In our time: Grateful for the indoor, flushing toilet

View from above of rows of timber houses with outhouses built by the Queensland Housing Commission in Norman Park, Brisbane, Australia around 1950. The little sheds in each back yard are "outhouses" or "dunnies". (sourced from: Wikimedia Commons)

Here in urban Australia we take it for granted that we can flush our toilets several times a day, with little or no thought about the process of removal of such waste. The sewerage pipes take care of it. We don't need to think about it.

But deep sewerage is a relatively new phenomenon. It was the 1970s before the whole of Brisbane was connected up to it, and parts of Tasmania had to wait until the 1980s. Many rural areas of Australia still use septic tanks on each property, but they do have the benefit of water-flushable toilets.

Many of my parents' generation remember well the days before indoor, flushable toilets. The days of the dunny, the thunderbox, the shed up the back, the outhouse, the sh*thouse, the building at the bottom of the backyard which was often covered by a creeper, perhaps a choko or a morning glory?

The bluestone-cobbled laneways that the inner-suburbs of Melbourne are so renowned for were not designated so that 21st century families could build double-garages with convenient rear-access. They were actually there to provide access for the 'night soil' collectors who came by during the night once or twice a week with their horse and cart, collecting a removable pan of waste from each outhouse and replacing it with a new one.

'Night soil' - such a delicate euphemism for human excrement!

And what, once it was collected, was a night soil collector to do with his bounty? This was an issue that local authorities struggled with over a long period of time. The City of Kingston local history website highlights that, "Much to the annoyance of many local residents the sandy soil in the Shire of Moorabbin was seen by some councils as a prime dumping ground for this accumulating waste," while the Monash City history pages detail how in the Oakleigh area, "Despite various attempts to ban it as harmful to the health, night soil was a major source of fertiliser for the surrounding market gardens" and how in the early part of the 20th century, there were many attempts "to prevent market gardeners taking produce to Melbourne and bringing manure back on the same carts".

Local authorities across Australia drew up by-laws about the hours during which night soil could be carted, and the depth at which it had to be buried.

The City of Kingston article about night soil is particularly interesting if you wish to persue this topic in more detail.

Even once flushable toilets became more common, many households installed them in the existing (or a new) outhouse. In my lifetime, I have certainly made use of many outdoor facilities at people's homes and even nowadays, many cafes and restaurants in strip shopping precincts have facilities 'down the back'.

The outdoor dunny phenomenon has led to a multitude of references in Australian folklore, including the classic 1972 Slim Newton song, The Redback on the Toilet Seat, which is now available as a children's picture book.

I am extremely grateful for the invention before my time of the flushable toilet, and glad that in most Australian houses nowadays, it is located in the warmth and comfort of the main house. However, I am very mindful of the fact that for a large part of the world's population, sanitation is indeed still an issue and that for those people, not having access to basic levels of sanitation threatens their health and opportunities for development.

Those of you who have already seen the Academy-award winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire, will recall a particularly graphic scene involving a long-drop toilet and the main character as a small boy. Everytime I think of that scene I am particularly grateful for my flushable, sewered toilet.

What memories or experiences do you have with non-flushable outdoor toilets?

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Thank you to H&B from House & Baby for suggesting this subject as part of our series on ideas and skills from before our time we can't do without.

H&B wrote, "I had a great old chat with my mum recently re: the dunny man... he had another name though ... nightman, I think? I myself grew up with an assortment of long-drops. I could kiss the flush toilet, in fact, my new one is so un-scathed, I might just do so now...I think about him often as we take our 'shortcuts' down the back alleys of our cobblestoned suburb to get to kindy. I love thinking of the history as I go down the backalleys, and the boys love the bumpy ride in the pram."

This is indeed the kissable new flush toilet at H&B's house. Photo courtesy of H&B.

H&B has been blogging the suburban life since 2006 and is a professional photographer.

If you have something you'd like us to cover please email us at beforeourtime@bigpond.com

Trading the Victa for a Hoover*

Before our time, the Great Aussie Backyard looked something like this photo taken in the early 1970s in suburban Perth. A huge expanse of lawn (often spiky buffalo), a concrete path and a Hills Hoist. Litres of water were poured onto the lawn via sprinklers, with the water sometimes originating from a bore in your own backyard. A hose could be used to water the lawn, wash the car, clean out the rubbish bins (as above), water the pot plants and cool off hot children.

With the tragic events of the past weeks, I think most of the world is now aware that parts of Australia are in severe drought (and have been for some time). With this drought comes stringent water restrictions which completely prohibit the watering of lawns in any way, shape or form.

So, most lawns around here now look like this:

But not the lawn in my new backyard (we moved house last week). It is lush and green. It has no dead patches. It provides an even texture with little maintenance.

Because it's fake.

At first I was appalled by the idea of having a synthetic back lawn. It seemed almost un-Australian. But I have to say, after living with it for a week or so, it's growing on me. (Not literally, obviously.)

There are distinct advantages of an artificial lawn - it requires no watering, or fertilising. It doesn't need to be mowed. It lasts up to 20 years without fading, and it always looks green.

After putting up with dustbowls for playgrounds for the past few years, many of the schools around our area are also turfing their outdoor areas with synthetic lawn. The children's clothing stays cleaner, they have a soft, 'green' surface to play on and the overall appearance of the school is improved.

A new house in our neighbourhood has gone one step further than just artificially turfing their own front/backyard, they have also done the 'nature strip' (the piece of ground in front of each house between the street and the footpath/pavement/sidewalk). As you look along the street it is brown, dead, crunchy, patchy, lush green, brown, dead, crunchy... Could this be the end of the nature strip as we know it? Soon to be the un-nature strip?

In places where you are permitted to water lawns, it is estimated up to 80 percent of a household's water use will go onto a lawn. Replacing dead, brown lawns and dusty ovals with synthetic turf seems like a simple solution to the watering issue, when we don't have the water to use. However like all things in life, nothing is simple. In researching this post, I discovered the down-side to the artificial acres of verdant lushness.

Synthetic turf is, quite obviously a man-made product, made of polyethylene or a combination of polyethylene and nylon, sewn into a rubberized plastic mat or a netted backing. So, in manufacturing the turf, carbon emissions are created. And then, the artificial lawn itself replaces a living (sometimes), breathing real lawn, which in normal circumstances would be sequestering carbon and producing oxygen.

In order to make the individual blades of synthetic grass stand up, the lawn is in-filled with granules of a variety of substances (sometimes granulated rubber) and there are concerns about whether toxic substances leach out of these granules and into the ground water.

This article at the Sustainable Gardening Australia website contains an excellent summary of the points for and against real and fake lawns. Who knew grass could have so many issues?

Where do you stand on the lawn? Real or fake?

* You wouldn't really vacuum an artificial lawn - you need to sweep it. But 'Trading the Victa for a Broom' just didn't have the same ring to it.