Lot 521 & 522 Tower Street

In 1905 two miners’ camps were built on Tower Street Lots 521 and 522. It is not known when these camps were demolished, but circa 1940 they were replaced by a single cottage built by Mick Omodei.

The timber framed, corrugated iron clad two-roomed cottage has small windows and a single-gabled roof. The front verandah, entered via a small gate, is covered by a skillion (lean-to) roof supported by timber posts.

The interior of the tiny cottage retains some of its original furniture with two beds in the bedroom and a kitchen table, utensils and stove in the kitchen, which has a brick-lined chimney and external metal flue.

The kitchen walls are covered with newspaper and a homemade shower is in an alcove in the same room. The homemade lighting system is believed to have been powered by a car battery.

The front yard is fenced with old bed frames and contains many bits and pieces collected by one of the cottage’s former residents, known as Burglar Bill. The property has also been called Burglar Bill’s.

The cottage was damaged by a severe storm in 1987 and substantially reconstructed. In 1995, the building was one of the 27 places restored by volunteers under the Leonora Tourist Committee’s innovative auction Adopt-A-Cottage programme.