Natural caves or shelters beneath a sloping wall of rock, although frequently chosen as a mid-day camp, are not favoured on account of the superstitious dread of the evil spirit, whose haunts are supposed to be in the rocks. Caves are in any case only occupied during the heat of summer, the rocks being considered too cold to sit and lie upon in winter. If possible, a tribe will always make for the sandhill country in the winter, the sand making a very much softer and warmer bed. Such caves as are regularly occupied almost invariably have the walls and ceiling decorated with ochre drawings.
The opportunity of camping under large hollow tree-trunks, when available, is never neglected in wet weather. In the southern districts, as for instance the Adelaide Plains and along the River Murray, the large red-gums, especially such as have been partly destroyed by a passing bush-fire, supply the best covers of this description, whilst on the north coast of Australia the boabab occasionally becomes hollow in a like way, and makes a very snug and roomy camp.
Huts are constructed after different patterns according to the materials available. In the Musgrave Ranges, as in most parts of central Australia, the usual plan is to ram an uprooted dry trunk of mulga into the sand in an inverted position, so that the horizontal root system rests at the top, generally about five feet from the ground. Making this the central supporting column, branches of mulga and other bushes are placed in a slanting position against it, so that they rest between the roots at the top and form a more or less complete circle at the base, measuring some eight or nine feet in diameter. An opening is left, away from the weather-side, large enough to permit of free access. The spaces and gaps between the branches are filled with small bushes, tussocks, and grass, and on top of it all sand is thrown.
Very often the branches are placed around a standing tree for a central support, and now and again they are simply made to rest against one another in the required conical fashion.
Roof-like shelters are made by piling branches and brushwood either upon the overhanging branches of a tree or across two bushes which happen to be standing close together.
On Cooper’s Creek, in the extreme south-western districts of Queensland, these huts are more carefully constructed. A solid, almost hemispherical framework is erected consisting of stout curved posts, with a prong at one end, so placed that the prongs interlock on top and the opposite ends stand embedded in the sand in a circle. Vide [Plate XV], 1. The structure is covered with the long reeds that abound along the banks of the large waterholes of the Cooper. Some of the huts are indeed so neatly thatched that they have quite a presentable appearance.
The eastern Arunndta groups, in the Arltunga district, cover a light framework of mulga stakes, erected after the general central Australian pattern, entirely with porcupine grass ([Plate XV], 2).
At Crown Point, on the Finke River, other groups of the same tribe cover their huts with branches and leaves of the Red Gum.
When camped on the great stony plains or “gibbers” of central Australia, it is often very difficult to find a suitable covering for the huts, the vegetation being either unsuitable or too scanty. On that account the Yauroworka in the extreme north-east of South Australia utilize the flat slabs and stones which abound in that locality to deck their more permanent domiciles with. The supporting structure must, of course, be made particularly strong to carry the weight of the stones. The crevices between the stones are filled with clay to render them water-tight, and earth is banked up against the base of the walls both inside and outside.
Along the north coast of Australia, from the Victoria River to Cape York, the prevalent type of hut is a half-dome structure, whose frame consists of a series of parallel hoops, stuck into the ground and held in position by a number of flexible sticks tied at right angles to the former with shreds of Hybiscus bark. The ends of the cross-pieces are poked into the ground on that side of the framework which will be opposite the entrance of the hut when completed. The hoops are made of slightly decreasing size from the entrance towards the back, and so correspond in height with the upward curve of the cross-pieces. This skeleton-frame is covered with sheets of “paper-bark” (Melaleuca) and grass; and the floor of the interior is carpeted with similar material; a small space is however left uncovered to hold the fire. Such a hut measures about five feet by five feet at the base, and is four feet high. In Queensland palm leaves may take the place of the paper-bark sheets.