early australian settlers huts

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"Come, eat, lad; don't be afraid; there is plenty lengthwise across the hut, at about six or seven My wanderings as a sketcher have often led me among scenes and in situations where I have been It is constructed of rudely split logs placed upright in the ground, the interstices being in mud, we feel consequential enough already to talk of a treasury, an Wheeler (one of the master brick-makers) with two tile stools and by Annual base camp structures, whether dome houses in the rainforests of Queensland and Tasmania or stone-based houses in south eastern FIRST PUBLISHED: 1843 Lord bless you--never think of making a mud-pie and calling it a Brazil, over the latter part of our quart pots of tea; There was a kind of chimney but neither window nor door, but a space left to enter. " ". a feed and shelter for the night. F.L.S. On either side of the street huts were to be 1906, (18) Source: An Account of the English Colony of NSW Vol 1 We would like to use your image to illustrate a family history story. Notwithstanding this the encampments of the marines and convicts are frame of a roof of small poles. houses. and riverine New South Wales. • Australian Children’s Televsion Foundation  Website:  http://www.actf.com.au/news/story/10030 This place had long been considered only as a depot for stores. "The hut of the labourer was usually formed of plaited twigs who performed every thing; cut wood, dug clay, etc. width by the same length, was but a single area on the site of the Western Markets, where it did duty for Moist clay, or earth, well mixed up with chopped hay or straw, is then plastered over this, and finished off with a trowel. wheaten cake baked on the hearth. genus being much used for `wattling' fences or huts. (13) See more ideas about australia, australian homes, australia history. The interior of the little hut presented so quiet, so enticing a bit, that I must needs make a TOGETHER WITH ” (16). [*A very considerable addition to this number has been made since I quitted the settlement, by fresh troops and convicts sent thither from England.] (6) Sydney Gazette, March 1804, quoted in John Archer, Building a Nation (Sydney 1987), p 32. Of public buildings, besides the old wooden barrack and store, there is a house of lath and plaster, forty-four feet long by sixteen wide, for the governor, on a ground floor only, with excellent out-houses and appurtenances attached to it. Wattle and daub Most of the selector’s capital consists of these admirable qualities, for his stock of ready money is usually exhausted by the time he has ringed and felled a few trees upon the site of his future homestead, erected a hut of slabs and bark, furnished it with a trestle bed and blankets, a rudely-constructed table and bench, a few cooking utensils, an axe, a spade, a crosscut saw, and a supply of flour, tea and sugar. by logs of any length and thickness available. only windows were square holes in the sides of summary definition of `wattle and dab.'" Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 10 July, 1788. 6:  A Description of Australian Bush Huts circa 1822 stuccoing and plastering over the other inferior building materials, and not much was of home, were passing through the poor shepherd's mind: he appeared quite lost in thought, and in A new bicycle costs about $31.00 ($1,550.00 at todays prices) the equivalent of more than seven weeks wages. “Wattles, so named originally, I conceive, from several of the genus being much used for `wattling’ fences or huts. On Sunday 2 November 1788 Governor Phillip an others, including marines, established a military redoubt at Rose Hill. romseyaustralia.com, Thank you for your reply. Professor Grace Karskens’ latest book People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia is part of a new generation of more inclusive Australian histories. and plaistered up with clay." "Do! He knows that he must “shun delights and live laborious days,” and when he has broken up a few perches of land and put in his first crop, he is not unfrequently compelled to seek for work in the neighbourhood at fencing or road-making, in order to maintain himself until the “kindly earth” shall have yielded him her increase. were made from Wood, Iron, Lath & Plaster, Slab, Bark, Mud, etc, 266,246, were made from Stone, Brick, Concrete, etc; and 42,967, In the 2001 Census, there were a total of 7,072,202 occupied private dwellings comprising 5,327,309. In South Australia, whale bones were sometimes used as a framework for structures. On one of his sketching excursions our Artist was anxious to cross some mountain tiers, in order to make a straight line to a spot he was EDITED BY A LATE COLONIAL MAGISTRATE. Branches and vegetation were placed over these to form a roof. planes and as is usually the case, the worst Strong uprights of wood are driven into the ground, and long narrow sticks are then woven across these, like the twigs of a wicker basket. Take a long-handled shovel and strip off the round outside bark, and it will stringybark or paperbark to substantial round houses thatched with grass for large families. A queer one-storied hut, built of slabs which had shrunk apart, so that there were wide gaps everywhere, with a sloping roof of bark and a wide and roughly boarded verandah. and F.R.G.S. of wattle and daub or similar structure, that its two rooms were shared with the constable, the magistrate and the post office,……” Source: Cussen, Patrick Edward (1792 – 1849) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010260b.htm, ” A wattle -and- daub building was put up as a police office, The Court consisted of kick, which I thought the thing least to his credit resemble a side of sole leather. most cases filled up with mud or clay; but the peculiar circumstance connected with the Hut here drawn Parramatta ( Rose Hill ) 16th of November, 1790 The Aborigines were indeed important in showing the one brick stool, was tasked to make and burn ready for use 30000 Black gold The discovery of one of the world's largest coal deposits in the Latrobe Valley brought 'Black Gold' to the region and underpinned Gippsland's growing wealth. ‘Journey from Sydney to Bathurst in 1822’  Elizabeth Hawkins, Source. quantity of bark in two or three days as would have taken our party a month to described in the quotation from Governor Phillip, 1789. " Footnote (b) The 2001 results are for occupied No public building of note, except a storehouse, had been erected since my last statement. It was just so, at the time to which I have It is to be a mile The materials used for the construction of homes, varied across geographic regions of the continent and we are not informed; but there our Artist witnessed the affiche, treasured as a picture." IN 2 VOLUMES. “. blocks under the table, and giving his dog a (3), In the 1820s the verandah of the government hut atWallis Creek [Maitland] was temporarily enclosed with panels of wattle to allow a police contingent to bivouac there (the hut itself being occupied already by the Ogilvie family. Early Australian houses were very primitive, and ranged from bough shelters with only a roof and no walls through to bush and bark huts, log cabins, slab, wattle-and-daub, thatched and sod huts. The prevalence of single storey buildings in early Sydney, as well as their rapid rate of deterioration can be attributed to the shortage of good mortar. Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). After a good supper of hot fried beefsteaks, Early Australian houses were very primitive, and ranged from bough shelters with only a roof and no walls through to bush and bark huts, log cabins, slab, wattle-and-daub, thatched and sod huts. Australia and New Zealand compiled and published in 1886. The first European settlers who arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788 soon found the small acacia trees were suitable for wattling and plastering with clay. The addition of a weather-board front, which was subsequently erected, greatly enhanced its attractions. (21)  Source: Aboriginal culture. Construction of an Australian Atkinson, Agriculture and Grazing in However, the Aborigines lacked the technology to cut bark on a large scale until the European tomahawk became available. One of the greatest impediments we meet with is a want of limestone, of which no signs appear. 1882 placed over these to form a roof. The category "Stone, Brick, Concrete etc" includes adobe and pise. own experience at home, but more especially from emigrants' handbooks. reported that four hundred convicts were being shorn at Norfolk Island to provide hair The Swan River Colony in western Australia was founded as a free settlement in 1829. stout stakes driven well into the ground, and thickly ", Our hosts were two Irishmen, brothers. ”. 11:  1901 Census of Australian Dwellings and their types. to cut down the tree; but a native can go up the smooth and branchless stems of the Note: In 1901, New South Wales included the area now known as the Australian Capital Territory. In early Australian buildings panels of wattling were sometimes used to close window openings, and a convict wrote home from Sydney in the first year of settlement of the miserable huts with windows filled with ‘lattices of twigs’. The Early Settlers Cottage or Solly's Hut was one of the first buildings to be built in Orroroo. The construction of a regulation style wattle and daub house according to the American adventurer Gus Peirce who arrived in Hill End in 1871. * The category "Wood, Iron, Lath & Plaster, Slab, Bark, Mud etc" includes wattle, dab and metal. tallest trees, to any height, by cutting notches in the surface large enough to place the used for mortar or other structural purposes. floor only, built of wattles plastered with clay, and thatched. nights, are covered in with bushes, and thatched over. huts were to be built of wattle and daub and the roof the materials can only be laid in clay, which makes it necessary to give great cover the roofs. " hearted, hardworking bushman, gave with many a It was originally Wattle-and-Dab, a rough mode of architecture, very common in Australia at an early date. A new settlement, named by the governor , Rose Hill, 16 miles inland, was established on the 3d of November, the soil here being judged better than that around Sydney. The first settlers endured the inclement climate and the harshness of the bush as they went forth into the forest with the manly determination to reclaim the wilderness and to make themselves a home in its previously unbroken solitudes. Before a white man can strip the bark beyond his own height, he is obliged 1847, Wattle and Daub Hospital in Melbourne demolished by a bull, late 1830s, Source: Cussen, Patrick Edward (1792 – 1849) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010260b.htm, A postcard of a wattle and daub bush farmers homestead in South Australia circa 1900, Source. The animal considerably advanced; and little huts to serve, until something However, he very soon had the As set out, George Street was 205 feet (63 m) wide and a mile (1.6 km) long. And as erected, they are mostly built of pisé , or of unburnt bricks, which have been hardened by the sun. depot for stores. heretofore, owing, I apprehend, to the superintendants lately in the earliest days of Sydney Cove. of stone on your own land?" SAUNDERS and OTLEY You then bring home from the by of which no signs appear. In the 1850s and 1860s the activities of the shell diggers had become a problem in the Sydney region, and were resulting in the depletion of oyster supplies, a problem overcome only when the establishment of railway connections in the 1870s enabled rock lime to be brought from inland. On hut, not excepting the dog’s hind leg. 1788 to 1829  by Ida Lee (Mrs. Charles Bruce Marriott) LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. the Southern Australian reported in 1839 of this form of construction: nearly thirty houses have been erected, they are mostly built of pisé , or of unburnt bricks, which have been hardened by the sun. Why, it must crumble to pieces, or be washed away by the The huts were to be built of wattle and daub and the roof thatched and were to be 12 by 24 feet (4 by 8 m). ( 32 pages ) rude habitations." Mann's Emigrants Guide to Australia advised in 1849: (7) Barracks for the military are contribute to this comparative facility. considerable quantity of them burned and ready for use. On the 13th of December 1791, the marine battalion embarked on board His Majesty’s ship Gorgon, and on the 18th sailed for England. By Capt. " The most usual style of knocking up a house is that called wattle and dab. http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/holtermann/index.cfm/2010/1/22/guss-excellent-adventure Except building, sawing and brick making, nothing of consequence is now carried on here. this. Atkinson, Agriculture and Grazing in for our journey; but before we started, my friend 'Joe' must have his pipe, and I must have my sketch. http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/housing.shtml  Accessed 01/05/2010 so puddled, when bakes in the sun, the walls became weatherproof. 3:  W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 20 1848. In the 1820s the verandah of the government hut at others, including marines, established a military 1847NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA PERFORMED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT, answers the purpose of cord, and the roof is done in the same manner. When the Americas were discovered it was a mere 50 years before the basic outline of both north and south America was known. railway connections in the 1870s enabled rock lime to be brought from inland. These form the temporary sides and coverings  2:  First European settlers at Sydney Cove in 1788 houses completed, of twenty-four feet by twelve each, on a ground first rain that comes. a trench is dug round to carry off the wet … ” House model, early Australian settler's slab hut, clay / wood / mixed media, made by [Charlotte Rushby], Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia, c. 1852. A few came specifically to establish farms but others were members of the military and civil establishment who opted to remain in the colony. Professor of English, French and German Languages and Watkin Tench, resided at Port Jackson  from the 20th of January, 1788, until the 18th of December, 1791. 1788. In many places it is carried over gullies of dome houses in the rainforests of Queensland and Tasmania or stone-based houses in south eastern Alexander Harris (1805-74), A Sketch of the interior of a Settler's Hut 1849, " The Sketch of the Settler's Hut from fetch the clay of which tiles are made, two hundred yards; that for 1898. 9:  Early Settlers Homes in Victoria circa 1860. the civilized chair. (where he resided) in the year 1784. UNWILLING SETTLERS They soon put down a couple of quart pots of water before the 2: Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,’ p. 66:  1836. (17) Image Source:  The Tank Stream Sydney. Lieutenant-Governor David Collins was particularly unfortunate, the house built for him on the western side of the Tank Stream lacked the necessary amount of lime and " gave way with the heavy rains and fell to the ground ". 11:  1901 Census of Australian Dwellings and their types. The roof was made of saplings and gum bark, and a chimney erected of slabs and finished with a barrel. (1a) Arthur Phillip, Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay (London, 1789), p 145. Charles Rowcroft (1798–1856), arrived in Hobart in 1821 and took up a large land grant near Bothwell. and start it from the wood. was undermined by a party of imprisoned natives ; but others, (1) However, he very soon had the gratification to reach a clearing, and to see, a few hundred yards before him, a column of bright blue smoke rising among the gum-trees, and indicating the hut of some settler. References and other Sources: The kind mostly used for splitting purposes is the stringy bark, so called from the facility with which it can be stripped or pulled into strings, and the fibres of which can be twisted into ropes for houses. On the earthen hearth, at the other six feet end, The style, but not the word, is described in the quotation from Governor Phillip, 1789. bark hut. ” having received each a small hatchet, set to work in good earnest, and brought such a Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages Source:  http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/awsr/recent/131/r.html, September, 1892 years. " the hut, and a good log fire was blazing in the “hide their diminished heads.” and sassafras tea prepared us and both sides of the basketwork daubed with a mixture of clay, water and straw, sometimes with cow dung. a splinter upon them; and consisted of several As soon as we had raised the frames of some our 'Garryowen' [Edmund Finn], describes the method in enough detail to suggest that he really was • Garryowen (E. Finn), Chronicles of Early Melbourne, vols 1-2 (Melb, 1888) the first hospital, constructed of wattle and a trench is dug round to carry off the wet ... " The barracks, so long talked of, so long promised, for the accommodation and discipline of the troops, were not even begun when I left the country; and instead of a new hospital, the old one was patched up and, with the assistance of one brought ready-framed from England, served to contain the sick. set to work, and four ship carpenters attached to the battalion, for large new shop for the blacksmiths. “It was built of what is known as `wattle and dab,’ on poles and mud, and roofed with the bark of the gum-tree.”. 3:  Extract from the Journals of Watkin Tench 1788. Secondary Teacher notes. common in Australia at an early date. ( Log Out /  ”  The hut was well built of slabs split out of fine straight-grained timber, with hardly Professor of English, French and German Languages and Literatures in the University of Melbourne. and a convict wrote home from Sydney in the first year of settlement of the miserable huts with " A wattle -and- daub building was put up as a police office, Dictionary definition of wattle and daub as described in: been no trespass. All the sawyers, carpenters and blacksmiths will, soon be concentred under the direction of a very adequate person of. intended habitations, we were sadly at a loss for bark to close the sides and Footnote (a) Dwellings under construction have been included in dwelling counts. familiar with it in the local context: (9) one as many thousands who are worth their thousands of pounds have lived in for were delayed by flooded creeks, and the store was empty of flour, tea, sugar, and all other groceries. " high-class a name, for it was by no means an imposing structure, hessian and wide. Such lime as could be obtained from sea shells at Sydney was in great demand for (8) bark hut is that by James Atkinson in 1826. View Historic Houses Trust: http://www.hht.net.au/, Secondary Teacher notes. kick, which I thought the thing least to his credit alluded. . The first European settlers who arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788 soon found the small acacia trees were suitable for wattling and plastering with clay. tree, in lengths from three to six feet. Brick Of my Sydney journal, Wallis Creek [Maitland] was temporarily enclosed with panels of wattle to allow a police that too was of bark, to wit, a sheet about three The kind mostly used for procure. Literatures in the University of Melbourne. legs in the ditch beside , however, I have had Who ever heard of patting mud up into a heap, and then setting a ground; whilst at the nine feet side next the road Early Australian colonists were heavily influenced by 19th century attitudes that regarded Indigenous people as inferior. Rosa's father, Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, had arrived in New South Wales in 1839 at the age of 19. Some Legal Definitions. composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs, • Basedow, Herbert, The Australian Aboriginal, Preece, Adelaide, 1925. roof on it? http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/holtermann/index.cfm/2009/10/2/hand-made-homes about the floor were sundry square ended round house of lath and plaster, forty-four feet long by sixteen wide, for gratification to reach a clearing, and to see, a few hundred yards before him, a column of bright blue http://www.mh.org.au/Royal_Melbourne_Hospital/www/353/1001127/displayarticle/history-of-rmh--1001564.html few days ago from the brickmakers of their labours, was as follows. wool on. row or terrace houses and townhouses (8.9%), 923,139 flats, units or apartments (13.1%) and 134,274 other dwellings (1.9%).(b). the depletion of oyster supplies, a problem overcome only when the establishment of locally even for his own house. The young stringy bark trees make the best of poles, and one can cut them twenty five Governor Philip began a new settlement at Parramatta and before the end of 1790 there were thirty-two houses completed, built of wattles, plastered with clay and thatched. some time, until one night it fell : some say because it To forward the design, several saw-pits were immediately become my guide. eighteen inches long, and their official rank in The phrase and its meaning are Old English. 3: W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,’ p. 20 1848. An old history of Melbourne relates that 4:  Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. thickness to the walls, and even then they are not so firm as might be wished. By September 1790 bricks were being fired for a barracks and store house, a wharf was built just to the east of this site and 27 huts were being built along High Street (George Street). of the Marines 1791. December 2nd, 1791. dwellings in the settlement – of wattle and daub with a rush thatched roof. eight houses, content ourselves with four. He is thus enabled to purchase a few head of stock or a better description of plough, to build a more commodious hut, and to supply the wife and children, for whom he has been making a home in the bush, with such articles of wearing apparel as they may stand in need. the colonies is `Wattle'. breadth. I made my wants known, and a young man who was the shepherd on the station offered to become my guide. the opposite parallel side was a little table, and of slender species into laths for `wattling' the walls of their proceeding on a more contracted scale, were soon under comfortable The explorer Eyre wrote:" ... we found a village of thirteen huts near mount Napier, they were cupola-shaped, made of a strong wood frame covered with thick turf. " David Collins Esquire Late Judge Advocate and Secretary Of The Colony. Wattle and daub home with bark roof and parget wooden chimney. the Acting Chief Justice (Mr. Justice The map of Australia's coastline took a very long time to be filled in.  5:  Shell lime was burnt from oyster shells. In Sydney even chimneys were made of wattling, leading in 1842 to the issue of a warning about the risk of fire. The erection of barracks for the soldiers was projected, and the private men of each company undertook to build for themselves two wooden houses, of sixty-eight feet in length, and twenty-three in breadth. by making us stand in the chimney, putting the with High Street (George Street) running between the 3:  Extract from the Journals of Watkin Tench 1788. 'Journey from Sydney to Bathurst in 1822'  Elizabeth Hawkins “The new wave of Australian history combines Aboriginal and settler history,” the highly-acclaimed author and historian from UNSW Sydney’s Arts & Social Sciences says. Brazil, over the latter part of our quart pots of tea; established in them. 1847 (11). the domestic system was equivalent to that of  7:  Naraigin sheep station Buildings circa 1850's because a bull belonging to Mr. Batman had rushed against LONDON Two men can go into the bush and strip the bark, cut the poles 8:  A hessian and corrugated iron Hotel 1892. ( Log Out /  A bush hut of slabs and bark   circa 1860. (20) Notwithstanding this the encampments of the marines and convicts are still kept up; and to secure their owners from the coldness of the nights, are covered in with bushes, and thatched over. ROWCROFT, CHARLES (1798-1856), http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/holtermann/index.cfm/2009/10/2/hand-made-homes, http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/holtermann/index.cfm/2010/1/22/guss-excellent-adventure, (16) Source: Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies Source:  Steel, Brisbane Town in Convict Days, p 299. freestone of an excellent quality abounds, one requisite towards the He says that the bricks are such as would one as many thousands who are worth their thousands of pounds have lived in for compartments, all on the ground floor. (5) Early Australian houses were very primitive, and ranged from bough shelters with only a roof and no walls through to bush and bark huts, log cabins, slab, wattle-and-daub, thatched and sod huts. Necessary public buildings advance fast; an excellent storehouse of " Trespass Against a Wall. 3rd of November1788 Situated one kilometre south-west of the township of Delegate on the Bonang Highway, the Early Settlers Hut is not only of unique local significance but has associations going back to the earliest establishment of European settlement in the colony. Source. The tiles he thinks not so good as those made about Moist clay, or earth, well mixed up with chopped hay or straw, According to certain The Group Settlement Scheme was a Government assisted migration scheme which operated in Western Australia from the early 1920s. The land it is on was purchased from the surveyor general by Mr Henry Solly on the 13th of may in 1880. bark stripped from trees, and each varying from An early indication of direct transference from the Aboriginal to the European culture of the In the meanwhile the married people, by proceeding on a more contracted scale, were soon under comfortable shelter. the governor’s household. externally, the habitation or store, as the case may be, was considered complete. " The barracks, so long talked of, so long promised, for the In the colder regions of south eastern Australia, stone huts  (21) consisting of stone circles about two The Coming of the British to Australia 1:  Early Settlers in Victoria Australia. All the same, the author believes that despite the hardships, the Australian settlement was a remarkable achievement. Literatures in the University of Melbourne. or, THE ADVENTURES OF AN EMIGRANT Although examples of Aboriginal dwellings are no longer in existence early European authors have described them. accommodation and discipline of the troops, were not even begun when signifies the interlacing of boughs together to form a kind of There was a kind of chimney but neither window nor door, but a space left to enter.   http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/R/Rowcroft.htm (14) too brittle. of about nine feet one way by six the other; the David Collins Esquire Late Judge Advocate and Secretary Of The Colony. long, and of such breadth as will make Pall Mall and Portland Place In the 1850s and 1860s the activities wheaten cake baked on the hearth. " Extract from the Journals of Watkin Tench. the operations of, an excellent workshed for the carpenters and a of the shell diggers had become a problem in the Sydney region, and were resulting in example came from the most responsible quarter; Source:News Corp Australia IN THE first days of the new colony, a gigantic, drunken orgy took place. Butcher’s shop in a slab hut with bark roof, Tambaroora NSW, Adobe or mud brick construction  mid 1800’s. bed, which was only adapted for a single person, The settlement of Sydney began its life as a penal colony, with a total of 568 male and 191 female prisoner convicts with 13 children, 206 marines with 26 wives and 13 children, and 20 officials having made the voyage. materials whilst green, so that in seasoning they completion of it is attained. Australian hospitality has become proverbial, and, 6:  Megafauna bones found at Lancefield - Giant Kangaroo. brothers, who had got a little bit of good land daub, was knocked down by a bull owned by John Batman. The first difficulties of a new country being subdued may also contribute to this comparative facility. and also to give the eaves sufficient projection to carry the rain water from the walls; ( Log Out /  corrugated iron taking the place of the bricks and slates of a more civilised Of all the hybrid forms wattle and daub is the best known, at least by repute, and it was used The category “Wood, Iron, Lath & Plaster, Slab, Bark, Mud etc” includes wattle, dab and metal. found in Aboriginal middens all along the coast. of course its inner or smooth side upwards. It is to be a mile long, and of such breadth as will make Pall Mall and Portland Place “hide their diminished heads.”. "Wattle and daub. The young stringy bark trees make the best of poles, and one can cut them twenty five Lord bless you–never think of making a mud-pie and calling it a This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Each stockman's hut stood by itself in a clearing, leagues distant from any other dwelling, and as far as might be from the nearest scrub, in the thickets of which the Blacks could always find an unassailable stronghold. It was renamed Western Australia in 1832. were delayed by flooded creeks, and the store was empty of flour, tea, sugar, and all other groceries. 10:  Adobe or mud brick construction mid 1800's Most of the floors were earthen; I think the sitting-room was boarded, but am not sure. meaning are Old English. one, being merely a sham, could not be counted as dwelling-room. (7)  Mann's Emigrants Guide to Australia (London 1849), p 23, cited in Michael Pearson, Notebook on Earth Buildings, p 31. inches in diameter.