The Shepherd's Hut
Monotonous Life
Among the various phases of Australian bush life, that of the shepherd must be the most wearisome and monotonous, though this mode of living has features peculiar to itself, and has undoubtedly attractions for many.
The shepherd's hut is usually situated
several miles from the squatter's homestead, but it
frequently happens the distance is several days' journey,
and the shepherd is cut off from all intercourse with
humanity, save the occasional visits of wandering blacks,
which are not always of the most friendly character.
There is however, a certain degree of independence or
absence from restraint about the occupation, and the duties
are light. The huts themselves are built after a most
primitive fashion, the material consisting entirely of what
the bush affords.
Living Rough
The walls are made of slabs, hewn from the
nearest trees, and large sheets of bark, pegged down with
heavy logs, to prevent the wind displacing them from the
roof.
The chimney is also, in the absence of other material,
built of wood, but in the better classes of huts mud and
stones are used together, and the bushman thinks himself
extremely lucky if he has an old flour barrel to place at
the top to improve the draft.
A square aperture in one of the walls, covered up with a
cloth at night, does duty for a window, and with regard to
other portions of the dwelling, “ease before
elegance”, is the motto generally adopted.
Protecting the Flock
It is the duty of the shepherd to rise
with the sun, and see that the sheep placed under his care
find proper pasture, and in the evening to see them safely
lodged within the rough bush fence used as a fold.
His dogs, frequently his only companions, keep away the
dingoes, or native dogs, but sometimes even their sagacious
vigilance does not afford sufficient protection, and the
Australian wolves commit terrible havoc amongst the
sheep.
The hut is regularly supplied with stores from the station
homestead, at intervals of a few months, and when the
solitude is thus broken in upon by the arrival of
provision-loaded drays, several days of jollification
generally follow.
Splendid Isolation
In the 1860’s a shepherd working on a property in the Lower Dawson, Queensland, earned a wage of £1/-/- (20 shillings) a week
plus rations and were he to lose any stock could be charged 10 to 15 shillings a head by the
run owner.
In 12 months one shepherd wore out 15 pairs of boots costing 23 shillings (£1/3/-)
a pair and paid 12 shillings a pound for a supply of tobacco. His lonely existence was sustained by a diet of mutton, damper and billy tea – week after week, year after year.
Photo: State Library of Queensland Neg. No.
196208
Bush Shanty
A shepherd’s hut was primitive at best, built from
surrounding bush timber, gum tree bark and packing cases from station
supplies, some of which were put to ingenious use.
In many cases
a shepherd lived in cramped, squalid conditions. Such was their isolated
existence their deaths might go unnoticed for months.
Image: The Illustrated Sydney News - 16 August 1866
Trove
Digitized Newspapers - National Library of
Australia
Sharing the Solitude
There is no lack of fresh meat at any time
that is always supplied by the flock, but beef or any other
kind of meat excepting that procured from the chase, is a
rarity.
Old shepherds find no difficulty in making themselves
comfortable, always seem to pass their time away very
contentedly, and are never heard to rail at the absence of
the charms of solitude, or regret “the sound of the
church-going bell”.
In rare instances the shepherd has a partner of his joys
and sorrows. There may be seen within the hut traces of the
feminine presence and ingenuity, which render it anything
but a despicable lodge, and a small patch of ground will
probably then be cultivated as a garden.
Men of Few Words
Before the gold-fields were discovered,
and communication with the interior was very difficult, the
shepherds on many of the inland stations passed half a life
time without seeing a civilized population.
Many of them came out with settlers from the Highlands of
Scotland, and some of these, after a residence of fifteen
or twenty years in the colony, were unable to speak a word
of anything but Gaelic.
These men, after a shepherd’s life of a few years, usually
acquire that strange and taciturn demeanor which marks
those who have lived apart from their fellows for any
length of time, and they are quite unfitted for any other
occupation should they desire to change, which never
happens.
They learn to like the occupation, and a life of boredom,
said to have existed among the ancients, never found any
victims in their number. Not a few of this class have been
composed of escaped convicts, or men whose deeds counsel
them to shun civilization.
The Darker Side
Shepherd’s huts, in past times, have also
harbored notorious bushrangers, and have been the scenes of
many a dark and unknown crime.
Shepherding, however, since the gold discoveries, differs
somewhat from the old system. With such railways, roads,
and navigable rivers as the colony now boasts, the
travelling facilities are felt everywhere, and the
shepherd, having received his quarter’s pay, can in a brief
space of time visit the metropolis, or any of the chief
towns, and enjoy himself, as he usually does, till his
money is spent.