No 13 Lindsley St

This weatherboard cottage was built around1889 by the Wallarah Coal-mining Company to house its mineworkers.

Mr and Mrs Gascoigne and sons were the first remembered tenants.

Mr and Mrs Caruana and their family were the next to occupy this house. John Caruana and his wife Concetta Maria Caruana came to Catherine Hill Bay in 1924 from Malta.  Their two eldest sons, Emmanuel and Frank were aged approximately 11 and 13 at the time. A third son George was born at Catherine Hill Bay.  Emmanuel later married Georgina Pace whom he brought out from Malta.  Frank married Mary Calleja who came from a Maltese family living in Sydney.  George married Rita Camilleri also from a Maltese family in Sydney. This marriage did not last and George divorced and remarried a Greek girl Andrianna.

Mick and Douglas( Wesso) McKenzie were the next family to live in this house. There were 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, Lesley, John, David and Marian.

In 1964 the Coal Company ‘Coal & Allied’ subdivided some of its land. It was determined that MR B McKenzie would purchase this house and land for 350 pounds. The land measured 41 feet 7 and ½ inches at the front and 39 feet 2 and 3/8 inches at the rear. The length of the eastern boundary was 172 feet 1 and 7/8 inches. The western boundary was 174 feet and 10 inches.

Two of the children moved to Belmont and a daughter lives at Summerland Point. Mrs McKenzie died in the early 1990s and the youngest son, David, lived with his father until Wesso died in 2007.

The house was sold.