Cooper’s Cottage
“The much-loved Cooper’s Cottage in Morilla Street has had a ‘verandah-lift’! Volunteers, Anna and Aldo Ziglioli, and Society President, Michael Taylor, have put in a lot of energy to tidy up the façade of this 1916 cottage built by Ben Buren, a Swedish opal miner.”
Cooper’s Cottage is a 1916 corrugated cottage in Morilla Street. It was built by “Long Ben” Buren, it is named for Bert Cooper.
When the Grawin Rush took off in the late 1920s, Buren moved his entire home to where the action was – that’s the beauty of corrugation, you can take it with you! The humble structure was resurrected back on the corner in the 1930s, and the roof was later pitched to its present angle.
The Cooper family moved in about 1953. Bert moved away 1993 and various tenants have occupied the space until recently. The cottage is one of the best examples of our early ‘Tin Can Culture’. After all this is surely our first transportable home!
Cooper’s Cottage is still standing today.
Article: Edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: LRHS oral history.