Campbell family to sell piece of 1950s' Australiana, Oxalis Cottage, for $2 million

Buyers on the home hunting trail this weekend might view the fairly humble house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Greenwich as an entry point to the local market or even as a potential redevelopment job, but for the legions of Australians who read the Australian Women’s Weekly and Sunday Telegraph from the mid-1950s through to the 1970s it will be better known as Oxalis Cottage.

The quintessential suburban house was the setting for the regular short-form columns by the late journalist and satirist Ross Campbell that ran for 20 years in which he humorously detailed the minutiae of family life featuring his four children, known by their pseudonyms “Theodora”, “Lancelot”, “Nell” and “Baby Pip”.

Almost 70 years after it was built the two-storey home remains as a time-capsule of its far simpler origins, still with an eating nook in the kitchen with bench space that long accommodated the family of six, a milk bottle servery by the front door, a coal burner in the main bedroom and a laundry shute to the basement.

But for the first time since it was built by the late Rhodes scholar and decorated air force navigator, it is up for sale for more than $2 million following the death of his widow Ruth Campbell earlier this year, aged 95. 

Oxalis Cottage – so named after the invasive garden weed – is being sold by Pauline Goodyer, of Goodyer Real Estate, on behalf of the home’s original star occupants, all of whom have gone on to forge notable careers of their own: eldest Sally Campbell is a textile designer, Patrick Campbell is a solar energy scientist, Laura “Nell” Campbell is an actor and former New York nightclub owner, and youngest Cressida Campbell is an artist.

“Mum and Dad had wanted to buy a house but they couldn’t afford it, so they had to buy land and build it themselves,” Cressida Campbell said.

Records show the couple paid 500 pounds in 1949 for what was then a 1400-square-metre block at the end of Coolabah Avenue.

Cressida doesn’t recall how much it cost to build, but said her parents had had to borrow money from a friend to put a roof on it.

Despite the financial constraints, Campbell’s social history of Sydney suburban life remained so popular that decades after he died it was reprinted in 2005 in a book, My Life as a Father.

“It was such an idyllic childhood. It was like something out of an Enid Blyton book,” Nell Campbell said. “As kids we had so much more spare time. 

“Mum always said the only two improvements in her lifetime were washing machines and medicines.”

After Campbell retired in 1978 the couple tried to sell the house and the garden on a separate title to go “vanning” around Europe, but only managed to find a buyer for the adjoining block.

“It was the most brilliant turn of events because soon after they came home, Dad died in 1982 and Mum was able to stay on at the house with all her memories and friends nearby,” said Cressida.

The property – described by Ross as “a suburban house of 15 squares, including myself” – goes to auction on September 8.