Gorman Stories: Short Resident Recollections

July 2025

Excerpt from a letter from a resident of Gorman House, to her family in South Australia, circa 1941 

It was a common thing for us to have a ‘beno’ in our room which meant that we would have some food which we purchased and had in our room for a special occasion or at the weekend. I had bought an immersion heater and with an enamel measure I made coffee or tea. Once my girl friends tried making toffee on a little spirit stove. These were tiny metal pots which sat on a stand. The stand was a folding one and could be opened up. The small pot was filled with methylated spirits and the little flames came out of the holes around the edges of the top of the pot. A lid with a handle could be put on it to extinguish it. A small saucepan or an enamel measure such as most of us had, could also sit on top.

Once, I decided to put a few small carrot pieces around the immersion heater in the measure to boil them, as my friend Gwen had said she was longing for boiled carrots. I went off into her room, stopped talking and forgot the boiling carrots. By that time the measure had boiled dry and the bottom had burnt and sad to say the lino underneath had a dark ring which told the tale. Mrs. Wearne, the then Deputy Manageress, happened to come along the corridor and said she could smell something burning. Couldn’t we? ‘No’ we all chorused, ‘We can’t’. Fortunately she didn’t persist. I kept the small floor mat over the mark from then on! My conscience pricked for a long time.  

Memory from Joyce Purcell (nee Fitzmaurice), former resident

Lots of happy memories – got engaged in 1940, (it was like having 139 sisters.) (I remember listening to the radio when war was declared. We all stood when God Save the King was played.) My room No I think was 16 or 17. I arrived early in 1939 + left (in my wedding dress) to be married at St Christopher’s Church, Manuka on 31^st May 1941.

Memory from June Foster, former resident

Reg and I moved into A Block (married quarters) on 1^st January 1953 – we were on the waiting list for a Government House. My daughter Christine was born on 16^th February, 1954, during the Queen’s visit to Canberra, and Canberra Community Hospital.

We eventually came to the ‘head’ of the housing list and moved into an AV Jennings house in the new area of Deakin (sheep paddocks) – in September 1954, and still live in the same place, (now extended). Gorman House was my first home in Canberra.