When driving through the streets of Belmont North in New South Wales' Hunter Valley, you may notice a handful of oddly-shaped tin houses.
Covered in corrugated iron, the pre-fabricated semi-cylindrical buildings look like a half-buried tin can on its side.
Invented in World War I by Britain's Major Peter Norman Nissen of the 29th Field Company Royal Engineers, the Nissen huts were originally designed for storage and to house soldiers.
"We called them tin cans or half houses. I never remember them being referred to as Nissen huts," Darlene Callen said.
Ms Callen grew up in one of 50 Nissen huts built in Belmont North during the 1950s.
They were homes for an influx of British families migrating to Australia after World War II, which had triggered an accommodation shortage across NSW.
Ms Callen says the area became known colloquially as "Pommy Town".
"It was a really good neighbourhood," she said.
"You'd play with the kids next door and the kids down the street, and you'd just all run around like crazy."
Life in 'Pommy Town'
The huts had no insulation and became incredibly cold in winter and hot in summer.
"We definitely didn't have aircon," Ms Callen said.
"Luckily ours always got a nice breeze, but it did get very cold."
Each hut had a slightly different configuration inside, but Ms Callen says the majority had the same basic fit-out.
"They had bedrooms at the front, the lounge room dining area running through the middle section, another bedroom at the back and the laundry and bathroom at the back," she said.
Ms Callen remembers her childhood fondly and loved the family home.
"People who lived in the square brick houses always wanted to come to Pommy Town, because it was fun. There was always stuff happening," she said.
"I used to make up stories and say that the house goes underneath and it's completely round."
Ms Callen also remembers being teased by children from other suburbs for living in a Nissen hut.
"They'd go, 'You live in a tin can or a sardine can. You must be poor'," she said.
"As far as I remember, we weren't poor. We were just normal."
Ms Callen says, when she lived in Belmont North, every house on her street was a Nissen hut but just 23 remained today.
Project to save the hut
In 2008, Museums of History NSW bought a dilapidated hut in the region to restore it and help conserve the history of the buildings.
"We try to retain as much of the existing materials as possible," director Susan Sedgwick said.
"Much of the corrugated iron roofing had been rusted and just wasn't salvageable.
"But a lot of the other elements, such as the timber flooring, the concrete piers, the steel structures, were in very good condition and we were able to reuse them."
The organisation purchased the hut for $140,000 and, after refurbishments, sold it for $700,000 late last year.
"We would like to see more of the houses retained and people doing something special with them," Ms Sedgwick said.
Sold for $5,000
When Ms Callen's parents sold their hut nearly 50 years ago, they received about $5,000 for it.
"These are really important buildings with an interesting social history and community history," Ms Sedgwick said.
"When you drive around the streets of Belmont North, you start spotting them everywhere, and it's really particular to the area. It's part of its heritage.
"We don't want to see that important part of history lost."
