Primitive Technology: Grass hut

Description

I built this grass hut up on a ridge. It's roughly parallel with the tiled hut and wattle and daub hut that are a couple of hundred meters away down in a valley. I built it on a ridge to get away from mosquitoes in wet weather. This project took 7 days to make. I looked for a spot and cleared it on the first day, built the frame on the second, and spent the next 5 collecting grass. The type of grass is Guinea grass, an introduced species here in Australia meant for live stock. This grass is difficult to collect in this dry forest and I had to climb further into the mountain to get it.

The design is a simple pointed dome that's easy to build. The tools used were simply sharp stones and a digging stick. It's 2.5 m wide and 2 m tall. 8 lawyer cane strips were driven into the ground to form the ribs of the structure and hoops of cane were put over this to attach the grass to. Vine was used to tie the frame together and to tie handfuls of long grass to it. When the hut was almost finished a cap was made and lifted onto the top of the dome to finish it.

This hut is easy to build and houses a large volume. The shape is wind resistant and strong for it's materials. Gaps can be seen in the thatch but not if viewing from directly underneath meaning that it should shed rain well. A fire should be possible in the hut as long as it's small and kept in a pit in the center.The reason the hut took so long is due to the scarcity of grass on the hill. It could be built much quicker in a field.

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Tags: Grass hut,Primitive technology,pt

Video Transcription

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About the Author

Primitive Technology

Primitive Technology

Making primitive huts and tools from scratch using only natural materials in the wild.I also have this blog:
https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/ (I have no facebook page- ignore the fakes)
FAQ
Q.Where is this?
A.This is in Far North Queensland Australia.
Q.Do you live in the wild?
A.I don't live in the wild but just go into the bush to make these projects. Also I camp out here occasionally.
Q.How did you learn all this?
A.Researching books and internet plus trial and error. I'm not indigenous and have no army training.
Q.What about dangerous animals in Australia?
A.The only really dangerous ones in my area are snakes. Care must be taken when walking about and lifting things from the ground.
Q.For the mud huts what stops the rain washing the mud walls away?
A.The roof.
Q.Why don't you talk in the videos?
A.When I watch how to videos I fast forward past the talking part to see the action part. So I leave it out of my videos in favor of pure demonstration.

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