Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Man and house, Hill End

Man and house, Hill End

1872
Glass photonegative

The most common type of miner's house was of wattle and daub construction. Saplings were driven into the ground at regular intervals, on either side of which were fastened the horizontal wattles or split limbs, the space between them being filled in with a mixture of earth, water and grass. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1872: ‘Within a radius of two miles [3.2 km] from Hill End it is computed that there are from eight to ten thousand persons settled.’

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Dec 1872

A mining township in Australia is unlike anything else in the township way. It has not grown up in an orderly and proper way; it has sprung up with a contempt of all propriety. (‘To Hill End and back’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Dec 1872, p5)