I've never had any luck finding privies on rural sites here in Australia,
and am not aware that anyone else has either.  But then maybe as Ned
suggests we're just too polite to mention them!  Henry Glassie in his book
on Ballymenone refers to the lack of privies in rural Ireland in the 1970s,
and documents the common practice of simply stepping behind a convenient
hedge, so it may well be mistaken to expect formalised facilities.
 
Privies/cess pits/etc are common enough on urban sites here, as are the
'pan' privies refered to by Bill Lees.  They were the norm in urban
Australia through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with
privies (or 'dunnies', as they're colloquially known here) located at the
rear of the back lot.  The rear wall fronted on a back lane and had a small
hatch at floor level. 'Dunnie men' came regularly down the lanes, which
were specifically planned in every suburb for this purpose, and collected
the full pans which were replaced with empty ones that were at least
theoretically clean.  When reticulated water was introduced, the existing
pans were replaced by toilets and the external location maintained, so in
lots of inner city houses a midnight hike is still required, although the
bed pan has not continued in use!  Depending on the suburb and when
plumbing was introduced, dunnie men continued into the Depression at least,
and I know of suburbs built in the 1960s in Melbourne that weren't plumbed
immediately and had dunnie men too, but without the back lanes... In his
autobiography Clive James, who grew up in Sydney, describes the fun had by
little boys as a result of this system.
 
Susan
 
Dr Susan Lawrence
Department of Archaeology
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Victoria
Australia 3083
 
ph 03 9479 1790
fax 03 9479 1881