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Kerosene Tin Hut

These tin huts were commonplace in Australia during the Great Depression.

Morven, Australia

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Gavin
Kerosene Tin Hut   Gavin / Atlas Obscura User
Morven Queensland. Kerosene tin house. Tins were flattened out to make the walls. From the Great Depression era.   denisbin
Detail of hut wall.   latch.r
Kerosene Tin Hut   Gavin / Atlas Obscura User
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Preserved on the grounds of the Morven Historical Museum is this tin hut composed of flattened kerosene "kero" tins, a testament to outback ingenuity. Built as housing during the Great Depression of the 1930s, these huts were common homes.

During the 1920s and 1930s, kerosene had many uses around the house such as powering heaters, lanterns, fridges, and stoves.

With no work to be had and no steady income during the Great Depression, many people lost their homes and were forced to make do as best they could. Some built their own huts using saplings for the frame, along with flattened and folded kerosene tins for the walls and roof.

This example is one of the five kerosene tin huts constructed on the Morven Town Common during this period. The hut has sapling timber (small tree trunks) for beams and flattened kerosene tins as cladding.

Related Tags

Architecture Great Depression History

Know Before You Go

Located at the Morven Historical Museum. The museum also has a collection of Aboriginal grinding stones, stone ax heads, spears, coolamons, and boomerangs.

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Added By

Gavin

Published

July 19, 2021

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