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A lesson in woodblocking
Woodblocking Macquarie Street, 1925. There are many descriptions
of the process of woodblocking, but perhaps the most revealing is
that of L. C. Rodd, as it provides a sound economic motive for the
interest, as well as insight into the relationship between residents
and Council workers. Written in the early twentieth century, it
could just as easily relate to the nineteenth:
The tarring machine slowly moved its way up Bourke Street. The
woodblocks were passed by hand along an assembly line of men, fed
into the hot tar, to slide out on a sloping tray. Other men with
rough canvas gloves on their hands picked up the tar-dripping blocks,
passed them to men in the lines that dropped the blocks into rows.
A couple of men walked along the top of the laid blocks to give
each new row a few deft taps with a sledge hammer. Several rows
were laid at the same time, the men working from both sides of the
street and leaving a broad triangle in the centre for the key man.
He judged accurately the size of the block needed to fit the last
place. With a sharp hatchet he cut a block to the exact size, fitted
it and checked that the whole row was in alignment before he completed
the next. I stood by with a sugar-bag, waiting for his nod. Those
pieces of woodblock spiced with tar were a useful contribution to
our fire. Wood was an expensive item.
(L.C. Rodd, The Gentle Shipwreck, Nelson, Melbourne, 1975,
p.80)
(image: SPF, Mitchell Library, State Library of
New South Wales)
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