The Coolgardie safe is a low-tech food storage unit, using evaporative cooling to prolong the life of whatever edibles are kept in it.
For the prospectors who had rushed here to find their fortune, one challenge was to extend the life of their perishable foods – hence the invention of the Coolgardie safe.
This technology is commonly thought to have been adopted by explorer and scientist Thomas Mitchell, who had observed the way some Indigenous Australians used kangaroo skins to carry water.
[1] The Coolgardie safe was made of wire mesh, hessian, a wooden frame and had a hot dip galvanised iron tray on top.
Gradually the hessian bag, acting as a wick, would draw water from the tray by the process of capillary action.