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Buildings of the Fur Trade: An Introduction to Tasmanian Skin Sheds and Snaring Huts
Citation
Cubit, S, Buildings of the Fur Trade: An Introduction to Tasmanian Skin Sheds and Snaring Huts, Historic Environment, 14, (1) pp. 10-18. ISSN 0726-6715 (1998) [Non Refereed Article]
Abstract
From the late 1880s to the 1950s, Australia was an active participant in the
international fur trade, placing large volumes of marsupial and other skins on
world markets. While nearly all states participated in the trade, Tasmania
played a particularly important role. Due to the colder climate, Tasmania
produced many of the better quality skins that were exported from Australian
shores. With such skins receiving premium prices, many rural Tasmanians
became transhumant hunters, travelling up into the higher, colder regions of the
state each winter to hunt. One of the artefacts of this nationally distinctive
practice was the development of a special type of building used to dry skins in
wet, relatively cold conditions. These buildings, known as skin sheds, have
never been formally described. Once ubiquitous features of the Tasmanian high
country, they are now quite rare. It is the objective of this discussion to develop an understanding of the structure and function of these buildings by reference to those skin sheds built in and around the upper reaches of the Mersey Valley in northern Tasmania from early this century to the 1970s. It is hoped that this brief introduction to the subject will prompt further work on these interesting but rare buildings.
Item Details
Item Type: | Non Refereed Article |
---|---|
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Human geography |
Research Field: | Social geography |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Other culture and society |
Objective Field: | Other culture and society not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Cubit, S (Mr Simon Cubit) |
ID Code: | 13790 |
Year Published: | 1998 |
Deposited By: | Geography and Environmental Studies |
Deposited On: | 1998-08-01 |
Last Modified: | 2011-09-06 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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