Labsmith Outbuilding (disputed)
| Alleged date | c. 1821 onward |
| Location | Bankstown district, western Sydney (now Bankstown NSW 2200). Precise location unknown. |
| Proprietor | Ev Labsmith [disputed] |
| Material | Corrugated iron (assumed). No physical description survives. |
| Status | Disputed. No physical trace identified. |
| Source | Voices from the Bankstown district, 1974; Hargreaves letter, 1829 |
The Labsmith Outbuilding is the alleged proto-doof structure described in the Labsmith Controversy - a corrugated iron agricultural outbuilding, believed to have been operated by Ev Labsmith in the Bankstown district of New South Wales from approximately 1821, in which displaced labourers gathered for "informal rhythmic recreation of an ungoverned character."[1]
The outbuilding cannot be located. No physical structure consistent with the description has been identified. No street address, property record, or visual description survives in legible form. It exists, if at all, only in documents - and the documents themselves are contested.
Documentary basis
Two documents refer to the outbuilding directly. The 1974 pamphlet Voices from the Bankstown district describes "a structure behind [the] public house on [illegible] Road" in which gatherings occurred. The Hargreaves letter of 1829 - held at the Mitchell Library - refers to "his outbuilding" in the context of a complaint about "the Greek man at the end of the road." Neither document provides a street address, property description, or any detail that would allow the structure to be physically located or identified in the present day.[2]
The 1823 Colonial Secretary's Papers assignment record notes "E. Labsmith, free settler, Bankstown Road" - establishing that Labsmith, if this is the same person, held property on the Bankstown Road, consistent with the outbuilding's alleged location. The record does not describe the property.[3]
The corrugated iron question
Corrugated iron was introduced to Australia in the 1840s, which post-dates the earliest alleged gatherings at the Labsmith Outbuilding by approximately two decades. This creates a material inconsistency: if the outbuilding was constructed c. 1821, as the pamphlet implies, it cannot have been made of corrugated iron - the material most associated with the doof shed tradition.
Proponents have noted that the outbuilding may have been modified or reconstructed over time, or that the corrugated iron dating is itself approximate. Critics have noted that this is a secondary issue given that the structure's existence has not been established at all.[4]
Significance
If accepted, the Labsmith Outbuilding would be the earliest structure in the two-century lineage of Australian informal gathering architecture documented by this archive. The Doof Shed (2021) - the most recent structure in the archive's record - would represent a two-hundred-year continuation of the same tradition, operated, at least in part, by individuals sharing the same family name as the original proprietor.
The archive notes this. It does not speculate on its significance.
Notes
- [Unnamed author]. Voices from the Bankstown district, 1974. See Labsmith Controversy.
- Hargreaves, W. Letter, 1829. Mitchell Library, ML MSS 4819. See Labsmith Controversy - The Hargreaves letter.
- Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1823, State Records NSW.
- Corrugated iron: introduced to Australia c. 1840. See Doof Sheds: A Structural History, corrugated iron section.