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This is what is called the Queenslander house, it is a large house sitting on stumps, with fretwork and veranda surrounding the house. It is built like that to catch the breeze in hot summer days, and shade the center of the house from direct sunshine. To see more, click on the link below.
Welcome to our blog (3), Australian houses in Brisbane
Let us talk about the convenient wooden
houses in Brisbane and Australia. For us Italian migrants that had lived in
solid masonry buildings, even if some of them were rustic buildings; when we
arrived in Australia at the beginning it seemed strange that in Brisbane lots
of houses were made of wood, and most of them were set on wooden stumps, but
then we started thinking that they were still good to live in, so, we got used
to live in them rather quickly.
So, we had to forget about our native town of Genzano di Lucania, since now we were living in Australia, the
Australian way, after all, as the saying goes, when you are in Rome do what the
Romans do. But then, what were the reasons and why these houses were made of
wood, or as the locals called it, they were made of timber.
So, this question arises, why these houses
were made of timber and not masonry? If we use logic reasoning there is no
difference whether houses are made of timber or masonry, if they can give the
people that live in them that filling of safety and privacy that we aspect from
them.
Having said that now let us see or guess the
reasons why these houses were made of timber, and why they were set on wooden
stumps.
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This house here is called the workers cottage. You can say that it is a much smaller version of the Queenslander house, it still is off the ground, it still has some verandas, but is is smaller.
The wooden houses on stumps
The wooden houses on stumps of Brisbane and
Australia
As we have said, in Brisbane a lot of houses
are made of timber, but not only are they made of timber, they are set on
wooden stumps. So, let us see the reasons why they were made this way.
From what we have heard from the locals, we
can conclude that there were several reasons why the houses were made of
timber. The first reason is that when the first settlers started to build
Brisbane, there were plenty of trees that could be cut down and make good
timber to build those houses. And then the people that came to live in Brisbane and Australia had good
knowledge how to use timber, since they came by boats, and because the boats of
those days were mostly made of timber, there were always carpenters and
carpenter tools on board, in case the boat needed repairs, so, to use timber
and build timber houses was the easiest way for them, since they had the
knowledge the tools and plenty of timber in the woods surrounding Brisbane, and
other parts of Australia that needed houses.
At the beginning the houses were simple shelters, but as the time went by
they became better, because the builders became aware of what would work better
in this climate, you see, here around Brisbane and northward, when the wet
season comes the ground becomes too wet for the houses to stand on the ground,
in hot summer days everything becomes too hot and there were lots of vermin on
the ground, so, they found a way how to build houses that would avoid most of
these problems; that is why the houses on stumps became a necessity, of course
slowly they became even better and even pretty, that is how the Queenslander
house was born, which is a large house with verandas around them that keeps the
weather and the hot sun off the main walls of the house. One can see these
pretty Queensland houses if you look around even today.
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The Queenslander houses
The Queenslander House
The Queenslander house is a large timber
house; some of them are pretty and they serve the inhabitant well, as they have
been built to take the advantage of the hot climate in Brisbane and north
Queensland regions. Now since I have been working in these houses to maintain
them, let me describe them to you in more details. As anyone can guess there
are a few different types of these houses, but here we are talking about the
large Queenslander and the workers cottage, which is a small and cheaper
version of the large Queenslander.
As we have said, when the first settlers
arrived here, there were plenty of trees around to make timber, a lot of this
timber is called hardwood, which as the name suggests is hard and very strong,
some of this timber are even stronger and longer lasting than the European oak
or other strong European woods. So, the houses were
strong and secure, the only natural enemy of these houses were the white ants
(termites), which can eat through the wood and destroy the houses. The termites
are native to Australia and if we go up north in Australia, we can see strange
mounts of earth springing up from the ground, these is how the white ants live,
they eat wood from the inside, and they make these mounts of earth.
So, as you can see this was another reason
why the houses were built on stumps. The stumps were made of whole sections of
trees that are resistant to rot; of course, the white ants were still able to
eat those stumps, but they were treated with special paints and at the top they
had a capping of metal that would make a barrier to the white ants if they came
from the inside the stump, and a barrier to the other ants or crawling insect
from the outside.
We can say that some of these timber houses
have been made pretty, because timber can be cut to different shapes easily,
so, they were prettier compared to the house made of masonry, which is awfully
expensive to decorate them with masonry, so, the houses are usually square
boxes with a roof at the top.
Decorative fretwork was easy to make with timber, so, most houses
had some decorations in them, in one way or the other. Now I can go on telling
you how these houses were made, but that would be hard to do, so, I am going to
search the Internet for photos that can show you what I mean, about fretwork
and other timber names, anyhow there are a lot of names given to these pieces
of timber that is hard for me to name and for the readers to understand what is
meant by that name.
Anyhow, I believe
this blog is long enough, so, see you in our next blog, where we are going to
talk about, these wooden houses need some care. See you soon.
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This blog is, old man-lifeworks
Australian wooden houses
IS TO BE CONTINUED WITH
These wooden houses need some care
See you soon.
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