Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Bark house with women & children, Gulgong area

Bark house with women & children, Gulgong area

1872
Glass photonegative

Temporary bark huts were a feature of goldfields life, as they were quick and easy to build. For a traveller, the first sign of a nearby rush town was usually the large number of trees stripped of their bark. D81, 28 May 1872, observed that:

A considerable number of married persons with families appear to have taken to gold-digging as an occupation. It is certainly not a very congenial one for them as respects the comfort and the interests of the younger and weaker members of their households.

The Women

By Paula McKay

Beyond all argument the quiet

stretches like canvas over dried out dirt

and a sense of wild immenseness creeps

towards the timber hut that stands

against all odds.

Occasional trees interrupt the sparseness

as it whispers of a creek that’s out of sight

and near dried up.

At first exciting maybe, til the babies came along

and then, for wives, a time for Oh!

no going back, no going home.

Loss made into meaning.

In this world of men, female senses gagged

on mud and sinking roads.

There seems a loneliness about them now

as distant birds cry out the smallness

of the self.