Eumungerie's housing crisis

As Easter is always a good time to start a significant job I have started the planning for construction of a house.  Well, actually a model house.  And its not as easy as you may think, as I get sidetracked very easily.  The construction task should be straightforward - and has recently become easier as a much appreciated 'sauce' has come good with the plans for Eumungerie's station officer's houses.

Houses? How many houses did the Railways think Eumungerie needed? Well, more than I expected (that is, more than one).

I don't know what was provided at Eumungerie for the first decade of operation, as the station officer's house I was aware of was built as part of the 1911 remodelling of the entire railway yard.  Railway documents indicate that ₤686 was expended to construct the house. 

If you are a nerd like I am you will be aware that the Reserve Bank of Australia has a nifty calculator which can tell you that ₤686 in 1911 converts to $93,272.20 today.  That is a pretty tidy price for three bedroom home!  Anyway, finding this out sidetracked me for at least an hour.

So, what did this bargain bungalow look like? Here's the family's solitary photograph of the Eumungerie station officer's house.

Yes, even though the building was inhabited by our family for nearly a decade, apparently no-one thought to photograph it until after it was torched.

The only photograph I know to exist showing the house comes courtesy of the National Library of Australia.  Look hard or you will miss it. Hint, it is partially obscured by the gantry crane.

So, with this amount of photographic evidence I had put this project into the too-hard basket a decade ago.  Actually, I solved the problem by not modelling this part of the railway yard and by claiming to model 1968 - two years after the house burned to the ground.  With the new layout being in a much larger area, the luxury of just excluding the house is no longer available.

So, once I received a copy of the official plans, out of the too-hard basket came the project.  And isn't it just the cutest little bungalow?

So this is when I thought I would look at the full set of plans... and then I saw this...

I think you can click on that plan to make it larger, but here is an excerpt...

Yep, the location of the station officer's house is where I thought it would be, so no surprises there.  But to the south there is a plan for a caretaker's cottage and to the north, a fettler's cottage.  That's nearly more houses than there were in the entire village in 1911. 

I have my doubts whether the caretaker and the fettler ever got their cottages.  Maybe they burned down too?  So, I am sticking with one house.

Then I looked at the next plan, mainly out of academic interest. This plan was for the replacement station officer's house.  I approvingly noted that it was to be largely built out of fire-resistant fibrous cement sheeting.  I muttered at the utilitarian nature of the design, no architectural flourishes, just something to get a problem sorted. Here is the front elevation, which I guess was its prettiest aspect.

It sure looks more like a demountable school building than an abode for a tired station officer and family.  And its been moved!  This time the plan was to build towards the south eastern corner of the railway yard (to reduce the tired station officer's walk home from the hotel).

I consoled myself with the knowledge it was all academic.  No doubt the bean counters quashed funding for this project, as job security for staff in Eumungerie wasn't real certain.  And then I saw it, these plans were signed off on 19 December 1966... two years prior to the date I am supposed to be modelling.  What is more authentic, or less inauthentic? Building a house to model something which had been removed from existence prior to my 'modelling era'? Or do I model what should have been built except for that shortsighted bean counter? Or stuff it, build both?

Its taken until late Easter Monday but I am going for the 1911 prototype. It is cuter and if I start now it should be finished by Easter 2021 or 2031 on present form.  I better shuffle off to find the necessary building materials.  Enough talk.

Don