Oddment #4 - wooden chimneys and slapstick robberies

 Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Sunday 5 January 1806, page 2

When we come across ruins of our colonial past often the only visible part is a crumbling chimney, the rest of the wooden building having long returned to the earth. It may surprise some to learn that in the earliest days of the colony many chimneys were built of wood! More precisely, they were constructed of the same materials as many of the houses, namely ‘wattle and daub.’

Wattle and daub is a common building method found almost anywhere humans have built shelter, and on some continents the method goes back millennia. The basic premise involves weaving together a series of branches or wooden strips, called the ‘wattle,’ which is then covered by a muddy plaster consisting of whatever materials were available locally, such as clay or soil, straw, animal dung, and water. This method was still common throughout Europe at the time of the colonisation of Australia by the British and was readily adopted by the new arrivals as an adaptable technology for building their cottages.

In the early years of the colony bricks and mortar were in short supply, leading many people to – quite unwisely – build their chimneys out of these combustible materials. This of course was a major fire hazard, and numerous attempts were made to convince the early settlers to build their chimneys with brick instead. The problem was the lack of brick kilns. Bricks were therefore sold at a premium, and thus out of reach for the average colonist.

One concerned citizen wrote to the Sydney Gazette in 1803:

Were the prices somewhat more reasonable, the use of bricks would become more general, and the makers eventually consider a reduction as advantageous to themselves as beneficial to the public; and the cottager’s family might retire to rest without any apprehension of the danger to which the wooden chimney ever must expose them.

Wattle and daub also caused other problems. Not suited to the heavy storms common on the Australian east coast houses would sustain damage in heavy rain, with some families losing whole walls in an instant:

One family was persecuted by this species of disaster; for on Monday night the falling‐in of a whole side left them shelterless, and obliged them to remove to an opposite house next morning, but at between eight and nine at night the crash of decayed posts and wattles was repeated, but fortunately without injury to any of the tenants.

Wattle buildings were also not easily secured: homes and businesses were frequently robbed by the simple method of cutting out a wall and making off with the contents of the room. One such unfortunate businessman in 1811 was a baker who was robbed more than once:

On Saturday night last the house of Mr. Wilson, of Clarence-street, baker, was broke into and robbed of various articles of value, among which were 80lbs of knitting needles. The burglary was easily effected, the house being only wattled and plaistered, and was about a month before plundered by the same means to a much more considerable amount.

Bayliss, Charles, 1850-1897 & Merlin, Beaufoy, approximately 1830-1873. American & Australasian Photographic Company (Sydney, N.S.W.) (1872). Seated woman outside whitewashed cottage with bark roof and wattle and daub chimney, Hill End, New South Wales, ca. 1872. NLA.

For all these reasons wattle and daub soon passed out of favour in the larger settlements such as Sydney, in favour of plentiful stone and increasing access to manmade materials such as bricks. Wattle and daub continued as a building material for far longer in rural settlements and on the goldfields for the same reason it had once been popular in the towns: it was cheap and easy in settlements without manufacturers of building materials.

The wattle and daub hut has long been synonymous with our colonial country heritage, and the few examples that exist today stand well outside our cities in towns such as Sofala and Gulgong, preserved as relics of a more tenuous existence.

The State Library of NSW has a short article on early construction methods with some interesting links here.