The original cottage was weatherboard and was built by the Wallarah Coal-mining Company around 1889 to house its mineworkers.
Ted Grey and family were the first remembered tenants and this family was followed by Rose and Nat Jones (parents of Lennie). Rose was originally an Outram, older sister of ‘Skeeter’. So brother and sister were living opposite each other, which was not unusual during this time in Catherine Hill Bay. Rose and Nat had two children Lennie and Daphne.
In 1964 the Coal Company subdivided some of its land and determined that Mr N Jones would purchase this house and land for 350 pounds. He later sold the house to Dominic and Kay Bonanno who demolished the weatherboard house and built a brick home.
Kay had come from the Bay originally. Before marriage Kay was a McKenzie whose family had lived in Sawmill Camp, near the old quarry. Kay went into a nursing home and her husband Dominic visited daily to feed and help care for his wife.