Bush carpentry
Encyclopedia
Bush Carpentry is an expression used in Australia and New Zealand that refers to improvised methods of building or repair, using available materials and an ad hoc
design, usually in a pioneering
or rural context.
Bush carpentry may lack a literature due to its perceived inferiority as a practice.For example, the catalogue of the Australian National Library has no Subject Heading for Bush Carpentry.
Cox and Lucas, writing in 1978 of Australian pioneer buildings, remarked:
A similar and familiar phrase is traditional bush carpentry; this implies that its principles are well-known, but informally transmitted. Like folk music
, bush carpentry exists within an oral and demotic culture, and is often undocumented. The tradition of Australian inventiveness, however, has an extensive literature:
There is sometimes a sardonic sense included in the phrase 'bush carpentry', one which implies slip-shod work by a careless practitioner, who also neglects maintenance.
Henry Lawson, "A Day on a Selection" (1896):
expressions in English include 'the boondocks'; 'the tall rhubarbs'; 'the sticks'; all implying remoteness and lack of sophistication. Even though remote areas in contemporary Australia are easily reachable by air and modern communications, there remains a mythology of the tyranny of distance: tyranny over comfort, sophistication, over civilization itself. The expression bush carpentry includes two criteria of 'remoteness'. The first, that the builder is separated (by lack of formal training) from regular methods of construction. The second, separation (by physical distance) from regular resources such as milled timber, fasteners, specialized tools, and similar manufactured products. Those in both 'remote' circumstances are forced to invent and improvise. They produce a necessary structure or object via unorthodox procedures, and it will be serviceable, if inelegant in appearance.
Thus, in an Australian suburb today, a self-taught handyman
might devise and erect a backyard structure using purchased timber, and practising 'bush carpentry' - a gazebo
, a fernery, a children's playhouse for example - while at the same time, a skilled tradesperson, in a distant run
of an outback cattle station
, might be forced to use heavy tree-trunks, saplings, undressed stone and rusty fencing-wire to construct a stock race
.The increasing availability today of prefabricated structures in kit form make both examples less and less likely, but the expression remains in use.
These two criteria allow the use of manufactured materials - e.g. milled timber - in an irregular manner, and materials other than wood (stone and iron, for example). They exclude the fabrication of large structures like wharves and bridges, built by contracting tradesmen, which incorporate massive tree trunks, even when a manufactured item, e.g. a steel beam, is available (see illustration of Maldon Bridge repaired by government construction team).
were probably the first 'bush carpenters'. Although they did not build dwellings, they certainly built shelters to keep off rain, sun and wind, using available materials. From the Aborigines, European settlers learned how to strip bark in large sheets from particular tree species, and use this for roofs and walls.
The skills required are minimal, but they must be well-mastered and neatly executed. Bush carpenters may learn from observing the methods, or the evidence of, another person's work, or entirely through their own invention. The scarcity of any reference books with any local applicability is another factor.
Ron Edwards asserts that no training at all is required. The requisites are 'a calm mind, reasonable health, and a willingness to learn'. Edwards points out that the early settlers built their homes without prior knowledge and experience, and 'many of these buildings are still in existence a century later'. Edwards adds, 'Confidence in your own ability is the first requirement... the second is access to knowledge'
In his autobiography, Sam Weller remarked of a young man who had worked for a period as a jackaroo
:
s, but he lists as the very minimum, 'A hand saw
; Axe
; Adze
; Mortising chisel; Two auger
s, 1 and 11/4 inch; Two maul rings; Set of wedges; 1 Spade; Pick-axe
; Two-foot rule
; Chalk line
; Square
; A Plumb Bob
.' A majority of early settlers had formerly been manual labourers
, or servicemen
, and brought with them a sound practical ability and aptitude for 'making do'; others observed or helped and copied their techniques.
Freeland observes:
Ron Edwards' 1987 list of suggested tools to construct 'stockcamp architecture' include only an axe, pliers
, a hammer and 'perhaps an auger'. Edwards also demonstrates the technique of the Cobb & Co.
hitch for tightening fencing wire that fastens structural elements(See Fig. 2 below).
With the upsurge in Australia of the restoration of so-called 'Heritage items'
, the techniques of Australian bush carpentry may be moving closer to formal identification and categorization. Tocal College's 2002 list of tools for its 'Traditional bush timber construction' course includes the broadaxe
, adze, sledge hammer
and wedges, morticing axe, froe
and mallet
, draw knife
, and hand auger.
design. Projects built according to properly drawn plans, for example, architectural blueprint
s, cannot be called examples of bush carpentry. The design of a barn or shed is likely to be intuitive and functional; the settler's slab hut
derived from the vernacular English crofter's
hut, a simple rectangular walled shelter with one door, and perhaps holes to allow air to enter.
Historically, the materials at hand for Australian settlers usually included a plentiful supply of hardwood
,The toughness and intractability of Australian hardwoods discouraged attempts at detailed joinery. Fancy, carved bargeboard
s were never a feature of settlers' dwellings, and whittling
never became an Australian pioneer's pastime. in the form of fully-grown trees and saplings, bark, brush or grass, clay, mud and stone. The classic Australian bush carpentry image is the forked tree trunk used as an upright.
Nails, bolts or screws were often not available; wooden pegs, wire, or strips of greenhide might be used as fasteners. Greenhide strips might also be used as hinges for doors or shutters. Ron Edwards comments that 'Fencing wire was a very popular resource because it was always available. Bolts and long nails were expensive, and had to be ordered from town... a shed or stockyard would be fastened together with wire and would be stronger than one that was nailed.'.
Less usual building materials include flattened steel kerosene
containers used as wall cladding, or such containers filled with sand and used as building blocks. Sheets of hessian have also been used as walls, for coolness.
The etymology
of the word carpenter shows that it derives from 'a carriage maker', and later, 'one who builds frameworks'; thus, the term 'bush carpentry' does not necessarily imply that wood is the only material involved.
The cartoons of Eric Jolliffe
, especially those based on his character Saltbush Bill include many examples of bush carpentry; the farm where much of Saltbush Bill is set has houses, furniture and other rural structures - barns, stockyards, gallows - all built using bush carpentry means and materials. Joliffe set himself the task of preserving much of Australia's rural heritage by producing sketches and paintings of such structures.
Rolf Boldrewood's
Robbery Under Arms(1881) is an exception:
Henry Lawson
, "The Darling River" (1900):
In Steele Rudd's
, Back at Our Selection, (1906) the sequence of stories beginning with "Dave's New House" and ending with "Dad Forgets the Past" have a socio-historical sub-text emphasizing the progress of rural Australia from pioneering to prosperity. In the first story, Dad Rudd, though now a wealthy farmer, builds Dave and his new wife Lily a house, using materials salvaged from a neighbour's derelict slab hut. Dad still thinks like a pioneer: he constructs the house himself, using only the materials available, and spending little or no money. However, Lily's mother is outraged that her daughter is expected to live in 'a pile of dirty old slabs and shingles... a hole!' Dad Rudd is shamed into hiring proper building contractors and erecting a fine cottage, at a cost of 'three hundred pounds'; indeed, in freeing himself from the penuriousness he knew as a penniless settler, Dad over-furnishes Dave's house such that even Mother 'shook her head disapprovingly'.
E. O. Schlunke's The Enthusiastic Prisoner (1955) shows two bush carpenters at work. One is a lazy Australian farmer who is assigned an Italian prisoner of war
as a laborer. The Italian is far more energetic, and tackles dozens of neglected farming tasks, becoming in effect the manager. In one episode, they re-roof a shed using bush carpentry:
The folk song Stringbark and Greenhide describes successful bush carpentry using both these materials:
The folk song Old Bark Hut is of another opinion:
). On a block of land close to a beach, near a coastal village, or other place of recreation like a river, lake or mountain, a family might erect a 'shack'
, or cabin, usually with their own hands, often using materials brought from their city residence, or obtained nearby. Shacks and cabins used as weekenders were sometimes built illegally, in remote or inaccessible areas, for example, within National Parks
. Weekenders were not always constructed according the local council's building code
; they were often excellent examples of bush carpentry.
Government organizations usually ignored the presence and the irregular construction of such weekenders, provided the users behaved responsibly. Municipal councils did not charge these shack-builders rates
, and did not provide services like water supply, power, sewerage or garbage disposal. By the 1980s, however, as Australia's population increased, many former coastal villages had become towns, or the suburbs of nearby towns. Many Australians had retired to live cheaply in their weekender,That is, made a seachange placing increasing pressure on local infrastructure and community services. Increasing pressure was then placed on the owners and occupiers of weekenders to destroy or replace their shack with a properly constructed dwelling.
The founding of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 1967 introduced a policy of cabin removal. Owners have subsequently sought to have their cabins declared heritage structures, 'uncommon and endangered examples of vernacular weekender architecture construction' and of 'the limitations imposed by the natural environment and isolated location' i.e. examples of bush carpentry.
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
design, usually in a pioneering
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
or rural context.
The tradition
The phrase 'bush carpentry' is a familiar Australian usage, but finding an exact description of its practice is rare. The Macquarie Dictionary for example, defines a bush carpenter as a rough amateur carpenter, and G. A. Wilkes says he is a rough and ready carpenter. The Macquarie in turn defines rough-and-ready as rough, rude or crude, but good enough for the purpose. Wannan says that a bush carpenter is 'a very rough, unorthodox artisan indeed', and includes a sardonic excerpt from Henry Lawson to exemplify it. In his Bushcraft series Ron Edwards describes hut and furniture building, and 'stockcamp architecture', without once using the phrase 'bush carpentry', though 'rough and ready' recurs. Tocal Agricultural College offers a course in 'Traditional bush timber construction'; The word 'traditional' appears six times in the course outline, but not 'bush carpentry'.Bush carpentry may lack a literature due to its perceived inferiority as a practice.For example, the catalogue of the Australian National Library has no Subject Heading for Bush Carpentry.
Cox and Lucas, writing in 1978 of Australian pioneer buildings, remarked:
"... perhaps because it has been the symbol of hardship and country toil; perhaps because it was thought too crude and rude to be treated seriously as architecture by the academics... there have been few books and articles written on the subject... The vernacular, often, is a fragile architectural form, evolved for expedience and resulting - especially in the case of the more primitive examples - in early decay and disappearance... designed by an amateur, a builder with little training in design and who will be guided by a strict set of conventions developed within his own locality, perhaps paying some attention to fashion, but local only and certainly not international. Within the vernacular building, function is the dominant factor.
A similar and familiar phrase is traditional bush carpentry; this implies that its principles are well-known, but informally transmitted. Like folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, bush carpentry exists within an oral and demotic culture, and is often undocumented. The tradition of Australian inventiveness, however, has an extensive literature:
"... vigorous attitudes to innovation prevailed in the Colonies in the nineteenth century and established for Australia some significant technological leads. Lessons from these attitudes both underline the continuing importance of the 'lone inventor' and hold relevance for education, management, and technology policies today."
There is sometimes a sardonic sense included in the phrase 'bush carpentry', one which implies slip-shod work by a careless practitioner, who also neglects maintenance.
Henry Lawson, "A Day on a Selection" (1896):
'The dairy is built of rotten box bark - though there is plenty of good
stringy-bark within easy distance - and the structure looks as if it
wants to lie down and is only prevented by three crooked props on the
leaning side; more props will soon be needed in the rear for the dairy
shows signs of going in that direction. The milk is set in dishes
made of kerosene-tins, cut in halves, which are placed on bark shelves
fitted round against the walls. The shelves are not level and the
dishes are brought to a comparatively 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, because 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.'
"The bush"
In Australian parlance, 'the bush' includes not only all remote and rural areas, but ways of living there, especially the limitations and hardships endured.Similar slangSlang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
expressions in English include 'the boondocks'; 'the tall rhubarbs'; 'the sticks'; all implying remoteness and lack of sophistication. Even though remote areas in contemporary Australia are easily reachable by air and modern communications, there remains a mythology of the tyranny of distance: tyranny over comfort, sophistication, over civilization itself. The expression bush carpentry includes two criteria of 'remoteness'. The first, that the builder is separated (by lack of formal training) from regular methods of construction. The second, separation (by physical distance) from regular resources such as milled timber, fasteners, specialized tools, and similar manufactured products. Those in both 'remote' circumstances are forced to invent and improvise. They produce a necessary structure or object via unorthodox procedures, and it will be serviceable, if inelegant in appearance.
Thus, in an Australian suburb today, a self-taught handyman
Handyman
A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet...
might devise and erect a backyard structure using purchased timber, and practising 'bush carpentry' - a gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...
, a fernery, a children's playhouse for example - while at the same time, a skilled tradesperson, in a distant run
Field (agriculture)
In agriculture, the word field refers generally to an area of land enclosed or otherwise and used for agricultural purposes such as:* Cultivating crops* Usage as a paddock or, generally, an enclosure of livestock...
of an outback cattle station
Station (Australian agriculture)
Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...
, might be forced to use heavy tree-trunks, saplings, undressed stone and rusty fencing-wire to construct a stock race
Cattle race
A cattle race also called a run or alley is a narrow corridor built for cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals to travel through when being moved from one location to another that is nearby...
.The increasing availability today of prefabricated structures in kit form make both examples less and less likely, but the expression remains in use.
These two criteria allow the use of manufactured materials - e.g. milled timber - in an irregular manner, and materials other than wood (stone and iron, for example). They exclude the fabrication of large structures like wharves and bridges, built by contracting tradesmen, which incorporate massive tree trunks, even when a manufactured item, e.g. a steel beam, is available (see illustration of Maldon Bridge repaired by government construction team).
Skills
The Australian AboriginesIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
were probably the first 'bush carpenters'. Although they did not build dwellings, they certainly built shelters to keep off rain, sun and wind, using available materials. From the Aborigines, European settlers learned how to strip bark in large sheets from particular tree species, and use this for roofs and walls.
The skills required are minimal, but they must be well-mastered and neatly executed. Bush carpenters may learn from observing the methods, or the evidence of, another person's work, or entirely through their own invention. The scarcity of any reference books with any local applicability is another factor.
Ron Edwards asserts that no training at all is required. The requisites are 'a calm mind, reasonable health, and a willingness to learn'. Edwards points out that the early settlers built their homes without prior knowledge and experience, and 'many of these buildings are still in existence a century later'. Edwards adds, 'Confidence in your own ability is the first requirement... the second is access to knowledge'
In his autobiography, Sam Weller remarked of a young man who had worked for a period as a jackaroo
Jackaroo (trainee)
A Jackaroo is a young man working on a sheep or cattle station, to gain practical experience in the skills needed to become an owner, overseer, manager, etc. The word originated in Queensland, Australia in the Nineteenth Century and is still in use in Australia and New Zealand in the twenty-first...
:
"The bush is one of the best educations a young fellow can get if he's interested. That bloke knows livestock, knows how to work them, can cut a straight line with a saw, handle concrete, build a set of yards, fix a motor car - you name it. When you're a hundred miles from town, you can't afford to get a tradesman out for every little job that bobs up. So you've got to slip in and do it yourself... One of the bosses from a cattle station told me "Sam, if a bloke comes in here in a big hat and ringer boots, he's got a job. They can turn their hands to anything. They know how to work and they don't gutsache all the time."
Tools
The bush carpenter historically possessed few tools, and rarely any specialized tools. Mann's Emigrant's Guide of 1849 suggests that those heading for Australia's unsettled areas take with them a plentiful supply of a wide variety of tools and fastenerFastener
A fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together.Fasteners can also be used to close a container such as a bag, a box, or an envelope; or they may involve keeping together the sides of an opening of flexible material, attaching a lid to a container,...
s, but he lists as the very minimum, 'A hand saw
Hand saw
In woodworking and carpentry, hand saws, also known as "panel saws", "fish saws", are used to cut pieces of wood into different shapes. This is usually done in order to join the pieces together and create a wooden object. They usually operate by having a series of sharp points of some substance...
; Axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
; Adze
Adze
An adze is a tool used for smoothing or carving rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind...
; Mortising chisel; Two auger
Auger
An auger is a drilling device, or drill bit, that usually includes a rotating helical screw blade called a "flighting" to act as a screw conveyor to remove the drilled out material...
s, 1 and 11/4 inch; Two maul rings; Set of wedges; 1 Spade; Pick-axe
Pickaxe
A pickaxe or pick is a hand tool with a hard head attached perpendicular to the handle.Some people make the distinction that a pickaxe has a head with a pointed end and a flat end, and a pick has both ends pointed, or only one end; but most people use the words to mean the same thing.The head is...
; Two-foot rule
Ruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule or line gauge, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing, printing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines...
; Chalk line
Chalk line
A chalk line or chalk box is a tool for marking long, straight lines on relatively flat surfaces, much farther than is practical by hand or with a straightedge....
; Square
Try square
A try-square is a woodworking or a metal working tool used for marking and measuring a piece of wood. The square refers to the tool's primary use of measuring the accuracy of a right angle ; to try a surface is to check its straightness or correspondence to an adjoining surface...
; A Plumb Bob
Plumb-bob
A plumb-bob or a plummet is a weight, usually with a pointed tip on the bottom, that is suspended from a string and used as a vertical reference line, or plumb-line....
.' A majority of early settlers had formerly been manual labourers
Laborer
A Laborer or labourer - see variation in english spelling - is one of the construction trades, traditionally considered unskilled manual labor, as opposed to skilled labor. In the division of labor, laborers have all blasting, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act...
, or servicemen
Serviceman
The term serviceman, alternatively service member, refers to non-commissioned members of armed forces. More generally, the term can be applied to officers as well.For more information see:*Soldier*Sailor or Seaman*Airman*Marine *Coast guard...
, and brought with them a sound practical ability and aptitude for 'making do'; others observed or helped and copied their techniques.
Freeland observes:
'With a saw, an axe, a hammer and a spade on his cart and possibly one of the useful little books on construction written especially for him... he had to do the best he could with the materials that were to hand wherever he stopped. Helped a little by his book, a fair amount by advice and precedent and a great deal by ingenuity and native wit, the settlers developed a surprising number of variations on standard constructional materials and techniques.'
Ron Edwards' 1987 list of suggested tools to construct 'stockcamp architecture' include only an axe, pliers
Pliers
Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, for bending, or physical compression. Generally, pliers consist of a pair of metal first-class levers joined at a fulcrum positioned closer to one end of the levers, creating short jaws on one side of the fulcrum, and longer handles on the other...
, a hammer and 'perhaps an auger'. Edwards also demonstrates the technique of the Cobb & Co.
Cobb and Co
Cobb and Co is the name of a transportation company in Australia. It was prominent in the late 19th century when it operated stagecoaches to many areas in the outback and at one point in several other countries, as well....
hitch for tightening fencing wire that fastens structural elements(See Fig. 2 below).
With the upsurge in Australia of the restoration of so-called 'Heritage items'
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
, the techniques of Australian bush carpentry may be moving closer to formal identification and categorization. Tocal College's 2002 list of tools for its 'Traditional bush timber construction' course includes the broadaxe
Broadaxe
A broadaxe is a large-headed axe. There were two types of broadaxes both used for shaping logs by hand hewing. On one type, one side is flat and the other side beveled, a basilled edge, this is a hewing broadaxe...
, adze, sledge hammer
Sledgehammer
A sledgehammer is a tool consisting of a large, flat head attached to a lever . The head is typically made of metal. The sledgehammer can apply more impulse than other hammers, due to its large size. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area...
and wedges, morticing axe, froe
Froe
Froes are used in combination with wooden mallets to split timber, to make planks, wooden shingles, or kindling; they are safer and more accurate to use than hatchets because the blade is not swung....
and mallet
Mallet
A mallet is a kind of hammer, usually of rubber,or sometimes wood smaller than a maul or beetle and usually with a relatively large head.-Tools:Tool mallets come in different types, the most common of which are:...
, draw knife
Drawknife
A drawknife is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer than it is deep...
, and hand auger.
Design and materials
Structures or objects such as furniture created using bush carpentry techniques often have minimal or even an ad hocAd hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
design. Projects built according to properly drawn plans, for example, architectural blueprint
Blueprint
A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....
s, cannot be called examples of bush carpentry. The design of a barn or shed is likely to be intuitive and functional; the settler's slab hut
Slab Hut
A Slab Hut is a kind of dwelling or shed made from slabs of split or sawn timber. It was a common form of construction used by settlers in Australia and New Zealand during their nations' Colonial periods.-The Australian Settler:...
derived from the vernacular English crofter's
Croft (land)
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...
hut, a simple rectangular walled shelter with one door, and perhaps holes to allow air to enter.
Historically, the materials at hand for Australian settlers usually included a plentiful supply of hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
,The toughness and intractability of Australian hardwoods discouraged attempts at detailed joinery. Fancy, carved bargeboard
Bargeboard
Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached...
s were never a feature of settlers' dwellings, and whittling
Whittling
Whittling is the art of carving shapes typically out of raw wood or bone with a knife.Whittling is typically performed with a light, small-bladed knife, usually a pocket knife. Specialised whittling knives are available as well...
never became an Australian pioneer's pastime. in the form of fully-grown trees and saplings, bark, brush or grass, clay, mud and stone. The classic Australian bush carpentry image is the forked tree trunk used as an upright.
Nails, bolts or screws were often not available; wooden pegs, wire, or strips of greenhide might be used as fasteners. Greenhide strips might also be used as hinges for doors or shutters. Ron Edwards comments that 'Fencing wire was a very popular resource because it was always available. Bolts and long nails were expensive, and had to be ordered from town... a shed or stockyard would be fastened together with wire and would be stronger than one that was nailed.'.
Less usual building materials include flattened steel kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
containers used as wall cladding, or such containers filled with sand and used as building blocks. Sheets of hessian have also been used as walls, for coolness.
The etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the word carpenter shows that it derives from 'a carriage maker', and later, 'one who builds frameworks'; thus, the term 'bush carpentry' does not necessarily imply that wood is the only material involved.
Examples of bush carpentry in situ
Influence on Australian architecture and art
Cox & Freeland believe that early structures created using bush carpentry had a profound influence on Australian industrial architecture:"Because they are uncomplicated buildings, built by unlettered people in the most direct way, using the materials readily to hand, they often have a character and honesty that are rare and sometimes missing from
their more erudite architectural betters. Because they are made of a material with which
everyone has a deep-rooted harmony, because they are put together in ways that are easily
understood and because their forms are readily comprehended, they are universal buildings
whose roughness and even whose frequent dilapidation give them a powerful emotional appeal
and impact. They are buildings to be felt rather than reasoned... Cement works, mines, the railways and factories spawned a large variety of store houses and storage bins, towers and poppet heads, workshops and condensers. Framed up in peeled tree trunks or massive balks of hardwood bolted together, their skeletons of columns, beams and braces had the same forthrightness and frankness of the rural buildings.... sited out in the country where they would seldom be seen, or in ugly industrial areas, or along the waterfront where buildings were not expected to be beautiful they, like the rural buildings, were built with an eye solely to meeting their utilitarian purpose in the most direct and purposeful way. Because of this, they frequently succeeded in being outstandingly beautiful. Through the industrial buildings, the functional tradition of the countryside unknowingly and unconsciously was passed into the twentieth century.
The cartoons of Eric Jolliffe
Eric Jolliffe
Eric Jolliffe was an Australian cartoonist who contributed to The Bulletin and Smith's Weekly. He was particularly fond of "bush" subjects.-Biography:...
, especially those based on his character Saltbush Bill include many examples of bush carpentry; the farm where much of Saltbush Bill is set has houses, furniture and other rural structures - barns, stockyards, gallows - all built using bush carpentry means and materials. Joliffe set himself the task of preserving much of Australia's rural heritage by producing sketches and paintings of such structures.
In Australian literature and music
There is often a sardonic or comical note in Australian fiction when bush carpentry is mentioned or described; possibly because there is no comedy or satire residing in competency.Rolf Boldrewood's
Thomas Alexander Browne
Thomas Alexander Browne was an Australian writer, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood and best known for his novel Robbery Under Arms.-Biography:...
Robbery Under Arms(1881) is an exception:
'... 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 within fifty miles. He split every slab, cut every post and wallplate and rafter himself, with a man to help him at odd times; and after the frame was up, and the bark on the roof, he camped underneath and finished every bit of it — chimney, flooring, doors, windows, and partitions — by himself.'
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
, "The Darling River" (1900):
"The boat we were on was built and repaired above deck after the different ideas of many bush carpenters, of whom the last seemed by his work to have regarded the original plan with a contempt only equalled by his disgust at the work of the last carpenter but one. The wheel was boxed in, mostly with round sapling-sticks fastened to the frame with bunches of nails and spikes of all shapes and sizes, most of them bent. The general result was decidedly picturesque in its irregularity, but dangerous to the mental welfare of any passenger who was foolish enough to try to comprehend the design; for it seemed as though every carpenter had taken the opportunity to work in a little abstract idea of his own.
In Steele Rudd's
Steele Rudd
Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis an Australian author, best known for On Our Selection.-Early life:...
, Back at Our Selection, (1906) the sequence of stories beginning with "Dave's New House" and ending with "Dad Forgets the Past" have a socio-historical sub-text emphasizing the progress of rural Australia from pioneering to prosperity. In the first story, Dad Rudd, though now a wealthy farmer, builds Dave and his new wife Lily a house, using materials salvaged from a neighbour's derelict slab hut. Dad still thinks like a pioneer: he constructs the house himself, using only the materials available, and spending little or no money. However, Lily's mother is outraged that her daughter is expected to live in 'a pile of dirty old slabs and shingles... a hole!' Dad Rudd is shamed into hiring proper building contractors and erecting a fine cottage, at a cost of 'three hundred pounds'; indeed, in freeing himself from the penuriousness he knew as a penniless settler, Dad over-furnishes Dave's house such that even Mother 'shook her head disapprovingly'.
E. O. Schlunke's The Enthusiastic Prisoner (1955) shows two bush carpenters at work. One is a lazy Australian farmer who is assigned an Italian prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
as a laborer. The Italian is far more energetic, and tackles dozens of neglected farming tasks, becoming in effect the manager. In one episode, they re-roof a shed using bush carpentry:
'When they climbed the roof Pietro discovered that half the sheets were loose. Henry gave him the nails and directed him to nail down the flapping sheet. But Pietro was hunting round for causes. He discovered that the rafters were rotting and demonstrated it by giving one a hard hit with the hammer. It split from end to end and a couple of sheets immediately blew off the roof.
They spent the afternoon cutting trees in the scrub and trimming them for rafters, though nothing had been farther from Henry's intention and inclination. He cut down a few little trees while Pietro cut a lot of big ones. Pietro always took the heavier end when they loaded the rails, but even so, Henry became exhausted. Round about four o'clock he decided to go home.
"Sufficient," he said.
Pietro consulted a diagram he had made.
"No sufficient," he said. "Ancora four."
... They finished re-roofing the shed by the week-end. Pietro wanted to know if they would cut some fence-posts next week to repair the fences. Henry thought of how he would suffer if he had to work on the other end of a cross-cut saw with a tireless bear like Pietro.
"No," he said, "some other work."
But he didn't like the way Pietro looked at him, so he decided to hide the cross-cut saw.'
The folk song Stringbark and Greenhide describes successful bush carpentry using both these materials:
If you want to build a hut, to keep out wind and weather,
Stringy bark will make it snug, and keep it well together;
Greenhide, if it's used by you, will make it all the stronger,
For if you tie it with greenhide, it's sure to last the longer.
The folk song Old Bark Hut is of another opinion:
In the summertime when the weather's warm this hut is nice and cool
And you'll find the gentle breezes blowing in through every hole
You can leave the old door open or you can leave it shut
There's no fear of suffocation in the old bark hut
In an old bark hut in an old bark hut
There's no fear of suffocation in the old bark hut.
Shacks, cabins and weekenders
From the 1920s to the 1970s, the average Australian family aimed to own a 'weekender', in addition to their suburban dwelling. (In New Zealand, a weekender is known as a bachBach (New Zealand)
A bach is a small, often very modest holiday home or beach house. Alternatively called a crib, they are an iconic part of New Zealand history and culture, especially in the middle of the 20th century, where they symbolized the beach holiday lifestyle that was becoming more accessible to the...
). On a block of land close to a beach, near a coastal village, or other place of recreation like a river, lake or mountain, a family might erect a 'shack'
Shack
A shack is a type of small house, usually in a state of disrepair. The word may derive from the Nahuatl word xacalli or "adobe house" by way of Mexican Spanish xacal/jacal, which has the same meaning as "shack". It was a common usage among people of Mexican ancestry throughout the U.S...
, or cabin, usually with their own hands, often using materials brought from their city residence, or obtained nearby. Shacks and cabins used as weekenders were sometimes built illegally, in remote or inaccessible areas, for example, within National Parks
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
. Weekenders were not always constructed according the local council's building code
Building code
A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the...
; they were often excellent examples of bush carpentry.
Government organizations usually ignored the presence and the irregular construction of such weekenders, provided the users behaved responsibly. Municipal councils did not charge these shack-builders rates
Council tax
Council Tax is the system of local taxation used in England, Scotland and Wales to part fund the services provided by local government in each country. It was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as a successor to the unpopular Community Charge...
, and did not provide services like water supply, power, sewerage or garbage disposal. By the 1980s, however, as Australia's population increased, many former coastal villages had become towns, or the suburbs of nearby towns. Many Australians had retired to live cheaply in their weekender,That is, made a seachange placing increasing pressure on local infrastructure and community services. Increasing pressure was then placed on the owners and occupiers of weekenders to destroy or replace their shack with a properly constructed dwelling.
The founding of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 1967 introduced a policy of cabin removal. Owners have subsequently sought to have their cabins declared heritage structures, 'uncommon and endangered examples of vernacular weekender architecture construction' and of 'the limitations imposed by the natural environment and isolated location' i.e. examples of bush carpentry.
Historical images: Australia
- Bush carpenter at work N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection.
- Bush carpentry: pig sty N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection.
- Bush carpentry: bark hut frame N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection.
- Bush carpentry: meat house N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection.
- Bush carpentry: slab hut N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection.
- Bush carpentry: bark hut N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection
- Bush carpentry: slab homestead N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection
- Bush carpentry: houses and stockyards N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection
- Bush carpentry: outdoor kitchen N.L.A. Australian Inland Mission Collection
Historical images: New Zealand
Other links
- Victorian High Country Huts Association
- Golden Axe Awards
- Urban Bush Carpenters
- Colonial Slab Hut construction
- Australian architecture - being good or being different 'Australian eucalypts are wonky. Any builder using them just had to accept that there would be gaps in their walls...'
- Gay Hawkes Bush Carpentry sculpture 'From timbers which are cast off from another life she fashions objects which cleverly identify Australia and Australians.'