see grandma and grandpa. Acton was my playground as a child. It was originally a two bedroomed cottage, but a third was later added on.

They had a lot of modern appliances – at least to us in those days. They had a refrigerator, which was really something. There was a fuel stove of course, and a radio gramophone in the lounge room and a whole pile of 78s. They had a telephone on - that was really something – that used to sit on top of the radiogram in the lounge room. An outside loo - that was a bit of a menace of a night time to go to the loo. And I remember the bathroom come laundry combination. In the corner was a galvanised old bath and above that was the shower, and feeding the hot water was a ‘puffing billy’. You’d fill it full of dried pine cones - they made excellent fuel, with a women's weekly wound up to start the fire, and the old puffing billy would go pooffoofooof! I remember it well!

I’ve got very fond memories of Acton. To name just a few - my grandfather was the custodian of the Acton hall (with the keys) and we used to have Christmas meals in there. I had my first job as a labourer working on the old administration buildings that were there, and then later I worked as an electrician at the (new) hospital that was eventually imploded. I was very keen on that hospital and have great memories of all the staff there. Indeed, I helped Dr David Nott install the first pacemaker in Canberra!”

Rodney's wife Margaret Hurley joined us at the very end of the interview to talk about how the area has changed.