A Burley Griffin House – Excerpt from Betty Lou Willis’ Oral History

A Walter Burley Griffin House

Well, when Mum and Dad got out of the property up at Grenfell, where we were then, on the land, it’s between Grenfell and Forbes, they came down and they went looking for a house and the one at Castlecrag, 58 [158], was one of the original Burley Griffins. No windows shut, no door shut. I can remember going there and seeing the window... well, it wouldn’t shut, it’d be sitting on top there instead of being down there and Dad of course, Dad had always been busy in the bush as you could imagine, being on the land. He wanted something to do, so he was quite happy.

And I always remember, an estate agent at Chatswood said, “I showed Mr Redding” and he said “I felt awful. I knew it was full of white ants and it was this, that and another and so forth”. Yes, but what you didn’t know was Dad knew too. Because he’d had a look around and he wanted something to do, and he ripped every floor up, or he had help. It kept him busy and he was quite happy, because he didn’t want to be sitting around doing nothing. So that’s why they went to that 58 [158] Burley Griffin house. That was in 1952. Yes, 52 they came down….. It’s on Edinburgh Road. You know where Cabarisha is? Well, next door but one. Thompson’s were next door to them on the western side. Then there was a vacant lot to Cabarisha, which I think is still vacant, if I’m not wrong. But there was a vacant lot on the eastern side and Mum wanted Dad to buy it. She said, “Buy that...” No, no, he wouldn’t buy it. Never did and she always regretted it.

For more about Betty Lou Willis, you can view the full oral history transcript at Chatswood Library.