Oddments #1 – the disappearing house, 1805
One of the reasons that very little trace remains of the earliest colonial dwellings is that they were, quite often, rubbish. Built by convicts who often had little idea of what they were doing, the earliest dwellings were hodge-podge affairs, put together by people doing the best that they could in difficult circumstances.
The following article appeared in The Sydney Gazette in 1805 – the first Australian newspaper, founded in 1803 and printed at First Government House on the Quay (now the site of the Museum of Sydney). Perhaps the fella in question should have paid more heed to the adage of caveat emptor in this early foray into the apparently already brutal Sydney real estate market.
Idiosyncratic spelling intact, it reads:
The effects of the late very heavy and incessant rains have left their usual traces among the cottage habitations, few of which have totally escaped visible injury. The unabating shower that fell on Wednesday night without a moment’s interval from dark till several hours after daylight, few plaïstered pannels could resist, and had the violence of the weather not somewhat abated, many slight buildings must certainly have been washed totally away, and “like the baseless fabric of a vision, left not a wreck behind.” The mode of building however, receives the improvement it so much stood in need of, as permanency is now more generally consulted than it had hitherto been. Some months since a ludicrous, tho’ indeed distressing circumstance occurred in the purchase of one of these airy buildings that perhaps in point of seniority came short of few. The bargain concluded, the vendor removed his chattels and effects to make room for his successor: who being by the intervention of a couple of days very bad weather prevented from immediate occupancy, upon the third proceeded to possession by entry; but had the unspeakable mortification to find that he had too long suspended his design, as the house had taken leave of the premises, and left scarce a handful of rubbish in its place.
