This weatherboard and galvanised iron cottage was built between 1908-1915. The Wallarah Coal-mining Company constructed this cottage to house its mineworkers.
Albert Boyd came to live here when he married. He and his wife had a son, Cecil, and later moved to Belmont.
The Sanderson brothers were boarding with the Boyds. One of the brothers, Ralph, married and had a daughter called Joy. Joy never married and when Ted (Curly) and Betty Boyd’s house burnt down, which was at Sawmill Camp, they came to live with Joy.
Betty Seddon, Curley’s wife, came to Australia from England as a little girl and settled in a house at Sawmill Camp with her family.” Betty had a very strong English accent and we loved to hear her talk with that accent. She quickly settled into our Australian lifestyle and became a real member of our Bay community”
Curly and Betty came to buy the house when the Coal Company ‘Coal & Allied’ subdivided some of its land in 1964. They paid 400 pounds for the house and land.
Ted (Curly) died and Betty stayed on until 2001/2 then sold the house and moved to Swansea.
Danny and Jane Leahy are the current owners and have moved to New Zealand. Danny is one of the Leahy children of the Leahy family from Papua New Guinea.
The house was lived in permanently by Danny’s son and his wife Rebecca and children for a number of years. It was rented for a couple of years and sold in June 2013.