The shearer's huts
THE SHEARERS HUTS built around 1908 were located to the west of the homestead over the road between the garages and the Woolshed. Today this is next to the Rural Fire Brigade building and playground. The huts originally consisted of a dining hut, kitchen with baking oven, sleeping accommodation consisting of six rooms with two beds each, ablutions and laundry block and pit toilet. The original plans of the ‘Shearers Quarters’ are held in the Invergowrie Museum.
During WWII some 5000 Italian POWs were sent to Australia to be used to help fill the labor shortage from the volume of young Australian Rural men who were serving in the war. Invergowrie hosted three Italian internees (POWs) who lived in the shearers huts.
They were very good gardeners and grew vegetables in a patch to the north of the huts. The photo above, from 1959 clearly shows the outline of where the garden was in relation to the Shearers’ Huts. It also shows the wool shed in the left foreground.
During WWII some 5000 Italian POWs were sent to Australia to be used to help fill the labor shortage from the volume of young Australian Rural men who were serving in the war. Invergowrie hosted three Italian internees (POWs) who lived in the shearers huts.
They were very good gardeners and grew vegetables in a patch to the north of the huts. The photo above, from 1959 clearly shows the outline of where the garden was in relation to the Shearers’ Huts. It also shows the wool shed in the left foreground.