Original owner returns to the first house build in Tuggeranong

The Canberra Times

Kevin and Eileen Delmenico and their sons Paul and Mark lived in the first house built in Tuggeranong - at 4 Attiwell Circuit, Kambah. Mr Delmenico returned to the home as celebrations for Kambah's 50th birthday start to kick into gear

Transcript

00:00Hi guys, welcome to our new home.

00:0750 years ago we owned it.

00:10Yeah.

00:11See, it's got sound filters.

00:20The views of the mountains around here.

00:23There's nothing else here.

00:25There's nothing.

00:27I just drive, you know, I haven't been down here for a while.

00:32The first shop was down there.

00:36You know, there's a couple of little shops down there now.

00:39That was the first one to open up.

00:44The original store.

00:45Yeah, where you could get some groceries there and they had a grocery shop as well.

00:52Yeah, that was the first one.

00:57First of all, you know, it's a bigger deal now for us.

01:18It's good to think now that we were the first that lived in Tugnerong.

01:23It's something special.

01:25But when we first came out here, we didn't care less about it.

01:29We just went with the flow and it was pretty lonely for Eileen, my wife,

01:36because she was out here on her own and there wasn't much.

01:39And we only had one car while I had to go to work.

01:43And one of the kids had to go to preschool.

01:47He was going to preschool.

01:48There was no preschool.

01:51So Eileen had to wheel the pram up to Namatjira Drive, catch a bus,

01:57go into Fisher and walk up the big hill at Fisher and pick him up

02:02and drop him off and then pick him up at night time.

02:05That was pretty hard on Eileen more than me.

02:09You know, I had my lifestyle.

02:10I was going to work.

02:12I was involved with football clubs.

02:14I coached them a couple of times a week.

02:18It was good though.

02:20It didn't take long and people were moving in all the time.

02:28Is that the barbie?

02:29Yeah, I built that barbecue there.

02:33You'd never move it.

02:35You'd have to get a bulldozer in order to move it.

02:38How many bags of concrete did you see?

02:40Sorry?

02:41How many bags of concrete did you see?

02:42Oh, I reckon there was four or maybe more.

02:45It's a real solid one.

02:47It hasn't moved.

02:50It was different.

02:51Yeah.

02:52We had a sort of a porch out here.

02:57You'd walk up and there was steps down.

02:59Yeah.

03:00We'd get his head there.

03:01Yeah.

03:02It is lovely.

03:03I love it.

03:04We've got a big alley cat here.

03:06It was a big wild cat that used to roam around.

03:10In the wild west.

03:11Yeah.

03:12It had a head like a panther.

03:14Yeah.

03:15I came home from football one day and all the kids were panicking.

03:19The cat's gone in here.

03:21And it was up along the curtains.

03:23Oh, no.

03:24It's in the house.

03:25It had got in the house.

03:27Oh, my gosh.

03:28That's nice.

03:29How in the hell am I going to get this thing out?

03:30We've just got to let you know.

03:32We've been here for just over two years.

03:34But we've been in Canberra, back in Canberra for the past three almost.

03:38Yeah.

03:40And my family is on the street, which is a big plus.

03:45And this house is just perfect to grow a family in.

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