John Whitburn
I signed up the first tenants who moved into the Minto estate

Working with the Department of Housing, I found that I had a lot of cooperation at that time from the middle management in Liverpool. I was allowed to turn around and work on my own without too much interference and I had a good rapport, because of this, with the early tenants in the Minto area.

I think the first tenants arrived in1977, not one-hundred percent sure. And I was there and signed up the very first tenants who moved into the Minto estate.

We tried to personalise the Commission to the tenants so that they felt they could approach us, we weren’t just a bureaucracy that didn’t care. Groups of houses would come up and you’d have mass sign-ups.

A few of the first tenants who arrived thought that it was a bit far out because they were used to living close to the city but unfortunately when they first moved in, there was no infrastructure at all. No shops, nothing. They had to travel to Ingleburn or Campbelltown for their main shopping, and if they didn’t have a car, which some of them didn’t, it was very difficult for them.

I suppose things started to improve a little when they put a shop in what is now the community centre. It wasn’t onehundred percent successful because groceries were still a bit dear. They had a fish and chip shop, fast food, which was a help so they didn’t have to walk all the way down to Minto Station.

We helped people because that was what we were there for, to help people when they needed it, but unfortunately there were so many people needing help that it’s hard to remember everyone.

I had reservations about the building of this style of estate with townhouses joined to one another. All I can say is that I’m glad that somebody finally saw sense and realised that Australians weren’t like Americans and Europeans who were used to living close together all the time. Most Australians had grown up with the idea of the quarter acre block and having their own space around them.

I would say that the only good thing about the design of the estate was that most of the roads weren’t through roads, they only serviced the apartments - so the kids could play on the streets without a problem — but that was about the only thing that was good about the design.