1952 WRIGLEY CABIN (OB2a) – 15 Burne Avenue, DeeWhy – Temporary accommodation during OB2 construction

My early cabin door with sculpted handle, turned and sculpted during my time at Sydney Technical College, Ultimo. I was able to use the woodworking shop through Bob Sutton. I turned the door handle to about 300mm diam.and then sculpted it to give a variety of grips and to the best of my knowledge it is still there.

Having sold my first house to Ron and Vi Tartakover for A$2000 in 1951 to finance my rush trip to England at Christmas 1951 to see Dad after his heart attack I was left homeless but managed to board with the Tartakovers for a month or so while I built the cabin on top of the quarry. This required a lot of blasting of the rock face to achieve access for the car and material deliveries.

The cabin was a most useful interim house for me and suited my batchelor life very well up to 1956 when Hilary and I married and moved in to the final house after completion.

The Tartakovers subsequently sold OB1 in 1954 for $6000 making a very tidy 200% profit !
I learned about Australian real estate ‘principles’ the hard way.