‘If we can just get a house’

Deanna and Rob Buchanan in their make-do outdoor kitchen tacked onto a shipping container – trying to stay cheerful, against the odds.

Photo by Hayley Manning

By Sharon Webb

The Meander Valley is dishing up its coldest days of the year and most of us are hunkering down in cosy homes.

But in Birralee the Buchanan family is living in a shipping container and a caravan and it’s far from comfy.

The Buchanans hit the headlines a year ago in the Examiner when Meander Valley Council was chasing them to get a permit for the structure they’d built between the container and the caravan, their make-do kitchen and living room.

The situation is now worse.

Rob Buchanan, 60, was diagnosed with throat cancer in late June and is having chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Launceston most days of the week for seven weeks.

‘Rob’s working on a farm and does heavier jobs at home like getting wood and emptying our portaloo,’ wife Deanna said.

‘But as his treatment goes on he won’t be able to do that. We really need a warm house with food in the cupboard, a place where he can recover. If we can just get a house we’ll be happy.’

Five years ago, Rob, Deanna and daughter Jacinta were knocked by Rob’s heart attack. Now they’re fortifying themselves against bad health news again because if treatment is unsuccessful Rob may have his larynx removed.

Both Dee and Rob grew up in the Deloraine area and want to stay there.

‘After Rob’s heart attack Jacinta’s grandparents offered us this location on their Birralee land, where we’ve been for three years.

‘It’s not ideal but it was OK. Right now, everything’s hard. If the hoses freeze we can’t do the washing or have a shower until lunchtime, and I really hate the rats and mice,’ Deanna said.

‘Rob will need special food for his throat and there’s a limit to what you can cook on a barbecue as we don’t have a stove or cooktop.

‘I’m coping with what Rob’s going through but living here is doing our heads in. It’s all too hard.’
In addition, Meander Valley Council is still pursuing them to enforce state building legislation, a situation that could lead to trouble for Jacinta’s 80 year-old grandparents.

A recent email from the council reads, ‘I now require you to provide evidence demonstrating progress made to date to provide suitable accommodation. Failure to provide this will lead to council commencing further action on the property owner.’

The Buchanans’ comments to the Examiner opened up a hornets’ nest as people living in illegal structures were angry they had spoken out.

‘If we can just get a house we’ll be happy – an affordable place where Rob can recover,’ Deanna said. ‘We don’t want people to feel sorry for us, we just need a house.’

Anyone with two-bedroom accommodation where the Buchanans can live with their daughter and their two Maltese Shih Tzu dogs should contact Deloraine House on 63622678.