[packrat]

Mollison: “Stones, stones? What about stone houses? Yeah. We all know about them and uh, your grandmother’s told you this:

“A lot of times, people who live in stone houses shouldn’t throw glasses.

“Well the Scots would say, stone houses not for vodka drinkers.

“Stone houses are notoriously fire prone. And in the uh, ‘67 fires they all burnt down in Hobart.

“Brick was next because they conduct heat so rapidly inside.
And wood (houses), I am pleased to say, have much higher survival, Six times better than stone or brick.”

Woman: “Why? Why is that?”.

Mollison: “Have you tried to light wood? Sit there blow puff puff puff, another bit of newspaper and God the bloody stuff Will not light you know, you know that. It’s not, not if it was out of wood. A white painted wooden house has the higher survival of any, anything the wild fire…Yeah it conducts heat very fast, it’s cheap though.

“I used to do, I love rammed earth, it’s cheap. It doesn’t matter if it burns down, you know, you can always, you know, dig the house up and ram it again.”