Aboriginal scarred trees

When Aboriginal scarred trees they removed large pieces of its bark and used it for traditional purposes. The wounds scarred trees still display tell of the many uses Aboriginal people found for them:

• resource harvesting, for example for canoes or containers,
• food implements,
• shields,
• temporary shelters,
• on initiation sites,
• as tomb stones for their dead.

More than 7,500 Aboriginal-scarred trees have been recorded in NSW, but fewer than 100 carved trees remain standing in their original location [6]. The rest has been removed for farming, forestry or development.

The number of scarred trees is dwindling and the remaining ones need to be protected. Scarred trees are now fragile reminders of the resource harvesting techniques practised for thousands of years [1].

[Scarred trees] are our history books, but are also a manual for sustainable use of resources suited to the present day.—Stuart McFarlane, Manager RMIT Ngarara Willim Indigenous Centre, Melbourne [1]

[Carved tree designs] represent a people's soul—they are the embodiment of an actual people's culture and history. —Djon Mundine, arts curator [6]

Where can you find carved trees?

Scarred trees are found wherever there are mature native trees, especially box and red gum. They often occur along major rivers, around lakes and on flood plains, but also at significant (sacred) sites. The scarred tree in the image above stands near the Parramatta River.

Lake Boort Reserve, 255km north-west of Melbourne, is Australia's largest scarred tree site with about 900 red gums and black box trees scarred by the Dja Dja Wurrung people. More than 600 stone tools and weapons and about 500 cooking mounds have been found nearby [3].

The Keelbundoora Scarred Tree and Heritage Trail offers information and history on scarred trees. It opened in May 2008 at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Bundoora campus which sits on Wurundjeri Aboriginal land.

These trees here are officially not allowed to be removed, but nobody is to stop people from coming in and chainsawing them down for firewood.—Paul Haw, spokesman Boort Interpretive Centre working group [3]

Dangers to scarred trees

While scarred trees are protected under state or territory law many are still in danger of being damaged or cut down for firewood or during land clearing.

During the 1900s some trees were also cut and their scarred sections sent to Australian museums. In 2009 one of these segments was returned by Museum Victoria to the Local Aboriginal Land Council in Baradine, 490km north-west of Sydney, after two years of campaigning [4].

The tree was cut down by rangers in 1918, reduced in size and sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney. Three years later the scarred segment was transferred to Museum Victoria.

Field guide to finding scarred trees

You can find scarred trees in Australia even today. Look out for the following characteristics [2].

• The Scar is fairly regular in shape, often with parallel sides and slightly pointed or rounded ends.
• The Scarring usually begins above ground level.
• Exposed sapwood is free of tree knots or branches or there is evidence of a branch having been at the top of the scar.
• You may see stone or steel axe cuts at the base and (more rarely) at the top of the scar on the exposed sapwood. Many of these marks are hidden because the bark has since grown back.
• The scarred tree is an Australian native species which occurs naturally in the area.
• The Aboriginal scarred tree is usually over 200 years old. The older a scar is the more regrowth covers the exposed sapwood, sometimes covering the scar entirely.

Poem: Gum Tree

Graham Ballard from Casino, NSW, wrote Gum Tree, a poem reflecting that a tree is so much more than just a tree [7].

We call it the gum tree, as if it were just a thing
Not pulsating, not whispering, not rustling around, not shedding skin,
Not perfuming, not drinking, not perspiring, not growing, not trembling,
Neither swaying, waving or sheltering
Not watching, not listening, not stretching, not changing colour,
Not bleeding, not blooming, not breeding, not singing, not shrieking,
Not crying, not sleeping, not grieving, not breathing, not scratched and
	bleeding from a frightened goanna,
Not tolerating raucous mobs of parrots, children
Just there, sticking out of the ground,
As if we weren't so very blessed to have it there.

Read more Aboriginal poetry.

Video: How a coolamon (wira) is made

Watch this old film of an Aboriginal man cutting out and then refining a coolamon (a wooden dish used for carrying and digging).

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] 'Scarred trees feature of heritage walk', Koori Mail 427 p.39 [2] 'Aboriginal scarred trees', leaflet, State of Victoria, Department for Victorian Communities, 2003 [3] 'Warning call on Boort Aboriginal history site', Bendigo Advertiser, 4/7/2009 [4] 'Sacred tree to return', Koori Mail 454 p.10 [5] 'Carved tree coming home after 92 years', Koori Mail 473 p.34 [6] 'Carved trees the focus of State Library exhibition', Koori Mail 500 p.18 [7] 'Gum Tree', Koori Mail 501 p.23