Although my grandparents lived only three miles from the nearest town, mains electricity was not installed until several years after the end of WWII. My earliest memories are of gaslighting fuelled by acetylene gas which was piped into the house from the "gashouse" next to the vegetable garden. My grandfather made the gas by putting carbide rock into metal trays which fitted into the gas generator and adding water. This mixture gave off acetylene gas and left a white sludge which was discarded into a heap which my sister and I used to stand on to give us height to look over the fence into the stable yard. The gaslight was very soft and pretty but must have been a poor light for reading by at night. It was delivered to brass gas brackets and when I think about it, the naked flame must have been a fire hazard.

Later on, my grandfather bought an electricity generator and that was housed in "the power house" which contained the generator and an enormous bank of batteries. The generator was run for a whole day per week to generate power for the lighting and very modest power needs - radio, and a washing machine. Until the advent of the washing machine the laundry was all done with a copper for boiling up the linen, a hand wringer and a washboard used in conjunction with velvet soap. Cooking was still done on an old metters wood stove and it was not until the mains power was finally connected that an electric stove was installed - the generator had the wrong voltage for most household appliances.

When my parents moved from Adelaide to Perth we found that the power supply was a very chancy thing and everyone had gas appliances where possible. Even now, old houses still in their original state have gas stoves - green and cream enamel ones which stand on legs - not at all like the modern gas stoves.

In Perth, just after WWII, the electricity was generated by an antique generator which had been purchased, second hand, from Imperial Russia. It was quite inadequate for the needs of what was then a rather small city and for the whole three and a half years we lived in Perth during my childhood the power was delivered to the south of the Swan River for an hour and then to the north of the river for an hour. The lamps and candles were lit a couple of minutes before the expected switch off time and homework had to be fitted into the period when the lights were on since it was believed that our eyes would be ruined if we had to study by candlelight.

Many people had kerosene pressure lamps which gave off a brilliant light but we made do with candles. My father decided that he would do his own thing with carbide rock and water and made a lamp modeled along the lines of a Kipp Apparatus, the idea being that when enough gas had been produced the water would be pushed off the carbide rocks by the gas pressure. When the gas pressure reduced enough the water would come in contact with the carbide again and more gas would be generated. This worked a treat until the whole thing went off balance. It would do an impolite belch, the flame would flare and the house would be covered with sooty smuts. It lasted a week before my mother banned it and we went back to candles again.