Cut it down

Was it in 1844 that Ephraim learnt to make palings? His assignment at this time took him into the Don and Forth River country where tall timber was felled and a thriving industry was underway.

Trees were being ringbarked and felled, cut into palings and sent to Launceston, Adelaide and further afield. There were different sizes for different purposes: fencing, housing wharves etc. There must have seemed so much timber in Tasmania that it was an endless supply, and with the number of navigable rivers in the North West, the distance to haul it to the nearest waterway was not great. Convicts were to be punished, so were used in preference to animals for such a tough job. Living conditions were tough too. His master had a reputation for meanness.

I imagine they lived in tiny wooden huts with shingle roofs as they were also cutting shingles. All the furniture, which probably amounted to a bit of a chair, a table and a bed, was most likely made from split logs, if it was allowed at all. Some of this type of furniture is quite fascinating in its simplicity but I wouldn’t want to be trying to move the chairs to sweep the floor on a regular basis.

Undressed timber was commonly used for building houses and sheds and was not even painted for protection from the weather. When I was small and petrol was cheap, we would go for country drives, which parents loved and kids hated. Often we would see picturesque but tiny old houses with greying timber, used as haysheds. The walls would be fairly straining with yellow bricks of the dried grass poking through glassless windows, the sills and doors, powdering away into splinters and dust.