The Home Office - How The Study Has Evolved!

Comedian David Smiedt takes an irreverent, but appreciative, look at the classic things that define you- beaut aussie life

- David Smiedt

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the typical Australian day was neatly segmented into thirds – eight hours’ work, eight hours’ play, eight hours’ rest. Well, for half the population anyway. If you were a woman with a household to run, your unacknowledged, unpaid labour tore the formula to shreds. Haven’t times changed! Anyhoo, the point is once you’d left the office, you’d also left work. The idea that you were willing to create a space in your home for corporate toil was as ludicrous as a reality TV host becoming president of the United States.

But, technology always wins and by the late 1980s, the miracle of the fax machine had arrived. All it took was a working phone line and a weight-bearing surface, and you could send or receive scribbled documents that were once posted. It called for a space that went beyond mere nookery: a grown-up realm for grown-up activities and, besides, all the desks were in the kids’ rooms.