Melbourne Australia, has only a brief history of toilet technology, most of
which (post 1897) relates to mandated in the house flush toilets connected
to a reticulated sewerage system. However, there have been septic sustems
and pan services in use up to recent decades, even on the fringe of the
major centres.

Internal toilets with pits date from at least the 1850s, although prior to
sewerage connection most had an outside toilet, (the vernacular = "Dunny")
this could be a pan, pit, piped away to the paddocks/garden. or later a
flush toilet connected to the sewer. Many inner city terraces and cottages
still have their original outdoor pit privy that was converted to a flush
toilet 100 years ago when the sewer went in. There might be a
correlation(s) between the type of toilet, its preceived level of
disgust/smell/etc., distance from the house, date of installation, and/or
wealth of the occupants. Building regulations still identify certain forms
of construction, such as external venting, airlocks between toilet and
inhabited rooms, kitchen, bedroom,  etc.

Certainly something worth looking into.

Gary Vines

Melbourne's Living Museum of the West
P.O. BOX 60 Highpoint City, 3032
Victoria, Australia
ph. +61 3 93183544
fax. +61 3 93181039
email- [log in to unmask]
www.livingmuseum.org.au