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Stone Structures
Stone Structures
Although ethnographers in the 1800s saw and wrote about stone buildings and engineering works, the idea of Australian Aboriginal people constructing permanent structures was dismissed in the 20th century.
This drawing by an unknown Australian Aboriginal artist of stone houses used by the ‘Gaggip’ people was collected by William Thomas at Bulleen Ponds in December 1843. The drawing is titled ‘shape of stone houses of Aboriginal druids who reside in the Australian Alps.’
R. Brough Smyth Papers, la Trobe Library, Melbourne, MS 8781.
Oral traditions captured by Dr Dennis Foley records how winter shelters in the Sydney area were substantial: “They were built in an elongated, almost egg, shape. The structure was of a strong hardwood beam, using a ‘y’ or fork shape, with other supporting limbs. Rock or sods of clay were used in the lower wall structure, up several levels. This was to keep out ground water or flooding. Shelters were consistently oriented to the north east to protect against the prevailing… winds and to allow morning sun entry… Shelters were big enough to hold a family of eight to ten people: up to 5-6 metres long, 3-4 metres across and 1.5 metres in the middle.”
D. Foley (2007), “The last Gai-Mariagal stone foundations at Port Jackson” in P. Memmott, Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia, p. 186-7.
Budj Bim structures
Budj Bim structures
The best studied stone-foundation houses are those from village at Budj Bim World Heritage Site. This is a recent reconstruction.
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