To return to:    Lothar BRASSE summary. Paech home Darby Rd 1.   Paech home Darby Rd 2

Interview with Lothar BRASSE.  19 June 2025.  Beerenberg Farm.

Looking back to Lothar's memories of 1978.

This interview follows on immediately from here where Lothar BRASSE talks about 'The Pines' on Darby Rd.

No 2. 31.41 Corrogated Iron

There was no corrogated iron there in the south facing, when they built a shed there for an engine there are pictures of it where the shed but now its no longer there and we just put corrogated iron there, and put the glass on their just to preserve it, the weather side is there on the South & West corner, there was no chaff machine, just the foundation pads, then Andrew and Ian were working there and a guy came up and said he used to live there, in this corner, he used to live there,  and there's remnants of wall paper, hessian bags to, just in the lean to, It was open to the weather since it was built, the staves and mud was completely open to the weather, on the south side that is why it is so badly deteriorated , look at the wedding photo at Friedrichstadt, once the holes are made the pigeons get in and pick it all out, and the rain, in Europe every year they would have white washed it, that was part of the German tradition, either they were too busy doing other things but they preserved the 'Grainary', with corrogated iron. 

.... because it was big and imposing I just had a snoop and I, once I got inside because it was all clad in corrugated iron, I could see and I could go upstairs into the mezzanine floor and I was just amazed again at the timber work and at the top floor it had just the woven straw, it didn't have any .... any clay and that's what makes me believe it was to get ventilation across and ventilation is one thing they need for tobacco drying 

Maybe Syd said 'you should see the shed, I can't remember to be honest, there was nothing inside and there was only one door, it was totally empty because he was selling it, Noel Duffield bought it, he subdivided he bought all that land including the Oaks, subdivided it, put a dam in, put a new road in.   ..

PAECH barn Darby Rd, Paechtown

'Clovershed'

Also known as 'Friedrichstadt Barn,  Faehrmann's Barn',  'Battlefield Farm', 'The Grainary'.

Summary:

The following home off Darby Rd, Hahndorf, was originally built as a barn & we have documented it using photography, measurements, drawings, genealogy, historic references & previous surveys to draw comparisons of technique & engineering that might attribute the pit sawn red gum timber structures to master carpenter Johann Carl Friedrich FAEHRMANN [1823-1896] of Tangermünde, Prussia.

The family names that are mentioned in this article:

Table of Contents

Mount Barker District Heritage Survey Stage 1 November 1983 by Hignett & Company '1849'
	Item Name 'Oakside Farm Complex' Page 146, Item Ref No 159	'Built by PAECH 1849.  This property is one of the few remaining of the German settlement of Friedrichstadt. House & barn [originally called "Clovershed"] are of traditional German design with red gum and brick-nog construction.  Renovations to house 1982.   [See Mt BarkerDistrict diagram 2 for location]  Section: 3908   Owner: [House]: N.G. Duffield, Darby Rd, Hahndorf. [Barn] Don Nichols, Darby Road, Hahndorf.   Location: Extension of Darby Rd, off Echunga Rd, Hahndorf South.

1860	Vol 12 Folio 205
1873	Vol 181. Folio 62

1873	Vol 181.  Folio 65

Friedrichstadt Barn

 Isometric of half timbered framing

Construction details of timber barns

Friedrichstadt Barn

Hahndorf Survey Volume 1 page 205

https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/heritage-surveys/2-Hahndorf-Vol-1-1981.pdf                                         

The 'Friedrichstadt barn'  

Hahndorf Survey Volume 1 pge 196

"This is different from the other barns as its purpose was obviously one of a grain store. Its design excludes the large double access doors for the farm equipment and a ventilated threshing hall. Located on a sloping site, the building matches the Paechtown barns in size only, being 11 m x 6 m. It is placed parallel to the land fall so that there is a minimum obstruction by the end walls to ground waters which are running down-hill. A small stone base wall is employed to level the timber wall plates and to act as a footing. The building is two storeys high with a ground floor hall divided into two bays by centrally placed posts and brackets supporting a centre beam [200 x 150 mm deep]. 

At the upper level a double row of columns produce three narrow aisles, the centre one of which is given improved headroom by an extension into the roof space so as to allow it to act as a passageway.  A manhole (900 mm x 900 mm) is located near the centre of the floor both for access to the downstairs hall and the barn door. The timber frames have 1.3 m end bays and 0.95 m centre bays and are again divided into three panels in height. Post and rail sizes are 150 mm2. An unusual configuration of gable end and door opening bracings occurs. These may have been made from deformed branches and could have a decorative rather than a functional reason [although the form is structurally correct]. The wall panels are wattle and daub formed from vertical stakes slotted into holes in the timber rails and plates and wrapped around with straw and then plastered with a mud slurry. Internal boarding protects the lower panels up to the height of the first rails [1.9 m].

Both the ground and first floor are boarded with Jarrah boards supported on beams at 900 mm centres. The roof is half hipped [Dutch gable] at each end and was originally covered with timber shingles. The rafters are supported at the eaves by ties running back to the centre posts at the bay points. Elsewhere they are fitted onto shoes in a similar manner to the Paechtown barns so as to give a freer headroom. These shoes project over the wall frames to allow the roof covering to oversail and shed water well away from the walling. At their upper level the roof rafters are supported by cross ties supported on transverse beams which are themselves supported by the four centre posts. The latter are supplied with brackets in the transverse direction and stiffened in the cross direction with shaped braces which are similar to those employed in the wall frames and are reminiscent of the crude "cruck" timber buildings of the Middle Ages.

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/paechtown-house-like-something-straight-out-of-a-storybook/

Reference

Hahndorf Survey Volume 1