DAVID Seaton was a newborn baby when his family moved to 23 Westgarth Street, O’Connor, with his four siblings in 1950.

His dad Ray, a plasterer, and mum Vida, a Mothercraft Society baby health nurse, were the first owners of the double-brick house and joined a neighbourhood of other young families living on the street, raising their children in what was a very new Canberra.

After World War II there was an influx of immigrants and refugees from Europe to Australia, and David says he grew up alongside families from countries such as Lithuania, Latvia and Malta.

“In the 1950s and 1960s life was different as a child. The children in the neighbouring houses all played for hours together, getting dirty, building cubby houses on Black Mountain, but always we were back home for dinner at 6pm,” 69-year-old David recalls.

“We used to make our own fun. If you skinned your knee, you could always go into one of the neighbours’ houses and their mother would be home to give you a Band-Aid.

“My mother used to encourage the local kids to come and play in our backyard. Her one rule was ‘no fighting’! With five kids in our house and four next door, people had larger families in those days so there was always a lot happening at our place.”

David now lives in Nicholls and is a meditation teacher. He and his siblings sold the family home in 2005 after Vida’s passing at 89 years of age.

“The houses in our part of O’Connor were either double brick like ours and or monocrete, which were famous for being poorly insulated. Most homes had fireplaces in the “sitting room” and an old Metters wood stove in the kitchen where we were always found huddling together.

“All food was cooked at home, with a big contribution from our own gardens and ‘chook yard’.

“Our milk, bread and fruit and veggies were all delivered by horse and cart in the 1950s.”

Families tended to live in one home for much longer than today, so David says he benefitted greatly from growing up alongside so many children his age throughout all the phases of his childhood, attending Turner Infants School and later, Lyneham High School.

Sixty years on and thanks to the internet (and his old pals having unique European surnames), David was inspired to reconnect with the past and create a reunion, tracking down the children of his youth. A Facebook group called Old Canberra’s Northside Group which has more than 1300 members helped spread the word.

And that led to 50 old friends from Westgarth Street and surrounds gathering in the front yard of Heather Gorter last month to reminisce and reconnect.

At 91, Heather is the last of the original mothers still living in her home after 70 years and was delighted to host the grown-up children, including four of her own, at the afternoon tea.

David said that the reunion brought together people from interstate and overseas, and reflected that the grown-up children, now many of them retiring from work, had achieved a lot in their careers, such as successful lawyers, doctors and teachers. There are plans to stay in touch and get together again in the future.

“We all believe there’s something special about Westgarth Street,” says David.