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Very quiet streets at the end of a peninsular: ie no through traffic and little passing traffic. Kamira Road overlooks the beautiful turquoise waters of the Port Hacking - the only unpolluted waterway in Sydney.

If you are very fortunate, you look straight at the Royal National Park, with no houses in sight at all.

In the early morning or late afternoon light, looking across the water, you could imagine yourself on the edge of the Zambezi River in Africa. But you are only 30 kms from the heart of Sydney.

With no through road traffic, the only noise is from boats on the water and not too many people know about the light boating traffic - yet.

There are sand spits in the river, where at low tide revellers can picnic and run their dogs.

Lilli Pilli carries most of the trees for the whole of Caringbah. When the local Council tells you that Caringbah has "X" percentage tree cover, most of the trees are at Lilli Pilli. Lilli Pilli has the trees for all of the treeless blocks of units in Caringbah, that gives the suburb of Caringbah the "X" percentage.

The downside of Lilli Pilli - it is a summer place. Between late April and early October, you put the covers over the lounge and furniture and go to your winter hideaway. Living in Lilli Pilli in winter can be a bit like living in Cairns or Broome between October and April.

Anzac Avenue was in four parts in 1946. It was of course untarred and was red gravel from Cambrai Ave to about Banksia Avenue. The section extending west from Caldarra Avenue was a sand track one car wide.This section ran for about 100 metres only.

There was only one tarred road in Engadine in 1946. That was the Princes Highway. It was only two cars wide and also the only road with any street lighting. And that lighting was only rudimentary. No fluoroescent lights then.

There was no postman in 1946.

Milk was delivered by horse and cart, and the special cart had two chrome [or was it pewter] taps on the back. The milk was extracted from the cart through the taps, and was measured into either a one or two pint spitoon flask, [again was it chrome or pewter], and the measured amount was tipped into the "billycan" of the resident. The billycan had been hung on the front fence the night before, together with the note as to the quantity required, and the appropriate money was left, [yes overnight], beside the billycan.

Bread was delivered daily to the back door of your house. The bread carter had a picnic type basket covered at each end by a canvas cloth. He would peel back the cover exposing the bread, [either a full loaf or half a loaf] and bread rolls. There was only ever one type of bread and one type of roll. If half a loaf of bread was required, it was broken on the spot by uncovered hands, and the remaining half put back in the basket.

No sewerage or septic tank or pump out in 1946. The outhouse [dunny or thunderbox], was always well away from the house. The low down suite was a lift off device that sat over a 40 litre tar covered cylinder. With any luck, the cylinder would last a family of four for about a week, by which time it would be fairly full. The saniman would call about two in the morning with a new can, would do the exchange, and having put a lid on the offending and full container, would carry it on his shoulder to the street, attemping to avoid spillage as much as possible, as his head and shoulders were always hit first before the spillage hit the pathway and/or street. The can was placed in the truck in one of two tiers, and when full, the truck would deliver its very smelly load to Menai. The receptacles were tipped into open trenches in the area opposite where the ANSTO facility now stands.

If you had the misfortune to follow a sanivan, the smell lingered in the street for well after the vehicle had left.

Few people had motor vehicles in 1946. There was no doctor. The nearest doctors were Tom and Eric Miles from corner of [Old] Princes Highway and Belmont Street Sutherland. If you had to call a doctor for a home visit, it was a major exercise coming by car from Sutherland.

There was no hospital in the Sutherland Shire. All deliveries of children of the Shire, except if you travelled to Paddington [RWH] or St George at Kogarah, were by mid wives. Engadine had a child birth hospital with eight beds opposite the water tower on the [Old] Princes Highway. It was owned and run by nurse Tafe [Richmond].

Transport, shops, sport, churches, bush fires, etc in 1946 are items for another place.