Tools & things made
Bark troughs and coolamons
The dubal, the bark trough or coolamon, is the container that made almost every other job possible: it carried water and honey, caught the mash when yams and zamia were leached, held the meat in the earth oven, boiled water with hot stones, carried a baby, and floated the family's gear across a flooded creek ahead of the swimmer[1][2][3]. It was made in a morning from one sheet of bark, usually a bloodwood, stringybark or box, heated and folded at the ends and pinned with a hardwood peg[3][2]. Kuku Yalanji troughs were 'another important and widely used item' of the material culture and examples are held in the Australian Museum[2]. West of here, in the Gulf country as far as the Mitchell River, the same jobs were done by the wooden koolamon, gouged out of a solid log[3].
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
The Hann lies inside the country of Roth's spiked bark trough: he found it on the coast 'to a good distance north of Princess Charlotte Bay' and inland 'from the Palmer to as far north as the Moreton Telegraph Station'[3]. Kuku Thaypan people made a bark dish, karoll, from the messmate stringybark[8], and bloodwood, stringybark and ironbark all grow along the Hann[9].
Names here
Around Princess Charlotte Bay, about 1900, Roth wrote down the pleat-type trough as kor in Koko-wara and an-du in Koko-rarmul. The knot bowl (below) was wappam in Koko-lama-lama and kuro-on in Koko-rarmul, names 'apparently synonymous with the tree from which it is obtained'[3]. In Kuku Thaypan, Dr George Musgrave called the messmate dish karoll[8].
Two kinds here
The spiked trough: one sheet of bark, folded into pleats at each end and skewered through; see the method under Everywhere[3].
The knot bowl: made from 'the gnarled excrescence met with on the butt of certain species of Eucalypts'. The bulging knot was hacked round at its base, loosened with a pointed stick and lifted off whole; the inside was charred and scraped out with shell or stone, and any cracks were mended with cement. Roth met it 'along the coast-line from the Bloomfield to the northern limits of Princess Charlotte Bay', up to about 15 inches high and wide[3].
Trees for troughs here
The Atlas of Living Australia holds 297 bloodwood (Corymbia) records (1965–2026), 105 of Darwin stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta, 1965–2026) and 11 of swamp box (Lophostemon suaveolens, 1945–2014) in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann, Laura and western Rinyirru[10]. Across the Laura sandstone country the bark of the Cooktown ironwood was also used 'for shields, carrying containers … and shelters'[11].
When to take bark here
Dr George Musgrave said of the messmate's bark: 'You only get certain time after wet'[8].
How people used them here
Messmate dish (Kuku Thaypan). Dr George Musgrave, recorded in 2003, on the messmate, Ku Aldkalemba: 'Make it for Karoll, for Karoll make like a dish, make Karoll. Out of this.' A leaking stringybark bowl was plugged with bloodwood gum mixed with grass-tree gum[8]; see beeswax and gums.
Mending a split trough (Princess Charlotte Bay, about 1900). In old camps on the coast near the mouth of the Normanby, Roth found old leaf-scale troughs that had begun to split and had been mended. Pairs of holes were punched on either side of the split, a strand was knotted through each pair on the outside, and the free ends of each strand were caught by the next knot so they could not loosen[12].
Burial. All round Princess Charlotte Bay the larger troughs also had a part in burial ceremonies[3]. That is a matter for families and is not described here.
On country today
The upper Hann is the Possum People's country and the middle and lower Hann Thaypan country, under native title determinations of 2 November 2023[13][14]. A Thaypan and Possum man told the Court: 'I have rights to take resources without permission in my traditional areas. Like fishing, and turtle, camping, cutting trees, take animals etc.'[14]
Across the Laura sandstone country scarred trees are the most common kind of site after rock art, and 'non-cultural burning and land-clearing practices represent ongoing threats' to them[11]. They are protected cultural heritage: don't cut, burn or clear them[6].
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
The upper Mitchell sits where the two traditions meet: the east-coast bark trough, and the wooden koolamon that Roth found along the Gulf coast 'certainly as far north as the Mitchell River'[3].
Trees for troughs here
At Karma Waters the bloodwoods, Molloy red box and ironbark are the trees, and the river's paperbarks the softer option; swamp box is recorded in the district[15].
On country today
On Western Yalanji country native title holders may take bark and timber for their own use; on a station, ask the lessee before cutting bark from standing trees[7][16].
Eastern coast Eastern Kuku Yalanji
Eastern Kuku Yalanji country: rainforest, beaches, mangroves, reef and the short steep rivers from the Daintree to the Bloomfield and the Annan.
On the Bloomfield the trough is dubal, Roth's tu-bal[1][3], and Anderson's Bloomfield informants could still describe its making and its uses in the 1970s[2].
Where the bark comes from here
Anderson's Bloomfield list is 'the bark of various Eucalyptus species, Curcuma australasica or Tristania suaveolens', with dry bark sheets from the Alexandra or black palm for a temporary trough[2].
How it worked in the Bloomfield camp
Leaching: on the Bloomfield, black bean was baked, pounded and sifted, then 'put into a bark trough and treated like the yam'; the hairy yam was mashed in a palm-fibre bag held over a bark trough while water was poured through, and the trough was left to settle until the oily 'poison' rose and was poured off[4][2]. See leaching. Cooking: in the Bloomfield earth oven the meat went into a bark trough set on the hot stones, with more stones around and on it and teatree bark over the top; and boiling was done either in water-soaked troughs sat straight on the fire or by dropping red-hot rocks into water in the trough[2]. Carrying: water, honey and vegetables, and 'infants', and 'ferrying things across swollen creeks'[2].
On country today
Anderson found bark troughs still in use at Bloomfield bush camps in the late 1970s, with billies, buckets and drums alongside them[2].
Everywhere
Names
The dictionary gives dubal for a coolamon; the same word names a bark container used in the old burial custom, which is a matter for families and is not described here[1]. Roth listed the local names of the pleated bark carrier along the east coast, and for the Bloomfield River (KYE, Bld.) he recorded tu-bal, his spelling of the same word[3]. Other containers in the dictionary: kunjarri, a palm whose bark 'can be used to make containers for cooking'; warkal, the 'bailer shell used in the old time for a billy'; jungkalu, 'billycan', the English word taken in; jindi, 'dish'; and the verb buyandi-l, 'to put (something) in a container'[1]. The dilly bag was the other carrier, for things that did not need to hold water.
What it is
Roth, who collected and watched these being made in 1898–1900, sorted the bark carriers of North Queensland into types. The one that runs from the Bloomfield north is the pleat-type trough with spiked ends: a single sheet of bark whose two ends are folded into pleats, bunched up and skewered through with a pointed peg, so that each end finishes in a spike. He found it 'on the eastern coast-line, from the Bloomfield River to a good distance north of Princess Charlotte Bay, on the Gulf coast from Pera Head to the Batavia, and in the Peninsula, from the Palmer to as far north as the Moreton Telegraph Station'[3]. Anderson's Bloomfield informants described the same thing seventy years later: the bark was soaked in water, then 'bunched up at each end into a kind of spike'[2].
Two other bark types belong to the districts south of Kuku Yalanji country: the bi-cornual carrier of Cairns, folded from inner bark so that its base ends in two horns, laced up the sides, rimmed with lawyer cane and sealed with gum or beeswax; and the big punt-type trough, four feet and more long and 6–8 inches deep, with sticks laced through its sides, used around Cairns and Cape Grafton for preparing a sour yam. On the Tully there was a sewn-canoe type, a miniature of the local bark canoe, for washing yams[3].
The koolamon. In the western districts and along the Gulf coast, 'certainly as far north as the Mitchell River', the trough was wood, not bark: a solid vessel hollowed from a log with the native gouge, used as 'a basin for carrying water, food, or the baby in, a miniature canoe for transporting impedimenta across a stream, a vessel for washing and soaking yams'. The bigger ones were carried on the head, or at the hip on a cord over the opposite shoulder with the hand underneath, and a few leafy twigs laid on the water stopped it slopping[3].
Trough, dish, shell or bag?
- Bark trough (dubal): holds water; folded ends; one sheet of bark[3].
- Wooden koolamon: holds water; gouged from a log, often with the gouge's fluting on the outside; the Gulf and western form[3].
- Bailer shell (warkal): the big Melo shell, the usual pot for boiling on the Bloomfield and the canoe bailer; see bailer shells[2][1].
- Palm-bark sheet (kunjarri): a dry sheet from the base of a palm frond, folded into a temporary trough when no bark was handy[2][1].
- Dilly bag: fibre, open mesh; carries and sieves but does not hold water, which is exactly why zamia flour was leached in a bag standing in a trough or a creek[4][2].
Signs
- Scarred trees. A bark trough leaves a long oval scar on the trunk, often head-high, with the bark grown back around the edges over the decades. Big old bloodwoods, stringybarks and boxes with regular scars are the trough and canoe trees of a camp[3][2].
- The right bark. A trough needs a sheet 'the full size of the tree — so as to curl nicely'; look for straight, clean trunks without branches for the length of a trough[3].
- After the first storms, when the sap is up and the bark will peel, is when sheets were cut[2].
- In a collection. The Australian Museum holds Bloomfield troughs from Roth's collecting, described in Khan's catalogue[2][5].
Where the bark comes from
Roth's list of the trees the east-coast spiked trough was made from is a list of woodland trees: a bloodwood (Eucalyptus corymbosa, now Corymbia), the messmate or Darwin stringybark (E. tetrodonta), red mahogany (E. resinifera) on the Palmer, E. phoenicea at Cape Bedford, and the swamp box or broad-leaved water gum (Tristania suaveolens, now Lophostemon) at Cooktown[3]. Teatree (paperbark) bark made the lighter water-carriers of the islands and the Endeavour River[3].
The wooden koolamon of the Gulf country was cut from whatever log was handy and charred before gouging[3].
How it fits with everything else
The trough is the hinge of the food system described across this guide: its jobs were leaching, cooking in the earth oven, carrying and ferrying; the fullest record, from the Bloomfield, is under its place above. Fruit: lawyer-cane berries were 'squashed in a bark-trough, and mixed with water' at Cooktown for an acid drink[4].
Each use has its season: leaching in the zamia and yam camps of the dry and the wet, honey in the dry, creek crossings in the wet[2]. A trough is also a sign of who carried: Roth and Anderson both record the women's bags and troughs as the family's transport, and the men's bags as small and personal[2][3].
Seasons
Bark is cut when the sap has risen after the first storms in December, 'when the bark would peel'[2]. The troughs themselves were worked hardest in the leaching camps of the mid to late dry and the yam season of the wet[2][4]. See the year on country.
Uses
From the Bloomfield record[2][3][4]:
- Carrying water and honey, and the bark container the sugarbag was put into when it was cut; see native bees.
- Leaching and mashing yams, zamia and black bean; mashing fruit with water.
- A cooking vessel in the earth oven and a pot for boiling, with hot stones.
- Carrying infants.
- A float for gear across a flooded creek, 'pushed along in front of the swimmer'[3].
- The bigger ones had a part in burial custom, which this page leaves to families[3][1].
Making a bark trough
Roth watched a spiked trough made on the Endeavour River, the next river north of the Bloomfield, and set it down step by step[3]; Anderson's Bloomfield informants add the soaking[2].
- Choose the tree and the season. A straight trunk with a clean length, after the first storms when the sap is up[2]. Bloodwood, stringybark, red mahogany, swamp box or teatree[3].
- Take one sheet of bark 'the full size of the tree — so as to curl nicely'. Cut round the trunk at the top and bottom of the sheet, slit it down one side and lever it off[3].
- Pick and peel the outer layer off with a kangaroo-bone stiletto, so the smooth inner bark is left; the inner surface of the bark becomes the inside of the trough[3].
- Thin the two ends. Pare and shave down the parts that will be pleated[3].
- Warm the ends over a fire so they bend without cracking; or soak the sheet in water first[3][2].
- Score two shallow cuts across the inside, one near each end, far enough in to let the folds bunch up on a common base[3].
- Heat the ends again, gather each into pleats and bunch them up into a spike[3][2].
- Skewer each spike through with a curved, sharply pointed ironwood peg to hold the pleats[3].
- Add a sling or handle if you want one: a fibre-twine sling with loops under the skewers, as on the Embley; or a stick tied along the length to both ends, as on the Batavia and Pennefather[3].
A wooden koolamon (Gulf and western districts) was gouged out of a charred log with the native gouge, the big one 'for cutting in the rough', the small one 'for finishing off', worked towards the body with one or both hands[3]. A quick trough: fold a dry palm-bark sheet[2].
Safety
- Taking a trough-sized sheet ring-barks a tree if you go right round; the old scars show the sheet taken from one side only.
- Scarred trees are cultural heritage. Under the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 everyone has a duty of care not to harm them, and they must not be cut for firewood or cleared[6].
- Boiling with hot stones in a wet bark trough works because the bark is soaked; a dry trough on a fire burns.
- A trough on a swollen creek is a float for gear, not for a person; the river pages have the crocodile warnings.
On Country today
Scarred trees and old troughs are protected cultural heritage[6]. Native title holders' right to take bark and timber for their own use is part of the gathering right protected by section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993[7].
Language
dubal 'coolamon'; kunjarri 'palm whose bark can be used to make containers for cooking'; warkal 'bailer shell used in the old time for a billy'; jungkalu 'billycan'; jindi 'dish'; buyandi-l 'to put in a container'; bana 'water'; kawar 'honey bread of bees'; duna 'wet'; buyku 'paperbark'; and the foods the trough was for, wukay, marra and baway[1].
References
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Hunting (spears, spear-throwers, harpoons); fishing (stupefacients); manufacturing (gums and resins); post-contact bush component archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- Roth, W. E. (1904). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 7: Domestic implements, arts, and manufactures. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 10 'Fire-tongs' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from the Hislops. — Sect. 6 'Cooking'; plant list ('Castanospermum australe', 'Dioscorea sativa', 'Elettaria Scottiana', 'Nymphaea') archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Khan, K. (1993). Catalogue of the Roth Collection of Aboriginal artefacts from north Queensland. Volume 1: Items collected from Archer River, Atherton, Bathurst Head, Bloomfield River and Butcher's Hill, 1897–1901. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum 10: 1–205. — Bloomfield River: 'Woven bag' E.14833; 'Non-folding oval frame fishing net' E.14959 doi.org/10.3853/j.1031-8062.10.1993.69
- Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld), sections 23–25 (cultural heritage duty of care; harming, excavating, relocating or taking away Aboriginal cultural heritage). www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2003-079
- Australian Law Reform Commission. Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (DP 82), ch. 8: Relevant provisions in the Native Title Act (s 211). www.alrc.gov.au/publication/review-of-the-native-title-act-1993-dp-82/8-the-nature-and-content-of-native-title/relevant-provisions-in-the-native-title-act/
- Standley, P.-M. (2019). The importance of campfires to effective conservation. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Records the fire and country knowledge of Kuku Thaypan Elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave. — Ch. 9, pp. 406–407 (Dr George Musgrave on the messmate Ku Aldkalemba and the karoll dish, and on bloodwood gum, recorded by V. Steffensen 2003) researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64274/
- Wikipedia. Hann River (Queensland) (accessed 28 October 2026). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hann_River_(Queensland)
- Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records of Corymbia (297 records, 1965–2026), Eucalyptus tetrodonta (105 records, 1965–2026) and Lophostemon suaveolens (11 records, 1945–2014) in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann River, Laura and western Rinyirru (lat −15.6 to −14.8, long 143.5 to 144.3), queried 28 October 2026. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=genus%3ACorymbia
- Wallis, L. A., Burke, H., Dardengo, M., Morgan, C., Cole, N., Marsh, S., Lee Cheu, P., Lowdown, S., Lowdown, J., Callaghan, C., Naylor, M., Naylor, M., Hart, R., Walker, P., Barker, B. & Pagels, A. (2024). A preliminary study of culturally modified sugarbag trees in the Laura Sandstone Basin, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Queensland Archaeological Research 27: 21–39. doi.org/10.25120/qar.27.2024.4093
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 1: String, and other forms of strand; basketry-, woven bag-, and net-work. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 13 'Over-knotting' (mended troughs in old camps on the Princess Charlotte Bay coast near the mouth of the Normanby) archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 20) (Thaypan determination) [2023] FCA 1315 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area; evidence of Bruce Clem Meldrum on taking resources www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Atlas of Living Australia. Plant occurrence records within 30 km of the Karma Waters homestead (16.62°S, 144.60°E), queried 10 October 2026: 832 records of 266 species. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=kingdom:Plantae&lat=-16.62&lon=144.60&radius=30
- Karma Waters Station. About: location, native title (web page, accessed 5 October 2026). www.karmawatersstation.com/about.html
From the community
Know this one? Add the words you use for it, what it is for, how it is done, a correction, or a photo from country. It shows here straight away with your name on it. Please keep anything restricted or sacred off the site.
Loading…