2-889-337 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Settler's Station in Port Phillip, 1850. 'Sketch of the usual hut or "station" seen in the interior of the colony of Port Phillip, Australia, especially where stone is not readily procured. It is built entirely of wood - "slabs" as they are termed - with shingle roof of the same material. The dwelling-house contains two principal rooms, fourteen feet square - one used as a living-room, and the other as a sleeping apartment. There are likewise two bedrooms behind these, about fourteen feet by nine. The kitchen is seen as a detached building to the right of the house, and the "store" is on the left...The one here sketched is on the Edward River, 270 miles from Melbourne, on the "run" occupied by Messrs. Sylvester and Smith, and is a fair specimen of the squatter's home...the slab hut is a picturesque object, bearing about it many pleasing associations with the still fondly remembered mother country...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.