The type of housing people used depended on the available resources for building. In woodland, large trees have relatively soft stringybark which can be chopped away in sheets and used to make simple housing. In dense rainforests, palm fronds are numerous and these are used instead.

 

A group of rainforest people outside one of their palm leaf huts. Atherton-Herberton, north Queensland.

An elderly couple commencing their hut in the rainforest. This shows the wooden frame of interlocking sticks before the palm leaves are applied. When making these homes, the men build the wooden frame while the women collect the palm fronds. Atherton, north Queensland.

Two naked women carrying large sheets of paperbark (Melaleuca species) with which to make their hut. One carries their child. Cape York Peninsula, from motion-picture film.

A small bark shelter (gunyah) built over a wooden frame, used in woodland areas.