DesJardins Cottage

This was originally the home of the DesJardins family, pioneers at Gehrvale (Mt.Mort).
A photo on display shows the hut in its original location.
Typical of the homes built by the early settlers, it demonstrates a building craft using the readily available ironbark for slab walls and shingle roof.
The roof has been covered with tin to preserve the shingles which are visible from inside the hut.
The outside walls were lined for warmth with hessian and then newspapers and journals glued on with flour and water paste.

An antbed clay baker’s oven, built at Blenheim in 1938 and used until 1945 for baking bread, is currently located in the position most likely to have been the original kitchen of the hut.