This photograph shows the shearer's quarters where members stay during the camp. The building on the right is the sleeping area. This consists of a number of rooms comming off a central corridor. There is a door at each end of the corridor however they are often not closed during the day to allow a breeze to cool the building down. This led to a very humourous incident one morning. The station owners have a number of horses that ofter come around the homestead looking for handouts. One morning some of these horses walked through the open door and started down the corridor. The sound of their hooves on the concrete floor was enough to awaken everyone. One of the members opened the door of their room to find a horse's head about 2 inches from their own. The scream was fantastic!!!!!!!
The other building is the cooking and eating area. Cooking was done on a wood stove unless one of the observers had brought along a portable gas stove. The only electricity is a 24V supply that comes from the homestead generator. This was shut off around 8.30pm so that were absolutely no lights during the night.
The tank on the roof was the rainwater tank for drinking water although this was only used if absolutely necessary. Normally we would take up our own water as drinking water is very precious there.
In adition to taking our water, we also had to take everything else with us, such as food, bedding, telescopes, fuel, and much else. Sometimes one wonders how we ever fitted everything in and still had room for the observers!!!!
Yes..... all that stuff really DID fit in the car with room for 3 observers!!!!