Aboriginal Architecture

These shelter structures are beautifully sculptural. The many variations of Aboriginal shelters are linked to the changing needs of a particular time, temperature, and part of the country. The physical and the social environment.

Here John Glover shows us an inventive use for a fallen eucalypt in Tasmania.

| John Glover, The Last Muster of the Aborigines at Risdon, detail, 1836 |

Anthropologist, geologist, explorer and medical practitioner, Herbert Basedow took this photo near Coopers Creek. When completed, the structure would be covered with clumps of Triodia (spinefex) and other herbage. I love seeing it here in stick form.

| Partly constructed dome-shaped shelter, photographed by Herbert Basedow, 1890s |

Here, an interesting and sometimes controversial character, Walter Roth (anthropologist and protector of Aborigines) documents the vernacular from all over Queensland.

| Walter Roth, illustrations of Queensland Aboriginal ethno-architecture, 1897 |

Julia Ritson