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This book is an analysis of nineteenth and early twentieth-century farm buildings dating from Australia's rural pioneering period. Based on field recording during the 1980s, its historical value is now particularly significant because similar buildings in Australia have since often deteriorated or vanished completely. Construction techniques, the use of materials, mainly timber as slabs or weather boarding, and of galvanized corrugated iron, including the role of recycling, and the ways in which the buildings were adapted to economic and social changes in agricultural production are examined. In particular, the distinctive Australian tradition of making do with whatever was available is considered. The result is a study of humble, utilitarian buildings that have been given less attention than grand houses of the past or public buildings. Nevertheless, they played a vital role in Australia's past development, and they deserve close consideration.
About the author
The author was born in Cheshire, educated at the Wirral Grammar School, served on a destroyer in the Mediterranean, read history and archaeology at Cambridge University, and worked there as a research assistant. After experience on numerous excavations in Britain, including as assistant director and director, in 1961 he went to Nigeria, where he spent ten years excavating and on fieldwork. In 1971, he moved to the University of New England in Australia, founding the archaeology department there and later becoming its foundation professor. He returned to Nigerian fieldwork in 1978 and 1981 and subsequently excavated in Egyptian Nubia and Uganda. He also contributed to Australian historical archaeology and founded the journal Australasian Historical Archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, MA (Cantab), D.Litt (UNE), and holds the Order of Australia.
