Thread: Australian Building / Architecture

Good evening Paul,

I did not read them. But I enjoyed them enormously especially the first document.

It never occurred to me that, in the early days, they actual used wall-mud (clay) in Australia.

Thank you

...behai.

Originally Posted by behai

It never occurred to me that, in the early days, they actual used wall-mud (clay) in Australia.

It's an interesting history actually.
Like most things in the early years of Australia the settlers used methods they were familiar with back home in England, including wattle and daub.
In England, the preferred tree to use for the basket work was willow, but of course willows were rather non-existant in Oz.
So, they looked around for something similar here and found the ones with the yellow flowers were pretty good for the job.
They started calling them "The Wattling tree" which became of course became just the Wattle tree.
So the use determined the name.

Jim

Good evening Jim,

Thank you for the explanation, but I have learned one more new thing: the name for the Wattle tree ( although their flowers give me hayfever )

Not relevant to the topic, but mud-walls are also very common in Asia, at least in South Vietnam where I was born. The frames are usual matured bamboo, the walls are made up of white clay and straws. They can last for nearly 20 years, and provide good heat insulation.

Best regards,

...behai.

Originally Posted by Grandad-5

It's an interesting history actually.
Like most things in the early years of Australia the settlers used methods they were familiar with back home in England, including wattle and daub.
In England, the preferred tree to use for the basket work was willow, but of course willows were rather non-existant in Oz.
So, they looked around for something similar here and found the ones with the yellow flowers were pretty good for the job.
They started calling them "The Wattling tree" which became of course became just the Wattle tree.
So the use determined the name.

Jim