The Excavation of the Mount Wood Woolscour, Tibooburra, New South Wales

In this paper the author, who is Historian in the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, reconstructs the little-known process of station-based woolscouring from documentary and archaeological evidence. It is argued that the relatively Late survival of this form of scouring In western New South Wales resulted primarily from severely limited transport facilities. The considerable variation in scour design, evident in the literature and at Mount Wood, as attributed to individual adaptations to environmental constraints, primarily the availability of water and building materials. The economics of woolscouring in different environments as discussed and questions raised for further research.