Daily Archives: May 15, 2007

Cold Weather is to Blame

Shards: Shards of a broken bowl found at an old piners settlement on Davey River

When we were kayaking in Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour in South West Tasmania, we spend a day paddling up the Davey River to Davey Gorge. 

Davey River used to sustain a ‘pining’ industry, Piners would float their huon pine logs down the river then hold them in pine pens, ready for shipping, the pens are still visible today which is a bloody miracle as they are just stakes hammered into the mud at regular intervals… these wooden stakes have lasted over 100 years in the mud and water. 

Huon Pine is a lovely timber, they used to make boats out of it.  It has a beautiful smell and it obviously is resistant to rot, given what I saw.

The piners (and Whalers) are long gone now.  It is a world heritage area.   We did look for evidence of piners at one spot though and found some broken rum bottles and shards of this bowl embedded in the mud.  Very exciting !!  They would just through their rubbish out into the water I suppose, and I imagine these somehow got stuck in the mud and stayed there.  The pattern is (of course) hand painted and I think it is quite lovely.

The shards were left behind at the site (part of the heritage).  But I would like make a piece of textile art using the pattern.  I have a couple of ideas.  Just gotta settle on something!

As you can see, I have been doing some blog maintance.  Riscy upgraded the software, and it is going to take some time to get it all working properly and looking good.

Especially as the weather has turned cold and it is no longer as pleasant to be in my workroom.  And, Riscy and I have been watching The Sopranos on DVD.  Which is addictive, but time consuming.

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