A
picture in Dr Memmot's book shows an Aboriginal man sitting in the doorway of a
dome-shaped building. Photograph: the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre
collection
Before
white settlers arrived, Australia's indigenous peoples lived in houses and
villages, and used surprisingly sophisticated architecture and design methods
to build their shelters, new research has found.
Dwellings
were constructed in various styles, depending on the climate. Most common were
dome-like structures made of cane reeds with roofs thatched with palm leaves.
Some
of the houses were interconnected, allowing native people to interact during
long periods spent indoors during the wet season.
The
findings, by the anthropologist and architect Dr Paul Memmot, of the University
of Queensland, discredits a commonly held view in Australia that Aborigines were
completely nomadic before the arrival of Europeans 200 years ago.
The
belief was part of the argument used by white settlers to claim that Australia
was terra nullius - the Latin term for land that belonged to nobody.
Dr
Memmott said the myth that indigenous Australians were constantly on the move
had come about because early explorers made their observations in good weather,
when indigenous people were more mobile than at other times.
Many
of the shelters the Aborigines built were dome structures. In the rainforest
area around Cairns, in Queensland, where there was heavy rain for much of the
year, people would occupy such villages for up to a year, he said.
The
villages had to be near a staple food source, such as rainforest trees, from
which Aborigines could harvest nuts. "Some of the nuts were poisonous, but
the Aborigines developed a way of leaching the poisons out of them by burying
them in mud for a period of time," he said.
"This
source of nutrition allowed them to remain put instead of forcing them to go
off hunting."
Dr
Memmott also found evidence of dome housing on the west coast of Tasmania, with
triple layers of cladding and insulation.
In
western Victoria, Aborigines built circular stone walls more than a metre high,
constructing dome roofs over the top with earth or sod cladding.
Missionaries
drew on Aboriginal technology for buildings, using tree bark for roofs and
walls, and grass thatching for gables, as well as reeds and animal hides, he
added.
Very
little indigenous architecture in Australia remains after local authorities
burned or bulldozed the structures in the belief they were health hazards.
Dr
Memmott's evidence, collected over the past 35 years, comes from oral
histories, explorers' diaries, paintings and photographs. It is published in
Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley, the first book to detail Australian Aboriginal
architecture.
Dr
Memmott said he hoped continuing research in the area would not only clear up
the historical record but also help architectural designers working on current
housing problems.
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