Page 25 - eMuse Vol.9 No.09

From “Our New Selection”

Steele Rudd’s (1903)

It was a slabbed house, with shingled roof, and space enough for
two rooms, but the partition wasn’t up. The floor was earth, but
Dad had a mixture of sand and fresh cow-dung with which he
used to keep it level .
About once every month he would put it on, and everyone had to
keep outside that day till it was dry. There were no locks on the
When we were kids, we called it the “haunted house.” Well, it doors. Pegs were put in to keep them fast at night, and the slabs
wasn’t really haunted. It was just a derilect farm house. Our im- were not very close together, for we could easily see anybody
agination did the rest. coming on horseback by looking through them .
Much of the old farm machinery was still there and we lacked the Joe and I used to play at counting the stars through the cracks in
foresight to know its true value and no one in the district seemed to the roof.
care. How sad. What a total waste of our heritage.
This place had acres and acres of pineapples, vineyards, sugar cane From “We of the Never Never”
and other crops. It showed evidence that Kanakas once worked Mrs Aeneas Gunn (1908)
here. What didn’t rot was dumped or bull-dozed.
The walls are erected by what is known as the drop-slab-panel
Perhaps these quotes give a hint of the wonders found in such mag-
ic old houses. system - upright panels formed of three-foot slabs cut from the
outside slice of tree-trunks, and dropped horizontally, one above
Quotes about the other, between grooved posts - a simple arrangement, quickly
run up and artistic in appearance - outside, a horizontally fluted
surface, formed by the natural curves of the timber, and inside,
Old Bush Huts flat, smooth walls.
As in every third panel there was a door or a window, and as the
horizontal slabs stopped within two feet of the ceiling, the build-
A Day on a Selection ing was exceedingly airy, and open on all sides.
Henry Lawson, 1896 The Folk Song “Old Bark Hut”

The dairy is built of rotten box bark—though there is plenty of In the summertime when the weather’s warm this hut is nice and cool
good stringy-bark within easy distance—and the structure looks And you’ll find the gentle breezes blowing in through every hole
as if it wants to lie down and is only prevented by three crooked You can leave the old door open or you can leave it shut
props on the leaning side; more props will soon be needed in the There’s no fear of suffocation in the old bark hut.
rear for the dairy shows signs of going in that direction. In an old bark hut in an old bark hut
The milk is set in dishes made of kerosene-tins, cut in halves, There’s no fear of suffocation in the old bark hut.
which are placed on bark shelves fitted round against the walls.
The shelves are not level and the dishes are brought to a com-
paratively horizontal position by means of chips and bits of bark,
inserted under the lower side.
The milk is covered by soiled sheets of old newspapers supported
on sticks laid across the dishes. This protection is necessary, be-
cause the box bark in the roof has crumbled away and left fringed
holes—also because the fowls roost up there. Sometimes the
paper sags, and the cream may have to be scraped off an article
on dairy farming.
From “Robbery Under Arms”

Rolf Boldrewood’s (1881) Slab Hut, Belle Vue Station, Glencoe, NSW c. 1898
... It was a snug hut enough, for father was a good bush carpenter,
and didn’t turn his back to any one for splitting and fencing, hut-
building and shingle-splitting; he had had a year or two at sawing,
too ... he took great pride ... and said it was the best-built hut It’s just a 4 line Poem,
within fifty miles. It’s just a bit of fun,
He split every slab, cut every post and wallplate and rafter himself, I hope you do enjoy it,
with a man to help him at odd times; and after the frame was up, ’Good Heavens!’ There it’s done.
and the bark on the roof, he camped underneath and finished
every bit of it — chimney, flooring, doors, windows, and partitions Grahame “Skewiff” Watt
— by himself.

September 2020 eMuse 25