Duck Punt

Vessel numberHV000796

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 2.4 m × 0.65 m (7.87 ft × 2.13 ft)

Terms

DescriptionThe builder of this 2.4m punt is unknown. However the plywood construction places this as a craft probably built soon after WW2 when plywood became more readily available and replaced the typical planked construction this craft would have had in the 1930s. It is 650 mm wide and 240 mm high with flat sides and flat bottom. The ends have a capping piece to give a sharper entry and exit as it was paddled along, in either direction too as it is double-ended. Small Iin and 2 in wide sections of timber are used for the framing, and it is nailed together. The flat bottom and reasonable width would have provided a good stable platform for the hunter.

Although well-worn in patches, it still has its green paint, a colour used as camouflage to blend in amongst the reeds and grasses in the swamps where it was paddled around. A single blade paddle is also part of the canoe’s display. It is now housed at the Lawrence Historical Society’s museum in the old ABC Radio building at Lawrence on the Clarence River in northern NSW, and represents an activity and its era that is now past.

SignificanceThe wooden duck punt was built in northern NSW, probably in the late 1940s or early 1950s. This plywood canoe style hull is a rare example in original condition of a type that was once common in the period when duck shooting and other associated hunting and fishing pursuits were typical activities along the rivers and waterways.