Mr. Hodgkinson says that, in consequence of the seeds of the cones of the Bunya-bunya being, during one season of the year, the principal support of large tribes of natives, the Governor had promulgated an order enjoining the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Moreton Bay to prevent persons from forming stations in those parts of the country in which these Australian fruit-trees grow.[1]
This noble pine is, for the same reason, still protected by Government.
The Araucaria Bidwilli has a diameter of from thirty inches to forty inches, and its height is from one hundred to two hundred and twenty feet. The chief forest is in latitude 27° S., where it grows over an area of three hundred and sixty square miles. The wood is strong and good, easily worked, and shows beautiful veins when polished.[2]
Any account of the vegetable products habitually used by the natives of Victoria would be incomplete if reference were not made to the water-yielding roots, from which, in arid parts of the country, the Aborigines derive, without much trouble, supplies of water sufficient for all their wants. Stanbridge says that the hunter, in places far removed from permanent water, has to draw his supply of that element from the roots of the swamp-box and weir-mallee, which run a few inches below the surface of the earth. Sometimes five pints of water, which is very good, are taken from one root.[3]
The late Dr. Gummow states, in a letter to me, dated the 9th April 1872, that it frequently happens to the natives, when out in the Mallee country, that the water-holes, from which they had counted on obtaining a supply of water, have dried up; but they are never, therefore, at a loss. They select in the small broken plains some Mallee trees, which are generally found surrounding them. The right kiud of trees can always be recognised by the comparative density of their foliage. A circle a few inches deep is dug with a tomahawk around the base of the tree; the roots, which run horizontally, are soon discovered. They are divided from the tree and torn up, many of them being several feet in length. They are then cut into pieces, each about nine inches long, and placed on end in a receiver; and beautifully good, clear, well-tasted water is obtained, to the amount of a quart or more, in half an hour. This method of procuring water is not confined to the Mallee only. The roots of several other trees yield water. A knowledge of this means of getting water, and of the trees which yield it, says Dr. Gummow, would have saved the lives of very many white men, whose bleached skeletons, lying on the arid plains, alone testify to their once having existed.
"During a recent visit to the Murray," says Mr. Cairns, "where I had often heard of this useful shrub [Weir-Malleè], my friend, Mr. Peter Beveridge, rode with me into the Malleè, accompanied by one of his native stockmen; who, on our approaching the edge of one of the plains, at once pointed out the tree. It grows upwards of twenty feet high, and scarcely differs in appearance from those
- ↑ Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, 1845, p. 112.
- ↑ Queensland, Australia, by Richard Daintree, p. 82.
- ↑ Some Particulars of the General Characteristics, Astronomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in the Central Part of Victoria, by W. E. Stanbridge, F.E.S., 1861.
