The Burns’ family home was the first house in Maitland to be cut in half and moved to higher ground, following the 1955 flood.
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Like many families, the devastation of multiple floods saw Mildred and Ronald Burns make a big
decision – to move the family home.
But unlike most houses that were transported, the family-built home was too big and had to be cut right down the middle and moved in two sections.
The couple’s son, Victor Burns, dropped into the Mercury office to share his family’s story.
“Ours was the first house to be cut in half,” he said.
“As a child, I could see the trouble my parents went to and the expense they went to because of the floods.
“That’s why they decided to move the house to Beresfield.”
Mr Burns remembers sleeping on heavy blankets on a raised camp bed after one of the floods.
Despite the water still being in the house, the men of the family slept in the raised cots at night and mopped out the water by day.
When the time came to move the house from Ward Street, it was a slow process.
It was cut in half and loaded onto army trucks by contractor V Drummond.
It took four days to cut and load the two halves onto the trucks because it weighed so much.
The whole event was a community spectacle and Mr Burns said people came from all over the city to have a look.
The event was even featured in several of the newspapers of the day, including the Mercury.
It was then an arduous two-hour trip to Beresfield, with many family members riding inside the house along with all of the family’s furniture and possessions.
A large tarp was the only thing protecting the razored sides of the house.
The move came to halt at Four Mile Creek because the crossbars under the house were too big for the bridge.
A nearby mill worker ended up going down to the bridge to saw off the ends of the crossbars to get the house on the move again.
“My brother and I rode our push bikes behind it,” Mr Burns said.
“As kids, we never left the place, so it was a big event to see it moved.”
A total of 74 piers were installed underneath the house before it was bolted back together at its new address in Kendall Street.
“Inside it had decorative plaster ceilings and you could only just see it had been cut in half if you looked carefully,” he said.
It was eventually sold from the family but still sits on the block at Beresfield and the old photographs of the move will forever bring a smile to Mr Burns’ face.