Many people believe that unless you’re a qualified electrician, it’s illegal under Victorian law to change a light bulb in your own home — and doing so will attract a $10 fine.Thankfully, a spokeswoman for Energy Safe Victoria has good news.“I can confirm that it is not illegal to change a light bulb in Victoria,” she told news.com.au.“While the Electricity Safety Act makes it illegal to do your own electrical work if you are not licensed, changing a light bulb and removing a plug from a socket were specifically exempted from this requirement under Order in Council G17.”
I’m either too young or too ignorant… but I didn’t know that a crescent moon had anything to do with an outhouse so this cartoon was lost on me until I did a bit of googling…
In case it helps someone else, here’s what I found…
“Probably the most recognizable symbol associated symbol with the traditional outhouse building is the familiar crescent moon carved into the privy door. Actually, the symbol is an ancient one, and was a sign for womanhood in colonial days and on the frontier. It’s male counterpart, Sol, was either a star or a sun burst design also on the door. Since most male outhouses fell into disrepair rather quickly they seldom survived; while the female ones were better maintained, and were eventually used by both sexes. Although you can find outhouses still standing with the crescent moon, the original meaning for gender identification was lost by the later nineteenth century in most areas of the country.
Carved crescent moons and stars on outhouse doors was introduced in early 19th century America. Typically, the moon and the star together represented a unisex outhouse, while the moon alone represented a women’s outhouse. A star alone represented a men’s outhouse"
That image of the guy in the pipe REALLY understates the drama. It was a 27 inch sewerage pipe. That’s not much wider than a mans shoulders! What a horrible experience.
Glenn from Victoria, Australia here. I’ve been changing my lighbulbs all my life and haven’t received any fines.
Perhaps you the artist could do a bit better research – I found this in a couple of minutes:
http://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/urban-legend-or-legislation-australias-weirdest-laws-explained/news-story/a0d85b1999b5933ef01a940f39e07b93
Many people believe that unless you’re a qualified electrician, it’s illegal under Victorian law to change a light bulb in your own home — and doing so will attract a $10 fine.Thankfully, a spokeswoman for Energy Safe Victoria has good news.“I can confirm that it is not illegal to change a light bulb in Victoria,” she told news.com.au.“While the Electricity Safety Act makes it illegal to do your own electrical work if you are not licensed, changing a light bulb and removing a plug from a socket were specifically exempted from this requirement under Order in Council G17.”