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Primitive Technology is a YouTube channel of a man in Far North Queensland, Australia. The anonymous man of the Primitive Technology Youtube Video Series videos, who is referred to by some as 'Prim', has gained a worldwide audience.
Each video steps through the progress of one or more projects demonstrating the techniques and methods he uses to create tools or buildings as he says on his blog "completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials", only what he can source from his natural environment such as plant materials, clay, earth and stones. He researches the various technologies he works with in books and on the Internet, and displays a recognisable level of craftsmanship, knowledge, patience and attention to detail in his work. In some of his videos he refactors and develops his existing projects with improvements (e.g. replacing a leaf roof with bark strips, adding a fireplace with a chimney to an existing building, replacing stone slabs in a kiln firebox with more a more efficient pottery grate, building a larger and more effective kiln under a roof, trialling different drill types).
The videos are not the documentation of a survival situation. On his blog he describes his subject as a hobby, "making primitive huts and tools from scratch using only natural material in the wild." According to a Q&A section of the website, he lives in a modern house and eats modern food. He says he is not Indigenous and has never been in the Army. By creating stone axes, various shelters, pottery, fire, a basic iron smelting furnace, a chimney, a bed, and weapons, he feeds a growing interest in primitive living.
Since the first Primitive Technology video was uploaded on May 1, 2015, the Queenslander behind the series has garnered millions of views for his lessons without a word spoken. The channel has gone viral. In a single video where the author creates charcoal, titled "Making Charcoal", the video grew to approximately 1.5 million YouTube views in two days. A program on "Building a primitive wattle and daub hut from scratch" has been reposted to dozens of websites. In August 2016 he built a primitive iron forge. As of February 2017 the channel has over 3.8 million subscribers and over 213 million views.