62 



RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Nornianton huts, for wet season use, shew a similar basis of 

 construction, and are thatched with grass; the entrance is 

 comparatively small (PL xiv., fig. 1). 



8. This tripod basis of construction of a dome-frame work hut 

 — represented by the two halves of the hoop 

 and its support in the previous examples — is 

 parallelled in the Rockhampton and Brisbane 

 areas, with the distinction however that the 

 supporting withe divides the comparatively 

 large door-wa}', which occupies one or both 

 sides of the tripod. Thus at Gladstone, Miriam 

 Vale, etc., I have often observed such an 



'"■ ■ arrangement made of two forked sticks (fig. 



37) interlocked with a third support, the bark sheets being 

 loosely attached on whichever aspect required". 



9. Again, at Brisbane"*, with tlie ordinary type of hut made 

 by men, a stittish withe would be cracked, not broken in two (l)y 

 bending over the top of the head, and pressing 

 the ends down with the outstretched hands) and 

 stuck at either extremity into the ground, the bent 

 portion being supported by a forked stick similarly 

 Stuck into the soil (fig. 38). On the side of the 

 ben^t cross-piece or hoop, further removed from the 

 fork, were slanted up against it several secondary 

 withes, their bases in the ground limiting the 

 floor-circvxmference of the hut. Up against the 

 secondary sticks were vertically placed sheets of 

 tea-tree bark, and covering them on top was an 

 extra large sheet after the manner of a ridge-cap 

 (fig. 39). To prevent cold wind passing in be- 

 tween the edges of these sheets, two would be 

 placed side by side and one in front (fig. 40) ; while, to keep 

 the sheets in position a trench was dug and the earth thrown 



up against them all the way rouud. If wind was 

 expected, heavy poles were laid upon the sides and 

 top. The comparatively large "door" or rather 

 opening of such a habitation was always in the 

 direction whence its occupants had come, its position 

 having nothing whatever to do with the prevailing 

 winds ; if however the wind proved too strong in 



'• At Rockhampton such a hut Mas known as a tu-ra to the local T.ii uin- 

 bul Blacks. 



** From notes supplied by Mr. T. Potrie. These huts were known as 

 nguduiu after tiie Melaleuca liark with wliich tiie^' were thatched. Ualu, 

 signifying fire was the name applied to a camp in general ; it also signitied 

 home in the same sense tiiat we speak of hearth. 



Fig. 38. 



Fig. 39. 



m] 



Fig. 40. 



