Peatlands
Peat Extraction in the Peatland
For decades, people drained peatlands all over the world. They dug ditches to drain away the water. In this way, they gained land for farming and building. The peat taken from the peatland was used for heating, as bedding in stables and as potting soil in gardens.
On the way to the peat works: construction of the Piller road in 1949
The Piller peat-cutting site in 1953, with the peat hut in the background
Dried peat bricks prepared for collection, peat hut site, 1970
Workers from Piller (municipality of Fließ) extracting peat in 1960
The Piller peat-cutting site in 1970
In Austria, 90 per cent of all peatlands disappeared in this way. After the Second World War, their drainage was intended to create agricultural land, and people even spoke of a “tenth federal province”. Peat extraction in the Piller peatland began in 1949. Around ten men worked there, some of them on piece rates, cutting peat, drying it and breaking it up. Since a fire at the pressing plant in 1971, the peat-cutting site has been abandoned. A year earlier, the still intact parts of the raised bog with dwarf pine had already been designated a natural monument.