Or is it?

The word ‘dunny’ first appeared in 1933 and is thought to be derived from a British dialect word 'Dunnekin'. The first part of the word 'dunne' means dung or excrement, while ‘kin’ is from the word ‘ken’, meaning house.

Dunny at the John Dynon Gallery - Silverton, NSW.

A DUNNY IS JUST A DUNNY, IS JUST A DUNNY.

OR IS IT? By Colin Kerr

It may depend on how old you are or where you were brought up, or perhaps how good your memory is, but there is no doubt that dunnies have been part of our Aussie folklore for as long as anyone can remember!

Indeed, the good old bush dunny has always had an air of romance and character from our pioneering past - yes, a place in our history far above what its utilitarian presence really deserves! Now I’ll admit it’s pretty basic stuff we’re discussing here, but as the old saying goes, "Reality should always be faced head on!" Undoubtedly for some the subject might be taboo, but for most of us listening to light-hearted and humorous dunny stories told down through the years, clearly places them right up there as an important part of our social history! Mostly standing alone down the back yard, these quintessential Aussie structures were to some, even referred to as architectural masterpieces … but indeed it’s hard to imagine why! Referred to by a number of different names including outhouses, bush loos, the thinking or meditating room, la la’s, convenience, pissoir, the-you-know-where, s… house, lavatory, alter room, cloak room, lava-tree, latrine, WC (water closet), powder room, privy, Jon, crapper, comfort station, seat of power, Aunt Mabel, Jake’s can, bog house, throne room, toot, little house, dyke, thunder box (or circular ones have been called a thunder dome), and many, many more. Indeed, these small structures all with their own individual character have in fact been and continue to be, a vital appendage to our living quarters wherever we are. One guy also used to call his dunny the ‘loositania’ as it looked like it “would go down at any moment in the wind”! Whist on the subject of names given to dunnies, it seems etymologists have put much research into the origins and meanings of these curious titles and have come up with some equally strange results. Such a study would in itself make fascinating and entertaining reading!!

Public toilets - Wirrulla, SA.

Amongst our readers, I'm sure a few can remember in towns and cities where there were only a few long drop toilets, the sanitary man (sometimes referred to as sanno carters, dunny men, whoopee stewards or night soil men) would call into the houses at night once or twice a week with his horse and cart to empty the dunny drum, pot or can, often dragged out through a small trap door at the back of the loo. What a great job that would have been … and I imagine these poor souls would be the ‘butt’ of many jokes and pranks! … but at least they had a job and I believe, were quite well paid for what they did. They’d want to be!! Whilst it might be just a yarn, we heard one story about a lady who had to go during the night. She was sitting comfortably when the sanno-man arrived. He opened the access door at the back, whipped out the can from under her and called out, “Thanks, Luv.” It is told that after such incidents the dunny man attached a bell to his cart so occupants of the loo could hear him coming! Thank heavens for our modern sewerage and septic systems!

Now, when it came to the materials used for the construction of those rustic old backyard dunnies, it seems that almost anything goes, and they come in all shapes and sizes too. Some were made of stone, brick or weatherboard, corrugated iron, flattened oil drums or kerosene tins, hessian windbreak (no pun intended) strung around upright posts, often with no door - perhaps giving rise to the tag ‘room with a view’! Some were made from rough sawn timber or even constructed with decorative cast iron and even tree bark or mud bricks. The roof was either non-existent, made of iron, some with gables and others with thatched rooves made from palm leaves, bushes, spinifex A very public toilet at Maytown, in the old Palmer Goldfields, North Queensland. or whatever else was available at the time. Some eventually had wisteria, bougainvillea or honeysuckle growing over them. Inside, the bench-like dunny seats, set up over a deep hole (or emptyable can underneath), were usually made of wood with an appropriate hole in the middle and a wooden or metal fold-down lid or, in a few cases, seats were made of slate, but on cold, frosty mornings these proved to be very cold on tender backsides!

Toilet use surveys have

revealed that people on average Old loo at Cook, SA.

visit the toilet between six and eight times a day, or about 2,500 times a year. This is equivalent to spending a couple of years of your life visiting the dunny!

There should have been a rule - never, ever use stainless steel for a dunny seat in places that get down to near freezing point overnight. Several people over the years have had a ring of skin burnt off their backsides in these situations! As you can imagine from the above, almost any handyman could put together an acceptably constructed dunny, but did you know that if you wanted a loo properly and professionally built, you called on an expert, known at the time as a privyologist (or should he have been called a looologist?) who knew all the fine tricks of the trade including coat hanger positions, aeration/vents, correctly placed hinges for doors, secure latches to stop intruders from interruption, book shelves for reading matter, penholders with pads for jotting down inspirations (which for many people curiously come to them whilst sitting on the throne), an incense burner and other fancy inclusions … and then there’s the question of whether the dunny door opens inwards or outwards? One argument over the years is to open it inwards, so you can kick it shut if intruders approach! I wonder what these outhouse experts are all doing today? Another aspect of the old long drop (or pit) toilets which were basically set up over a deep hole dug underneath was the eventual problem of what to do when the hole gets full. Well the most obvious answer was to dig another hole and move the dunny structure over to it. Well, it seems some lazy sods had the brainwave of burning off the contents! One such account goes along the lines - first pour down the hole a few litres of petrol followed by a lighted match. Well, it seems the methane gas combined with petrol and a flame instantly produced a huge explosion, not only blowing the dunny seat high in the air but resulting in the disintegration of the whole dunny structure! Lesson learnt - dig another bloody hole!

Men's dunny - Middleton, Qld. Caught short at the leaning dunny of Silverton, NSW.

The word ‘loo’ is believed to have come from the French practice of emptying their toilet pans into the street, yelling, "gardez l’eau" which roughly translated becomes "beware of flying shit" – hence the word ‘loo’.

Going back to the subject of ‘dunny memories’, I can still recall as a young child when visiting my grandparents on their rural farm, having to make my way down the back path through the garden to the long drop toilet with its old creaky door latched with a piece of wire. There was no toilet paper here in those days, just newspaper torn into approximately 6-inch (15cm) squares, strung on a piece of cord or string hanging on a nail on the dunny wall or on the back of the door. On later visits I recall the squares were often torn from the previous year’s yellow phone book pages. Glossy pages from magazines were never used - they just wouldn’t do the job! There was also a drum of white stuff (lime) which we had to pour down the hole (with a rusty tin) after we’d done our business! I was told at the time it had something to do with keeping down the smells - indeed, that and all the flies is why these structures were built so far away in the first place! As a child I recall this backyard trip at night was quite a scary mission, carrying an old kero lamp and on a windy night the corrugated iron cladding on the dunny would creak and rattle and the light flame would flicker creating ghostly shadows - eerie stuff indeed. Were these experiences the beginning of many haunted loos stories that we were told through the years? By the way, after my scary backyard trips I later found out grandma never went out there at night - she had a potty (then known as a chamber pot) neatly hidden under her bed! I also saw a commode (potty on a stand) in her room during one of our later visits. To be honest, whilst we kids always enjoyed our visit to our grandparents, in one way we couldn’t wait to get home. As they say, when you've gotta go, you’ve gotta go, but there is no place like home! There were stories of a snake being seen ‘down the hole’ and one

The saying ‘spend a penny’, which means to use the toilet, is day the farm cat fell in (or did one of those believed to have originated in the U.K. visiting relative's kids when those in need were charged a who never liked the

British penny to use public toilets. cat, throw it in? We’ll

This used to be the case in some places in Australia too! It is believed the title ‘dunny’ is only used in Australia and New Zealand with a wide variety of names used elsewhere around the world!

Public amenities - Scaddon, north of Esperance, WA.

The dunny at Iron Knob, SA.

never know. For poor old grandpa that was indeed a messy job getting it out!! I also recall those same kids, waiting for someone to go into the loo and then aggressively running a stick across the outside of the corrugated iron of the dunny, resulting in a frightening and quite deafening noise for the by now very upset tenant. This trick was mostly played on other kids and not adults for obvious disciplinary reasons! Whilst the sight of backyard thunderboxes might almost be a thing of the past, and the associated folklore, character and iconic charm has all but disappeared, it seems dunnies around the country have these days been given a new lease of life! What we’re talking about here are mostly those public toilet blocks seen in towns everywhere which have been turned into very creative works of art. Some have been adorned with abstract mural paintings, others include art that identifies them with the town, its local produce, attractions, identities, wildflowers and animals, as well as many humorous ones clearly aimed at the goings on behind the closed dunny doors. Continuing the light-hearted theme surrounding these modern-day loos is the practise of quite often, not identifying the doors as ‘Mens’ and ‘Ladies’, but displaying signs such as ‘Guys’ and ‘Sheilas’, ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’, ‘Rams’ and ‘Ewes’, ‘Mares’ and ‘Stallions’, ‘Devils’ and ‘Angels’, ‘Mangoes’ and ‘No Mangoes’, ‘Shake Dry’ and ‘Drip Dry’, ‘Colts’ and ‘Fillies’, ‘Elvis’ and ‘Priscilla’, and in apple-growing country there are dunny signs ‘Pink Ladies’ and ‘Jonathons’ … and the humour surrounding this subject doesn’t stop there! Around the country on our travels in recent years, we have encountered the sight of toilet bowls out the front of houses for use as letterboxes, and in some places they are creatively used as garden planters for flowers and vegetables! Elsewhere was the sight of a ‘dunny tree’ with a collection of toilet pedestals hanging from its branches,

At the Daly Waters Pub, NT.

Public toilets in Bunbury, WA.

Directions at Paynes Find Roadhouse, WA.

and the peculiar sight of a dunny sitting out in a paddock all by itself - presumably the outhouse itself had fallen down or blown away years ago! Over the years there has also been poems written about dunnies. Many feature in songs, stories and cartoons, there are small pottery sculptures made to display on mantle pieces, and if you search a little you’ll find books written on the subject, all reflecting our great Aussie humour and on many occasions, our ability to look back and laugh about our own dunny experiences! Did you know there is a botanic name for toilet paper which is unfortunately often found strewn in the bush around many roadside rest stops? It is called toiletus obnoxious, or the White Bottom Paper Daisy (or even Brown and White Butterflies). No, it is certainly not a native flower in the Aussie bush - let’s stop its spread before it is too late!

An old loo at Lightning Ridge, NSW.

Continuing on the theme of modern dunny humour - many readers will be aware that dunnies have become, in several outback towns, forms of entertainment in the form of dunny races - mostly with creative names or registration plates such as 4U2PEE or 4U2POO - either carried on wheelbarrows or on their own wheels with ‘sulky-type’ arms to pull it along on the one hundred metre dash or 250 metre marathon, often with dunny paper streaming out the back and one of the team members sitting on the throne inside! In Alaska, I am told, outhouses are mounted on skis and raced across ice and snow! Great fun indeed - all adding another meaning to the expression ‘gotta make a run to the loo’! In some places they have dressing-up-thedunny competitions as part of local festivals and tidy town competitions. Ponder for a moment and consider jokes thrown at the folks who live in the curiously named Perth suburbs of Mullaloo and Innaloo! Another creative aspect of public loos or those found in cafes, restaurants, roadhouses, bars, pubs, etc. around the country are the directional signs to get there or those within the toilet cubical which pass on helpful (?) advice to users, such as: • Men to the LEFT, because women are always RIGHT! • Patrons are requested to refrain from disposing their cigarette butts in the urinal, as they become soggy and difficult to light! • Don’t be shy to use the toilet With a view of trying to save our old historic and culturally significant bush dunnies from becoming extinct, there are folk around the country these days who are going out and collecting old dunnies (about to be dismantled/destroyed) and bringing them back to their properties to put on display. Long live our great Aussie dunnies!! brush - that’s what the damn thing is there for. In places which are subject to many overseas tourists (Asian, Eastern European) there are signs in the female toilets, 'Please don’t stand on the toilet seat'! At home these folk are used to just a hole in the slab

with feet marks to stand on … and let go!! Then there are the humorous warnings to watch out for, such as the redbacks (spiders) which like to lurk under the toilet seats and frogs that just love frolicking around in toilet bowls! Another classic outback toilet sign is 'Please keep the toilet lid closed - wildlife tends to like to go for a swim and you may not like your fanny tickled!' Whilst on the subject of toilet messages, we have seen some that have been crudely graffittied on the walls by patrons such as the one on a female toilet door, 'If it has tyres or testicles you’ll eventually have trouble with it'. Yes, some are quite humorous, however, there are many that are pretty obscene and certainly not fit to repeat here! So, on the subject of dunnies and their progressive development over the years, where do we go from here? Well, first there was the chain-pulling flush system, later replaced by push button operation and onwards to bush enviro/eco toilets with automatic composting that don’t use water or chemicals and some public toilets that actually talk to you, welcoming users with a voice recording and playing popular music whilst patrons do their business. We have even heard of toilet facilities in a restaurant that feature an aquarium full of colourful fish built into the walls and one lady reported after her visit she saw plenty of angelfish, but no gropers! Onwards, we now have electronic toilet seats that lift at the push of a button, or even automatically as you enter ‘the little room’ and closes when you have finished - otherwise known as a marriage saver! What more could you want? Well, then along comes scented toilet rolls, thermostatically heated seats, automatic flushing when you stand up and, of course,

the bidet providing a gentle stream of warm water that cleans your backside thoroughly and with a press of a button the air dryer automatically dries you with warm scented air perfuming your backside, all without the need for toilet paper and leaving you feeling oh so fresh and clean! For those still using toilet paper, now mostly disappeared is the old stiff, shiny, scratchy toilet paper squares sometimes found in a small box with interwoven sheets or that very thin toilet paper where you needed several metres at a time to do the job! Oh for the modern comfort of soft and sometimes colourful toilet paper – one of the world’s great advances in civilised society (if you can find it on supermarket shelves!!) Yes, enjoy, or as they say in French, Bon Crapetit! No privacy here, but the view is lovely - near Marble Bar, WA.

It is believed that the first use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century in early medieval China. It then took several hundred years before it was used across the world. Before these times people cleaned themselves with their hands and water if available or with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, stones, sand, moss, ferns, fruit skins, corn husks, or in ancient Rome, the practice was to use a sponge on a stick, washing it and placing it back in a bucket of salt water!

Now moving on, have you heard that new toilet models have (or soon will) come with facilities to analyse your urine and stools (for cancer, etc.) and check your pulse rate, blood pressure and can tell if you are pregnant! What next indeed? It seems the role of privologists, mentioned earlier, still lives on, and believe it or not, there are already plenty of jokes circulating on these modern toilet devices! At this point should I raise the subject of guidelines, rules, etiquette, jokes and stories about travellers who use and (the fun part) have to empty chemical toilets/ porta potties? No, let’s keep that one for another day!! Yes, we have come a long way since the humble days of our iconic Aussie outhouses, but in your future travels, keep an eye out for some of these old relics of a bygone era still seen standing alone and neglected and, in some cases, still being used today! In conclusion, clearly a dunny is not just a dunny, they have a colourful, nostalgic past and have left an indelible mark on our Australian landscape with their character and humour, which still lives on today and hopefully will for many years to come!

One of Australia’s contributions to toilet technology was the ‘dual flush’ system, which was developed in 1980 by Bruce Thompson, working for the Caroma company.

Dogs Dunny at Nanutarra Roadhouse - North West Coastal Highway, WA.

Did you know that there is a World Toilet Organisation which holds an annual World Toilet Summit and a United Nations sponsored event, World Toilet Day held on 19th November each year which promotes awareness of sanitation issues around the world.

Toilets at the back of the Community Hall - Dawson, SA