Valuing “Under the House”: Women’s Knowledge and the Architectural History of the Stumped Queensland House

The paper offers a gendered reading of the uses of “under the house” in the raised Queensland house and in contrast to emphasised material and climatic narratives, highlights the value women placed on the everyday use of interstitial housing space under the Queensland house “between the stumps” and beneath the floorboards. There is emphasis on the socio-cultural importance women placed on these informal housing spaces for domestic activities. The paper draws on Australian textual records, re-considers women’s occupation and the implications of this as a rereading of Queensland’s “vernacular” architecture.