our outdoor 'dunny'

Here are a couple of photos Dad sent recently of a particularly Australian item - the outside 'dunny'. I know other countries had outside toilets, but so far as I'm aware, only in Australia does it have this colloquial name.

Dad made it out of various old materials he had lying around, following instructions in the classic John Seymour book about self-sufficiency. It is a composting toilet and remarkably, it does not smell at all. Of course, it is extremely well ventilated, having half the door with only wire-screen (no glass)! Here it is, charmingly perched up on the hill a short wander from the house...

In case you're wondering, the tanks you see in the corner are part of a series that Dad put in to store water caught by the old house roof... Even though it was more expensive, we deliberately bought three smaller tanks rather than one big one so we can move them around in future. Not only are they more manouvreable, it lets us spread them around the various shed roofs once we've got the huge mammoth underground tank for the house.

This is the glorious view of paddocks outside. It has one of the nicest views of any toilet I've seen.

Originally, Dad built it without any door as he figured there'd be no-one there to see, until the day he was sitting on the loo and saw Tex go riding past in the next door paddock!