Mitchelton great-grandmother Thora Smith's memory paints a vivid picture of what times were like when she moved into her new Commission home more than five decades ago.
It was an era when a simple dirt lane was the only road to travel on. The milkman brought bottles straight to the front door and competed for footstep space with the baker.
Fridges didn't exist in the home so ice was delivered to cool food, drink and the meat brought to the house by the butcher.
“It was a really quiet area and there were hardly any cars at all – just a horse and cart going up the road occasionally,” Thora said.
The Smith family had spent just over a year at the Holland Park temporary accommodation camp in 1947 after Thora's late husband William came back from the war.
“The children were small then. You couldn't even rent a room in those days – there simply was nothing available,” Thora said.
“So we applied for a Queensland Housing Commission home.”
It was an application that enabled them to raise three sons, William, Richard and Gerald, and later three daughters, Linda, Jennifer and Donna, all under the one roof.
“It's hard to believe when we first moved in there was only two lanes with houses and lots of open paddock space and everyone had an outside toilet in their backyard.”
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