Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/27

Rh shelter while travelling, and have a large open side, with the fire in front. In fine warm weather, a few green bushes, placed in a half circle to windward of the fire, suffice for a temporary dwelling. The men share the labour of making the permanent dwelling, but the women are compelled to erect the smaller ones. Small weapons and personal property are taken inside the habitations; but as it would be inconvenient to have long spears there, they are stuck on end at each side of the doorway, to be at hand and ready for an attack.

In some parts of the country where it is easier to get stones than wood and bark for dwellings, the walls are built of flat stones, and roofed with limbs and thatch. A stony point of land on the south side of a lake near Camperdown is called 'karm karm', which means 'building of stones', but no marks or remains are now to be seen indicating the former existence of a building there.

These permanent residences being proof against all kinds of weather, from excessive heat in summer to frost in winter, suit the constitutions of the aborigines very much better than the wooden cottages used at the Government aboriginal stations. In cold weather a fire is kept burning day and night in the centre of the floor; and, the habitations being easily heated, a very small one suffices. To keep up a moderate, steady temperature, the ends only of the sticks meet in the centre of the fire, and, as they burn slowly away, are pushed inwards. Any other method would be a waste of fuel, and would raise too much heat.

In the event of the habitation being burned down by a bush fire, or accidentally — which often occurs in the absence of the inhabitants — the debris are levelled, and a new wuurn erected on the same spot, which is always preferred; but, in other circumstances hereafter described under the head of native mounds, the spot is abandoned for ever as a place of residence.