Flinstone
That's the name of this tiny shack village at Arthur's Lake.
What's a shack?
A shack, as defined by former University of Tasmania lecturer and architect Paddy Dorney is a basic structure.
Some believe the term was derived from 'ramshackle', on account of their typically run-down appearance.
"After the war we got the Australian dream of a three-bedroom home on a quarter-acre block, a lot of Tasmanians suddenly decided to buy a place near the beach or in a lake community in remote places with no facilities, no infrastructure, no power, no sewerage and spend as much of their time there as possible," says Mr Dorney, who has spent years researching Tasmania's beach-side shack communities.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, shacks were built by their owners, who often had little in the way of construction skills on land they found and claimed for themselves instead of formally buying.
The resulting structures were often little more than glorified tents, with no plumbing, electricity or heating. Long-drop toilets were common for decades, and any household rubbish was simply burned.
"It wasn't until the 1970s that people even started painting them. Up until then we were surrounded by salt-grey buildings with lead roofs," Mr Dorney says. He says the term 'shack' has also been used in South Australia and Western Australia, but has become an essentially Tasmanian word.
So you're probably thinking shacks don't sound that pleasant, but Mr Dorney says the appearance and practicality of the buildings themselves was largely beside the point: it's the lifestyle surrounding them Tasmanians so desperately wanted to attain. "Certainly in Tasmania, it became common, even iconic to have a shack," he says. "The shack itself is unimportant because people spent all their time recreating. The shack merely sheltered you at night." Thanks to our ABC.
Flinstone
That's the name of this tiny shack village at Arthur's Lake.
What's a shack?
A shack, as defined by former University of Tasmania lecturer and architect Paddy Dorney is a basic structure.
Some believe the term was derived from 'ramshackle', on account of their typically run-down appearance.
"After the war we got the Australian dream of a three-bedroom home on a quarter-acre block, a lot of Tasmanians suddenly decided to buy a place near the beach or in a lake community in remote places with no facilities, no infrastructure, no power, no sewerage and spend as much of their time there as possible," says Mr Dorney, who has spent years researching Tasmania's beach-side shack communities.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, shacks were built by their owners, who often had little in the way of construction skills on land they found and claimed for themselves instead of formally buying.
The resulting structures were often little more than glorified tents, with no plumbing, electricity or heating. Long-drop toilets were common for decades, and any household rubbish was simply burned.
"It wasn't until the 1970s that people even started painting them. Up until then we were surrounded by salt-grey buildings with lead roofs," Mr Dorney says. He says the term 'shack' has also been used in South Australia and Western Australia, but has become an essentially Tasmanian word.
So you're probably thinking shacks don't sound that pleasant, but Mr Dorney says the appearance and practicality of the buildings themselves was largely beside the point: it's the lifestyle surrounding them Tasmanians so desperately wanted to attain. "Certainly in Tasmania, it became common, even iconic to have a shack," he says. "The shack itself is unimportant because people spent all their time recreating. The shack merely sheltered you at night." Thanks to our ABC.