Ive just loaded about 180 new pics on the website – mostly in the ‘handholds, wirris, vines, goolahgools & fungi’ archive. An occasional TinT has turned up but they mostly fall in the ‘doubtful’ category where one scrub tree grows around the base of another. Im not actively looking for TinTs anymore because my attention has shifted to the weird & wonderful water holding (among other things) whitewoods. Technically Goolahgools were eucalypts – from The Cookooburrahs and the Goolahgool (Australian Legendary Tales, by K. Langloh Parker, [1897]) but here it’s the whitewood aka birraa or Atalaya hemiglauca. The goolahgools are all dry now as weve only had about 2”/ 50 ml for the year and many are leaking or full of debris due to lack of maintenance . They are easily spotted from a distance with their unusual shapes or water stains on their trunks. Below are some of the typical styles of goolahgool found here in clusters on red country – beside flood plains or near swamps with wells. Its possible the goolahgools were filled by women with their coolamons or binguies when required, not just rainfall? See if you can spot the odd one out …
Another thing Ive seen lately is goolahgools with calcium carbonate inside that I think of as ‘cement trees’. The 3 old Whitewood/ Birraa/ Atalaya hemiglauca trees below have calcium carbonate (CaCO3) deposits inside them (basically limestone) I know this because I took a piece home & put some vinegar on it & it fizzled slightly. So these whitewood are either sequestering carbon like some species of African fig or they have been used as a bone repository/ ossuary as there is charcoal in there as well. Just imagine if the humble whitewood could act as a ‘carbon sink’ via the OCP pathway – They are easy to grow, hardy & self-irrigating! See diagram below
Syed S, Buddolla V and Lian B (2020) Oxalate Carbonate Pathway—Conversion and Fixation of Soil Carbon—A Potential Scenario for Sustainability. Front. Plant Sci. 11:591297. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.591297
Some goolahgools are also ringtrees or some ringtrees are also Goolahgools – whichever way you like. I think they were designed to both hold water & tell you they are holding water. The botanical engineers that lived here – more commonly known as the ancestors – created these marvels so those that came after knew where to get a drink. However when its this dry the clans would have headed to the river or the wells along the paleo channel. Leopardwood ringtrees are often found among the whitewood water holding trees but occasionally these whitewoods have a central ring or small branch ring on them. Here are some examples below
In another quirky rework of typical goolahgool structure are those whitewoods that irrigate nepine vines (Capparis lasiantha). The nepine – aka barigan, ngaybaan or guwiibirr – have a delicious yellow fruit which is usually ruined by tiny black ants. As soon as the fruit ripens & splits the ants are all over the bush. Nepine have spines on their stems which is why my family know this bush as Wait-a-while as it snags skin & clothing. These spines help the nepine climb high into the canopy of trees away from ants & they stay there for a very long time. Some nepine vines have stems thicker than my arm in many cases & live as VinTs (Vines in Trees). Below are some self irrigating VinTs in goolahgools Ive seen recently
The other sensational CMT Ive found lately is a TTT (Tree Thru Tree) where a whitewood branch has been grown up inside a leopardwood to re-emerge further up. At least 30cm of whitewood has penetrated the leopardwood’s lower trunk and grown up INSIDE the tree to appear again at the fork. This is the problem with words folks – the harder I try to explain what this interspecies ‘coupling’ looks like the more convoluted the sentences become. Let me show you in pictures ….
So the ‘clickbait’ from the title of this blog is not the TTT or the goolahgools with rings or the ‘cement trees’ – the clickbait is the PENIS TREE! I have a small collection of smutty CMT pics where trees resemble certain human attributes/ activities but didn’t think I would have to stoop that low to get the attention of academics. Of the 100 or so working academics from east coast universities in the fields of Aboriginal studies & Botany I have contacted this year, there is only 1 interested in seeing the trees West of Walgett. You can’t talk about Aboriginal culture in Australia without talking about CMTs. You can’t teach Aboriginal studies without including ethnobotany (indigenous ecology). There are more CMTs here than anywhere else in the world due to various historical & climatic reasons. The fact that no academics that teach these subjects have ever contacted me or been to see the CMTs west of Walgett says it all. They are more interested in keeping their jobs by repetitive acknowledgment of country ceremonies. If you don’t know which Aboriginal tribe used to own the land you are on by now you probably never will. So much woke window dressing like when you fly Qantas Sydney to Dubbo they extend their respects to the traditional owners of the land but they don’t actually name them – WIRADJURI ffs – you fly to Dubbo 2-4 times every day & cant remember the name of the biggest tribe in NSW? Anyway enough Karening, below is the clickbait penis tree, right beside the TTT so I think it’s a woman’s sex education place. There is a cement tree, some goolahgools & a few other mods here as well but NO WATER unless the Small warrambool was running. This paddock is 90% farmed now but the remnant woodland is to die for.
