“The tale of Horatio Jones, the Gallipoli veteran who made a house of four-gallon kerosene tins in the Dandenong Hills, is metaphorically the tale of the resourceful Aussie battler of national mythology.”

– ‘Horatio Jones House’, Yarra Ranges Heritage Database  

Having suffered significant loss due to the First World War, siblings Annie, Christina and Horatio Jones pooled resources to build a striking two-storey home in Tecoma, clad completely in flattened kerosene tins and held together with fencing wire. The house remains standing on private property not far from here. Horatio re-imagined the typical shanty of the Depression era as an innovatively designed residence, and so proceeded to use the same humble materials of the period himself. This dwelling created a place of refuge and peace for the Jones family, away from the noise and rush of the city and the war.

IMAGE:

Horatio Jones (Source: Sherbrooke Foothills Historical Society)