Week 10 " Kurth Kiln"

Last Tuesday as I had the day off I had arranged to spend the aftyernoon helping a friend with his new camera
about a month earlier he was telling me of this place he took his dog to for a swim and showed me some of the images he had captured
when I saw the detail in the brickwork I knew that it would make a pretty interesting shot for my HDR images

what is Kurth Kiln?
I had never heard of this place nor realized the signifiant of it even tho it was only about 40km from me in the Dandenongs at Gembrook
from what I had learnt during World War 2 when petrol was heavily rationed they built a number of these charcoal producing kilns scattered around various state forests this one was named after Professor EE Kurth of the Tasmanian University who patented and developed these kilns as well as the converters used in cars during the war but was found to be not economical and was soon discontinued and is located in a state forest that now bears his name
the drawbacks with the charcoal fuel was it was dirty and less economical with the units costing 100 pound in 1941 which was 18 times the weekly wage and also produced 40% less power
this is apparently the only intact kiln left in australia


the additional images are of the caretakers quarters and where they have set it up as a small village that is well looked after which was a pleasing thing to see

PaW 2010 Week 10 Submission