[LINK] OT - delicate question

[Roger Clarke]

>On 8/04/11 4:31 AM, Karl Auer wrote:
>But what did we use in Australia?  I do recall sitting in a dunny outside
>a shearing shed once, looking with bemusement at a sheaf of carefully
>torn squares of newspaper on a nail ("The Age", if memory serves). Were
>catalogues common? I've never heard of corn cobs being used here.

At 6:31 +1000 8/4/11, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>In Australia, tales from my father gave it as being either newspapers or
>phone books. The great advantage of the newspaper being, of course, that
>it was replenished more frequently.

Having had most of my experience in Bundaberg, a few thoughts come to mind

1.  Bundy was one of the early places to fully sewer the main town,
     late 50s into the 60s, I guess.  I can't quickly find a detailed-enough
     reference, but even a village nearby, Gin Gin, got it in 1967:
     http://queenslandplaces.com.au/bundaberg
     http://queenslandplaces.com.au/gin-gin

2.  it would be really nice to report that there was some kind of local
     alternative to corn cobs, such as bagasse.  Yes, Wikipedia covers it:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagasse.  But unfortunately I can't
     remember anything, nor think of a non-urban myth to perpetuate

3.  mail-order catalogues were a far bigger thing in the US than here.
     But some families had 'em, and used 'em.

4.  We wuz poor, and it was newspaper for us.  The fate of all newspapers
     was either fish-and-chip wrapping or down the bog-hole after use

5.  for some reason it was less acceptable to put newspaper in an
     inside toilet, so we can put the ravaging of the nation's forests
     down to the demise of the dunny - whilever the loo was outside,
     in man's land, and smelt, re-used paper was fine;  but once it
     migrated inside the home, woman's land, and didn't smell much,
     newspaper would never do, and Lady Scott was essential


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