Two Australian icons: the Hills Hoist and the Dunny
In a post a few days ago I mentioned the terms dunny, dunny man, dunny cart and dunny lane.
Older Byters may recall their childhoods where toilets were located outside and consisted of a pan under a wooden seat. Often a choko vine grew over the roof. Those memories may include going to the toilet at night, barefoot on the wet grass, stepping on snails and having to leave the door open to catch a bit of moonlight for light. And that’s not mentioning the spiders, insects, maggots and smells. Not all childhood memories are fond ones.
Still, it was preferable to the first time I experienced a traditional toilet in Asia, but that’s a different story.
The term “dunny” has been first recorded in 1933 in Australia. It derives from the 18th century English word “dunnakin”, meaning a toilet. In Ireland it was spelt “dunnigan”. That word in turn derived from dialect words for excrement such as “danna”, or its colour “dun”, with the word “kin” meaning house.
