Homes and Living Conditions

  • Most early homes were huts built of native pine trunks, with the gaps between them filled in with mud (mud and straw is called pug). Roofs were likely to be split stringy bark and there were no ceilings.
  • At first food was cooked over an open fire, then as houses were built there was often a large hearth at one end of the main room. The fire was used for heating and cooking.
Mens Quarters Oraparinna 1943
Mens Quarters Oraparinna 1943

State Library of South Australia B49256 This photo was taken in 1943 when the cottage was over 80 years old.
Made of pine logs plastered with clay and limewashed, it was the second oldest building on Oraparinna. In the 1940s it was being used as the Men’s Quarters. You can see the large chimney for the fireplace on the left hand end of the cottage.

Stone cottage at Mount Deception, 1898
Stone cottage at Mount Deception, 1898

Stone cottage at Mount Deception, 1898. Ruins of an earlier cottage can be glimpsed behind the newer building.

– Standard food issued on the runs was meat (mutton) damper made of wheat flour, and black tea.
– After the buildings at Kanyaka went up in stone, other pastoralists began to build in stone too – to better reflect their improved fortunes (Mincham 1983:72).

Kanyaka Station buildings about 1862
Kanyaka Station buildings about 1862

State Library of South Australia B14773. Kanyaka Station buildings about 1862.