Old homes with a window into Canberra's early history are being boarded up, when they could be opened to the wider community, say heritage advocates.
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Near Coombs' new stormwater wetlands, one such home, the only Federal Capital Commission house of its type outside the main suburban area, was heritage-listed in 2010 after a bitter eviction two years earlier.
Three police officers escorted long-term residents Peter and Jenni Farrell from the former sewerage attendant's cottage, which is now surrounded by a two-metre high security fence.
The ACT government is looking for a long-term tenant, but wants to repair it first and will not start until civil works are finished in the new suburb. In an oasis of trees, wisteria and climbing roses grow through the home's terracotta tiled roof. A resident hare enjoys the overgrown garden.
Yet the home is a heritage gem with double-hung, multi-paned windows with original brass pulls, four-panel cedar doors, original bathroom fittings, a ''Canberra'' wood stove and an original alpine-ash mantelpiece.
The Weston Creek sewerage attendant Charlie Gibbs lived there with his family from 1927 to 1940.
From 1940 to 1975, Doug Vest and his family lived there. Mr Vest worked at the forestry checking station near the cottage, measuring and marketing logs from Pierces Creek.
His daughter Robyn recalled a wonderful rural upbringing, catching the bus to school, having a milking cow, chickens, a huge vegetable garden and poddy sheep.
''My mother never worried about us, although we had snakes in the garden,'' Ms Vest said. ''We played out there as kids under the pine trees. And snakes of course can't slither on the pine needles.''
Inside, water from the shower was stone cold except when her parents fired up the heater with pine cones. The two-bedroom, 1926 cottage had another bedroom added, yet it remains significantly unaltered and could have lasting integrity maintained through conservation and management.
Ms Vest said it was only a little house. ''I vividly remember in the kitchen, all the cupboards were stained black. My grandparents used to stain everything too, probably because paint was too dear.''
Ms Vest said it was the ACT government's pigheadedness that stopped the Farrells remaining in the cottage until a more permanent arrangement was resolved.
The National Trust's ACT spokesman on heritage issues, Eric Martin, said the trust had lined up a potential tenant, an international small business, in recent years, but it fell through. ''In the meantime it has not any use at all, which is really a crying shame,'' he said. ''It really needs some protection or use, so that it will serve an ongoing purpose.''
Mr Martin said too many houses had been forgotten. They were treated as a problem, rather than being integrated into the community.
''Even an artist-in-residence would be a more effective use than leaving it vacant,'' he said.
More than 2300 families and individuals are on the ACT's social housing waiting list.
A spokeswoman for the ACT government said repairs to the cottage would be completed once the civil works and ''commensurate safety and amenity risks'' of the surrounding Molonglo development were finalised.