Home Stories: Anna Trundle

Posted on 13 March, 2020

This week, Ashley and Cass pay a visit to woman-about-town Anna Trundle—and get a few more interviewees than they bargained for.

Visiting Anna Trundle was more like visiting numerous Anna Trundles all at once. Seriously—not only does Anna have many parts to her, but she is always either surrounded by people, talking about people, or doing something for people. She is the definitive ‘people person’.

With that in mind, it was no surprise that when Cass and I visited her home in Ainslie, we were met in the driveway by a welcoming party of six. None of them wore name badges, unfortunately, so my amazing skill of not remembering names really kicked in and I was forced to call everyone ‘mate’, ‘friend’ or the good old classic, ‘you’.

Anna has lived in the share house for more than four years and at no point did she or her partner Finn consider having it just to themselves.

“We first moved out with some friends, then when they moved out, we got some new people in and then they become friends,” she laughs. “We’re all pretty close here and love each other’s company.”

From my slightly sketchy—but very scientific—sleuthing it seems that the home was originally a worker’s cottage then possibly a nunnery before it got extended and made into a share home. But one thing is for sure—it’s certainly got social cohesion in its 1960s bones.

Like all good share houses, it has that great mixture of private getaways and communal spaces—with lots of Ainslie character thrown in.

By that, I mean the wooden stained-glass windows, large fireplace, generous deck, the most miniature house-like cubby house I’ve ever seen and even the original stove, which doubled up as a heater through steam-driven roof mechanics.

As Cass and I made out way through the home—each section with its own nickname such as the Nunnery, the Bedroom Wing and the Flat—we got to know the residents one by one.

Anna is the owner of Keep Co, a vibrant co-working space in Fyshwick’s Dairy Road, and is also part-graphic designer, part-illustrator and part-papercraft artist.

Her partner Finn is the owner of Waypoint Tea Co as well as a public servant. In the Bedroom Wing we met Kat, owner of No Name Jewellery who is completing her Master of Climate Change, and her partner Toby, public servant and master musician.

Then, in the transformed studio at the back of the property we have Lym, who works in renewable energy, volunteers with the ACT RFS volunteer firie and models part-time.

In fact, one of my favourite parts of the visit was when Lym said: “Hey, I remember you from FASHFEST—we must have modelled together?”

For a second I thought of going along with it and telling him who I wore, but then my honesty kicked in. “Ah no, I just did the music Lym. No one is letting this on a catwalk.”

Lym’s space is cohesive with the rest of the house but stands on its own in terms of styling.

I’ll let the photos do the talking but aside from being a plant god, he has sourced a lot of items from his creative design friends to give the studio that ‘custom’ look. Right down to the handmade DJ mixer, amplifier and speakers made out of recycled components…which I got pretty excited about.

At this point I can hear you saying, “Hang on Ashley—you said there were six people and you only listed five?” Relax, I’m getting to the last member now—it’s Anna and Finn’s doggie, Wally. He stole a piece of my salami, and for that he gets left to the end of the story.

But no matter which order I recall everyone, at least you can see that by the end of the visit I remembered everyone’s names. It’s all to do with Anna and her ability to bring people together in a truly connected way.