Blokes, Sheds and Rare Trades

Blokes, Sheds and Rare Trades, the books and the Exhibition: In the Adelaide City region of South Australia

The shed looms large in our heritage. The giant sheep station shearing sheds, for instance, are the shelf of poems and paintings, telling their stories of backbreaking labour and pastoral fortunes. The buildings in this yarn are far more modest, because of their very nature - they are backyard sheds. One South Australian observer, however, has opened a nation’s eyes to their meanings, rules, secrets and ties that bind blokes and sheds. In the Adelaide Hills, on a shed amongst the backyard gums, we found the title “The Australasian Institute of Backyard Studies.”