Arthur Gow (1904-84) left a fascinating memoir of life in East Maitland early last century. He described the lives that people lived, the local economy and people he knew. His account is one of a mode of living - very different from what we know in East Maitland today.
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Take the reticulation of services, for example. Basically, there was very little of it. Water came from rain, harvested from roofs, collected in above-ground tanks and used for drinking and cooking. The overflow went to wells for the purposes of washing and bathing.
There was no sewerage piping, and not many septic tanks. Pan service to outhouses was the rule, nightsoil collected in pans by council employees and ploughed into a paddock at Rathluba.
Domestic lighting was by kerosene lamps: few houses had gas from the East Maitland Council's gas plant in Banks Street. For heating, coal and wood were burnt. There was no reticulated electricity until 1922.
There were some substantial houses, including Chadlington on Newcastle Road between Victoria and Burg streets. This was a two-storey brick building with a spire and modelled on an English gentleman's residence. Two-storey houses were few and always the homes of the well-to-do. Cars, likewise, were uncommon and only owned by the better off, as were horse-drawn sulkies.
There was another end to the housing scale, of course. In the many patches of remnant bush and along the railway line, people lived in shacks cobbled together from timber and old iron. Some of their building materials were scavenged from the local rubbish tip.
In 1920 about 8000 people lived in East Maitland. In Metford, Tenambit, Ashtonfield, Greenhills and Rathluba there was scattered housing. Some kept a cow in a paddock near the house. Milking them was a chore that often fell to children.
Houses had no refrigerators, just cooling 'safes' with sugar sacks draped around the sides with a large flat tray on the top filled with water. Flannel strips placed in the tray and over the bags soaked the bags and kept the food cool inside.
Kids played in the streets, quite safe with few cars and only horses, carts and drays to be wary of. Vacant lots and the bush were also favoured areas for play. Billy goat racing was popular in cleared areas in the bush, goats being harnessed to carts like small trotting gigs with bicycle wheels. There were games of football and cricket on vacant lots, too. School and Sunday School picnics were much looked forward to.
