Wheelbarrow

Maker & role
Unknown, Maker
 Production date
Early 19th Century
Mid 19th Century
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Object detail

Production place
Australia
Collection
Hyde Park Barracks
Measurements
L: 280cm (L: 2800mm)
Credit line
Gift, Berkeley King, 2015
Hyde Park Barracks Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Hack barrow, early to mid 19th century
Description
Convict brickmakers working at the Brickfields (now Haymarket) used hack barrows like this one, stacking 20 or 30 wet bricks on the timber palings along the top, for transporting them from the moulding table to the ‘hack’ yard for drying. In 1819 Major George Druitt reported that a gang of eight men were expected to make 3000 bricks a day, so a barrow like this that could move bricks quickly, was essential to achieving the daily total. In the hack yard, the bricks were laid out on wooden planks in single layers and left to dry for a couple of days to a leather hard state, then turned over and left for a few more days. The brickmakers would then build them into ‘hacks’ - long open walls or herringbone stacks of about eight or ten bricks high. Only after drying for a further several weeks were the bricks ready for firing in the kiln.
Accession number
HPB2015/7

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