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Pre-1788 Aborigines 'lived in houses'

8 October 2007 - A new book has disputed the claim that Aborigines did not build houses or live in villages before the white settlement of Australia.

University of Queensland researcher, Associate Professor Paul Memmott, worked with indigenous communities in the state's north-west in the 1970s.

After completing honours studies in architecture, Dr Memmott pursued a doctorate in anthropology so he could study Aborigines' connection with their homes and the bush.

A new book - Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley - is the result of his research, based on oral histories, explorers' diaries, paintings, photographic collections and century-old newspapers.

Dr Memmott said Australia's early explorers had mistakenly given the impression that Aborigines were purely nomadic and lived only in makeshift huts or lean-tos.

This was because the explorers often made their observations in favourable weather, when Aborigines were on the move.

But he said there was evidence that some Aborigines built more permanent shelters than first thought.

"Research shows a repertoire of different shelters were built in different styles in particular regions depending on the climate - a good example being the durable dome structures found throughout the country," Dr Memmott said.

"In the rainforest area up around Cairns (in north Queensland) where there was heavy rain for much of the year, people built domes out of (native) lawyer cane with palm leaf thatching.

"If we go to the west coast of Tasmania we get reports of domes there, with triple layers of cladding and insulation.

"And then in western Victoria there's a classical case of circular stone walls of up to a metre or so high and then dome roofs over the top with sometimes earth or sod cladding."

Christian missionaries who came to Aboriginal communities also often drew on the materials used by the local people to make their own homes.

Dr Memmott has received a federal research grant of $770,000 to look at the ecological and physical makeup of spinifex grass and its potential use in buildings for Aboriginal people.

He said he hoped further research in the area would not only clear up the historical record, but help inform designers working on current housing problems.

"There's lessons about Aboriginal housing to be learned, and there are more potential innovative ideas that could be generated from such understandings," Dr Memmott said.

Source: The Age

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