For more than 40 years a clue to Australia's secret history of folk magic has sat undisturbed in a library in Tasmania.

"This item came into our collection in 1970 and it was a fairly non-descript farm notebook and we hadn't thought much of it," heritage librarian Ian Morrison explained.

That was until Dr Ian Evans, a historian who has spent more than a decade researching the use of magic by early settlers, contacted the State Library of Tasmania about the notebook.

It was an almanac from 1811 owned by William Allison, a farm manager at a property north of Hobart called The Lawn.

It turns out Mr Allison, who came from England, was what was known as a "cunning man", a practitioner of folk magic and medicine.

"There's folk remedies for a wide range of ailments, which indicates that he was operating as a cunning man," Mr Morrison said.

"He operated as an unqualified medical practitioner, within a local community, so he was widely known to have knowledge of herbal remedies and how to find a missing cow and that sort of thing."

The almanac details "sacred charms" and remedies for ailments including rheumatism, "a pain in the head" and a "burn or scald".

"A certain cure for the rhumatism (sic)" and "a sacred charm" in the pages of the 1811 almanac.

"It fundamentally alters the way we think about colonial society and what was actually happening in that broader working class area," Mr Morrison said.

He explained that cunning men operated "somewhere on the spectrum between magic and science".

Allison's obituary in 1856 included the line, "Like the good Samaritan, has often poured the 'oil and the wine' upon others' wounds". Mr Morrison said the remark could be read as a cryptic reference to his activities as a cunning man.

The notebook is a rare piece of written evidence about the use of magic. Up until now the practice of magic by Australian settlers was only evident through markings on buildings and hidden objects.

"Australia was thought to be a desert as far as the practice of magic was concerned, because generations of researchers had worked their way through archives and libraries, not a word about magic," Dr Evans said.

"But these people who were looking in the archives were looking in the wrong place.

"The story of magic in Australia is written on the walls of our old houses and buildings."

University students map hexafoils and burn marks

A hexafoil, believed to be used to "avert evil", is photographed by a University of Tasmania student. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

It's five years since Dr Evans found his first magical marking in Australia; a hexafoil at Shene, an almost 200-year-old estate in Tasmania.

It's believed burn marks were used to protect against fire. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

"It's thought to be a mark that averted evil, so you find these at points of access to a building and this is the first one found in Australia, so it was quite a surprise."

He has since found them on old buildings across the country.

Several tear-shaped burn marks were also discovered at Shene, and Dr Evans believes they were used to inoculate buildings against fire.

Similar burn marks have been discovered in England, including at the Tower of London.

Now the symbols at Shene are being permanently preserved.

Architecture students from the University of Tasmania are mapping and photographing all of the markings.

University of Tasmania architecture students are documenting magic markings at Shene Estate. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

"These sort of marks of inhabitation are clearly a really good indication and representation of the people who lived there and the cultural practises," lecturer Dr Andrew Steen said.

"Especially when they're so strange to 21st-century minds, cultural practises as these."

Dr Evans said it was good to see the students at work.

"We don't know what will happen in the next century or so and these stalls may not survive, so it's a precaution to make sure that the information is retained and preserved for the future."

Tasmanian stables tell story of 'widespread' magic

Dr Ian Evans inspects ritual burn marks at a Tasmanian stable. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

As part of his latest research, funded by the University of Hertfordshire and the UK Vernacular Architecture Group, Dr Evans has contacted the owners of properties across Tasmania that still have original 19th-century buildings.

He has inspected almost 50 properties and has found burn marks in almost every set of stables he has visited.

One of those was a stable from around 1840 at a property owned by Nick Dennis.

"It's quite surprising really, I didn't think there would be much here, but we've found quite a few of them," Mr Dennis said.

"They must have been a superstitious lot probably to do all of this."

Property owner Nick Dennis and Dr Ian Evans examine burn marks in a 19th-century stable. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

On the back of Dr Evans' discoveries, researchers in England have started checking stables for the first time there and have found burn marks.

In an email, British researcher Timothy Easten said Dr Evans had done them a favour in highlighting the burn marks in stables.

"There is clearly more work for us to do," he wrote.

Dr Evans wasn't surprised by the discovery.

"The men who made the burn marks in so many Tasmanian stables almost certainly came from England and brought this ritual with them."