Susan

Euriowie, which was a small tin-mining settlement north of Broken Hill, and operative in the 1880s-early 90s has a couple of almost dug-outs.  These are adjacent to an ephemeral creek bed, near the small Don 'township' within the field, essentially a higher concentration of huts near a pub.  I saw two, and there may be others, but the vast majority of occupation sites are either for tents with limited stonework surrounds and fireplaces surviving, and a smaller number of low stone huts, that would have had canvas and bough superstructures.  Also a few properly built drystone or mortared buildings, generally associated with company mines.

The two dugouts are not tunnelled into the banks but cut as boat shaped [lenticular] depressions in the top of a sandy levee adjacent to the creek.  They may have been squarer, but subsequent erosion has blurred their outlines. From memory they are about 5 metres long and 3 metres wide, and perhaps a metre or so below to original ground surface at most.  One at least had an internal chimney.  They would have been roofed with canvas and boughs.  They are oriented with their long axes perpendicular to the creek, ie they cut across the sand bank.  Ethnicity unknown, but likely to be the same as early Broken Hill, so lots of South Australian immigrants.  I cant remember a significant Chinese presence being cited for the field, but may be wrong there.  They are distinctive enough from all other habitation sites I've seen on the field and have come across no other similar structures elsewhere in NSW for any period.

Denis




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Denis Gojak
Heritage Asset Manager
NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning
2-10 Wentworth Street
Parramatta NSW 2150
PO Box 404 Parramatta 2124
Ph:    +61 2 9895 7940
Fax:   +61 2 9895 7946
Email: [log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 09/14 3:23 am >>>
Hi Everybody
           I am looking for some comparative information, studies etc for a
fellow student who is doing his Ph.D on dug out houses. In South Australia
we have a copper mining town that was set up by a mining company in the
mid-19thC. The town included worker's accommodation, but several hundred
miners rejected this accommodation and constructed dug-out houses in the
side of a steep creek. These were often quite large, one known being of
eight rooms. The miners were primarily Cornish, but other nationalities
were present and the excavated material from the dug-outs has given us no
information about the ethinicity of the occupants. Does anyone know of any
similar dug-out houses anywhere? We are particularly interested in academic
or archaeological studies, but any information welcome.
                              cheers
                                Susan
Susan Piddock
Archaeology Office
School of Humanities
Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide 5001
South Australia

Fax number  -  + 61 8 8 201 3845
Email:[log in to unmask] 

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