In districts where the mosquitoes are very troublesome, the dome is completed by erecting hoops on the open side as well, and making the cross-switches long enough to be lashed to them all and to be stuck into the sand at both ends. The whole structure is covered with bark, but three or four small holes are left along the base for the people to slip in by; and a ventilation-hole is left at the top of the dome to allow the smoke to escape from the fire, which is burned inside to keep out the insects.
Provisional rain-shelters are made by cutting a big sheet of bark from one of the eucalypts, usually the “stringy bark.” To do this the bark is chopped through circumferentially on the butt in two places, about seven or eight feet apart, slit vertically between the two incisions, and removed by levering it off with two chisel-pointed rods. The sheet is folded transversely at its centre and stood upon the sand like a tent.
At times the sheet of bark is simply laid length-wise against two or three sticks previously stuck into the ground. In the more durable structures of this type, two forked poles are rammed into the ground so that they can carry a horizontal piece after the fashion of a ridge-pole of a tent. Against the latter then are stood several sheets of bark at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
Occasionally a scaffold is erected with four poles and cross-pieces at the corners of an oblong space, and sheets of bark are then laid across the top. The sheets are of sufficient length to hang over the sides of the frame so that their weight bends them into an arch along the centre.
Commander Lort Stokes found similar structures near Roebuck Bay in the north of Western Australia, but in place of the bark they there had a slight, rudely-thatched covering.
In districts where thieving dogs, ants, or other vermin become troublesome, the men construct platform-larders, upon which any reserve supplies of meat are laid. Hawks are the greatest nuisance in camp. It is astonishing with what fearlessness such birds fly right into camp and swoop the meat from the natives. As a protection against theft of this description, the campers cover their stores with branches.
The position favoured during sleep is to lie upon one side, with the legs drawn up towards the stomach and bent in the knees. The head rests upon one or both hands; should one hand not be so occupied, it is usually placed between the closed thighs. At Delamere in the Victoria River country, the natives were observed to have convex pieces of bark in their possession which were used as head-rests during the night.
It goes without saying, of course, that the aboriginal might at any time change his position during sleep to one of the many commonly adopted by European or other people.
During the warm summer months, the campers are up with the first glimpse of dawn, but when the nights become cold, they often remain huddled by the fires until the sun is high up in the sky.