Toilets, bathrooms, latrines, or “dunnies” as they’re called in Australia, have surfaced as topics of conversation from time to time. How they have changed over the centuries. How they vary from place to place, country to country. But one thing remains constant to being human. When you gotta go, you gotta go.
And since the school year is in the midst of the Spring holidays in Australia, what better way to “go”.
When You Gotta Go
He stood up and wandered to the door.
‘Get back to your seat!’ I snapped.
‘Gotta go to the toilet, Miss.’
‘No, you don’t.’ I pointed at his desk. ‘Sit down!’
This version of Denis the Menace crossed his legs and grinned. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘You can wait.’
‘Please, Miss,’ his voice mocking, ‘I have to go.’
Sniggers rippled throughout the classroom.
I stood, pointing like a fool at his chair. Afternoon sun streamed through the dusty windows, ripening adolescent body odour.
He walked past me.
I growled, ‘Get back here!’
‘When you gotta go, you gotta go,’ he replied.
© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2019; updated 2026
Feature Photo: Memories recreated for my Mum when she lived in Hermannsburg. Waiting for the toilet. © L.M. Kling 2013
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Here are some more “dunnies” upon which to contemplate:
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Longing for more travel adventures?
Dreaming of exploring Australia?
Read the T-Team’s Aussie adventures, click on the link below:
The T-Team with Mr. B: Central Australian Safari 1977
Trekking the T-Team: Central Australian Safari 1981
Or if you’d rather “go” on an adventure into space on a mission in a war against that nemesis you will love to hate …
Click on my War Against Boris series on the links below …
And Read the mischief and mayhem Boris the over-sized alien cockroach gets up to…
Click on the link to my most popular novel, The Lost World of the Wends
Or discover how it all began in The Hitch-Hiker
And how it continues with Mission of the Unwilling
And how a nice bunch of Wends turned nasty in the latest in the War Against Boris series …
Diamonds in the Cave
