On this day, 20 March 1946, a group of up to 10 homeless people, some of them World War II veterans, squatted the 20-room Maramanah mansion in King’s Cross, Sydney, Australia. The building was owned by the local council and scheduled for demolition. One of the squatters told the Argus newspaper, “We have done everything to find a home, but it is hopeless, so we decided that this was the only way out". Over the next few days, more squatters joined them, until 11 families totalling 33 people moved in. After the occupation, the council agreed to keep the building open as a rooming house until 1954. The successful action helped spur a wave of squatting across the country which won housing for large numbers of people amidst the housing crisis at the time.
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