Homemade Australian - Federation Bungalow, Chatswood NSW

My Federation bungalow has some inhabitants now! I was thinking about what kind of dolls would fit, and looking at various wooden and character dolls on the internet. Then I found some dolls my sister gave me a few years ago:


These are Deepings Dolls, hand-turned and hand-painted in Tasmania. It seems very appropriate that this house should have Australian-made wooden dolls in it - and dolls that look like very ordinary everyday Australians of some time in the mid-twentieth century. The boy is wearing overalls; the woman is wearing a skirt, blouse and apron; the man has his shirt sleeves rolled up, and an open collar with no tie; and the little girl has quite a long frock tied with a big bow.


So here they are in their new home:


Dad and the little boy have been out in the back yard working on the vege patch, and have brought in some carrots. (I'm not quite sure why they are still holding their tools!)
As you can see, some dogs have joined the household too - little pipecleaner dogs from the 20s-30s. One belongs to the little boy, and one is the little girl's:



She has been in the front yard with Mum, picking flowers. Mum has her little garden fork with her, ready to tend the potplants on the verandah - when she gets some!

Homemade Australian - Federation Bungalow, Chatswood NSW

I have just received my newest dolls house. I bought it on ebay - this is what it looked like on the auction:

I don't know its full history - the seller told me he had acquired it at a charity auction in Chatswood 8 years ago. It had belonged to an elderly lady who lived in Hercules St, Chatswood. It was not a replica of that house, but perhaps it was made to resemble the original owner's house - certainly you can see houses just like this in Sydney and many NSW country towns.

It is the most complete vintage homemade house I have - all the handmade furniture came with the house, and all the walls and floors have their original decoration.


It has a name - 'Pop', which is written on a plaque above the front porch. It was most likely a very loving and skilled Pop who made the house for his granddaughter.

The front door opens off the porch - well, it would if it opened, but instead, the side walls slide out to give access to the house:

The front door would lead into the living room, which has a large bay window, comfortable green lounge suite, an open fire, and a piano (all hand made). The carpet is painted on to the floor, with a margin of (painted) wooden floor all around it.


A door leads from the living room through to the dining room, which has a rayburn wood heater, dining table and three chairs, and a dresser. There's another radio in here - a Kleeware plastic radio, one of the few manufactured pieces.


I've taken another photo of the dining room without the furniture, to show the detail of the painted carpet:


The next room is the kitchen, which has a plain wooden (painted) floor. The wooden furniture consists of a table, 2 chairs and a kitchen dresser (with the base cut at the back to fit over the skirting board). The metal stove and saucepans were handmade as well. On the table are a little plastic clock (unmarked), and an amber depression glass dish marked 'Japan'.
(As in many real old houses, some dust has fallen down from the crack between the wall and the ceiling, from the attic space above, and there have been no occupants to clean it for some time.)


Both the dining room and kitchen have windows in the rear wall of the house, and there's a (non-opening) kitchen door. This is what it looks like from the outside - I love the shield stuck on the gable, just like on real houses of this period.


Finally, there's the bedroom, which opens off the kitchen, and looks out on to the front porch. It has a bed, dressing table (with a mirror welded on to pins in the frame), and a wardrobe. None of the drawers or doors in the furniture open - they are made of thin pieces of plywood cut into the appropriate shapes and stuck on the front of the piece of furniture.




All that's missing from this house are occupants and soft furnishings. It clearly had curtains, as above every window there are tiny nails to hold a rail. I've already had a look through the vintage fabric I've purchased for other houses, and found fabric to make curtains for all the rooms. There are also some nails where pictures might have hung. I don't know who is going to live here yet - I have a feeling it might be an old couple, who live quite quietly, and sometimes have visits from their grandchildren.

I am hoping to get a better idea of when this house might have been made from the wood used to make it. Some pieces of the base of the house and furniture have letters and numbers stamped on the wood, and two pieces of the base have bits of paper labels. One is maybe for tea (Bushell's Blue Label? with just the BEL showing?). I've emailed the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney hoping they may be able to identify these bits of packaging.