Trees
Paperbark
buyku · jidi · kalkuri · wanjakan · bijan · marngkil · marrabal · marril · bijinMelaleuca spp. (e.g. Melaleuca leucadendra, M. argentea, M. fluviatilis)
Buyku is the Kuku Yalanji word for paperbark[1]: the Melaleuca trees, often called ti-tree or tea-tree in North Queensland English, whose pale bark peels away in soft layers[2]. Paperbark is one of the most useful trees on country. Its bark covered the earth oven and roofed huts. It was folded into troughs for carrying water, laid down as mats and blankets, rolled into parcels and lit as a torch, jidi[1][3][4]. Paperbarks line the creeks and rivers from the Bloomfield coast right across to the dry inland rivers of Western Yalanji country[2][5].
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
Paperbark is everywhere in the Hann's country. The Atlas of Living Australia holds 346 Melaleuca records, dated 1932 to 2023, in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann, Laura and western Rinyirru; most are the broad-leaved tea-tree M. viridiflora[12]. For the Kuku Thaypan Elders, tea-tree country is one of the nine kinds of country they look after with fire[13]. This is not Kuku Yalanji country: the upper Hann is the Possum People's and the middle and lower Hann are Thaypan country[14][15].
Where it grows here
By the river. The Queensland Herbarium describes a fringe of Melaleuca fluviatilis and M. leucadendra, sometimes with river red gum, along the major streams of this part of Cape York. That is a regional ecosystem type, not a survey of the Hann itself[16]. Along the Hann the woodland is mostly stringybark, bloodwood, Moreton Bay ash and ironbark[17].
On the flats. Downstream in Rinyirru, 'open woodlands of eucalypts and paperbarks cover the floodplains'[18]. The Kuku Thaypan Elders describe their tea-tree country as 'three different Tea tree Melaleuca sp. in broad leaf Tea tree Melaleuca viridiflora communities on floodplains, inundated areas and drainage depressions'[13].
What the Atlas holds in the 90 × 85 km box: M. viridiflora 131 records, M. citrolens 74, M. leucadendra 27, M. stenostachya 21, M. fluviatilis 17, M. argentea 10, and a few others[12]. So the weeping paperbark of the riverbanks is here, but the commonest paperbark is the broad-leaved tea-tree of the flats.
Its year here
In the wet, December to March, the rivers flood out over the plains. Over the next six months the floodplains dry out, and 'by October the land is brown and parched'[18]. The Hann itself never stops. It is fed by springs in the sandstone, and its gauge has not recorded a single day without flow since 1968[19][20]. The river paperbarks keep their feet wet all year.
Fire. The Elders burn tea-tree country after the boxwood country beside it. In 2005 the boxwood was burnt in May, and 'the adjoining tea-tree system was ready to burn in early July'[13]. Hot fires kill the grass seed but not the underground lignotubers of the broad-leaved tea-tree, so a hot fire makes tea-tree country thicken[13].
How people used it here
Kuku Thaypan Elders (recorded by Standley)[13]:
- Paperbark 'provides an effective drip torch and as a wrap for food to keep it clean when cooking in the ground'.
- Bark is not wasted. The Elders stressed 'the use and re-use of paperbark and return of it to where it was cut'. Paperbark is 're-used, travelled with and buried at the place it was cut from'.
- 'Tea tree country was valued as medicine, as a source of flowers for animals and for survival when required. These open areas were good for hunting.'
Hollow-log traps (Roth, Princess Charlotte Bay hinterland)[3]. Hollow logs 'of Melaleuca sp., Eucalyptus corymbosa, etc.', four to seven feet long, were thrown into waterholes for crayfish, eels and fish. They were left for some hours or all day. Then the fisherman dived for the log, closed its lower end with one hand and lifted it so the water trickled out and the catch stayed in. Roth first saw this in November 1898 in the Musgrave district, with ten or twelve lads working the logs, and he passed waterholes on the North Kennedy and lower Normanby with the logs lying on the banks. The Kuku Thaypan Elders call hollow logs used as fish traps Rungol, and cut them from messmate[13].
Taking the bark. Roth found a hafted stone hammer 'in use throughout the Princess Charlotte Bay hinterland, in 1898, and again on the Palmer'. It was used 'for tapping on the bark when the sheet is being removed'[7]. See stone.
On country today
In Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park: 'Do not remove plant material, living or dead. Do not collect souvenirs or interfere with cultural sites'[21]. Upstream, the native title determinations of November 2023 recognise the Possum and Thaypan peoples' rights to take the natural resources of their country[14][15]. Ask the Traditional Owners before you take bark.
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
On the Western Yalanji side, paperbarks line the sandy upper Mitchell and its tributaries. They are part of a fringing forest that the Queensland Herbarium lists as 'Of Concern'[5].
Where it grows here
Paperbarks are just as much at home on the dry inland side. On the western-flowing rivers that drain the Hodgkinson Basin country, the stream banks carry a narrow fringe, 1–50 m wide, of Melaleuca fluviatilis, M. leucadendra (weeping teatree) and M. argentea (silver-leafed paperbark), with river red gum, bluegum and Leichhardt tree[5]. Mount Carbine sits on the Hodgkinson Formation rocks[22] in the upper Mitchell River catchment[23]. So the shady paperbark-lined banks of the upper Mitchell are this same fringing forest. Roth also noted that on the Palmer and further north, the Melaleucas were 'the usual trees whence water may be derived' in the dry season (see Uses)[3].
On country today
Inland, the Western Yalanji People's native title around the Palmer and Mitchell River systems north-west of Mt Carbine was recognised in 2013. It includes rights to hunt, fish and gather, and to take and use natural resources, for personal, domestic and communal needs[24].
The inland paperbark fringe (Regional Ecosystem 9.3.14) is listed as 'Of Concern' for biodiversity. It is a drought refuge and wildlife corridor and is easily invaded by weeds such as rubber vine[5].
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 coast M. leucadendra grows in beach forest and swampy rainforest as well as along the creeks and rivers, and it tolerates very wet and salty ground[2]. Bloomfield people timed their bark-cutting to the first storms.
Where it grows here
Anderson's account of Bloomfield camp life names this 'forest paper bark tree' (Melaleuca leucadendron) as a source of fire-lighting bark[4].
Its year here
On the Bloomfield, Kuku Yalanji people told Anderson that hut bark was cut and peeled 'when the sap had arisen after the first storms in December'[4].
On country today
Much Eastern Kuku Yalanji paperbark country lies in the Daintree, Ngalba-bulal, Kalkajaka and Hope Islands national parks. On 29 September 2021 these parks were returned to Eastern Kuku Yalanji Traditional Owners as Aboriginal land and are now jointly managed with the Queensland Government[25].
On the Bloomfield, Anderson found many scarred trees where spear-thrower wood had been taken[4].
Everywhere
Names
The dictionary gives buyku 'paperbark'[1]. It also records a whole family of ti-tree names, each glossed only as a 'species of ti tree': bijan, marngkil, marrabal and marril, with bijin 'species of tea tree'[1]. Wanjakan is the ti-tree 'used for bark painting', whose bark was 'also used for roof of house'. Kalkuri is the 'woolly butt, Malaleuca gum'[1]. The dictionary does not say which botanical species each name belongs to. Matching them to the different Melaleucas is work for Elders and botanists together.
Two cautions. Marril is also the name of a mangrove with hard wood 'good for making oars'[1]. Bikarrakul is glossed 'ti tree (fruit must be cooked)'[1]. Paperbarks have small woody capsules, not food fruits[2], so bikarrakul is probably a different tree that shares the English name 'ti tree'.
Jidi is the 'paperbark tree bark torch'[1]. Roth recorded no Bloomfield word for Melaleuca. For Cape Bedford (Guugu Yimithirr country) he gave bo-du, and for Cooktown put-yo[3].
Description
The common riverside paperbark of the north, Melaleuca leucadendra (weeping paperbark), is a tall tree with white or pale bark built up of many dead, papery layers[2]. The leaves are long and narrow, 11–17 cm by 1–2 cm, with five lengthwise veins standing out more than the rest. New shoots are covered in silvery hairs. The cream flowers grow in bottlebrush spikes about 25–30 mm across and have a strong sweet smell. The fruits are small woody capsules pressed against the twig[2]. The leaves hold an aromatic oil (cajeput oil)[6]. Other paperbarks on country, such as the silver-leafed M. argentea and the teatree M. fluviatilis of the inland rivers, have the same peeling bark and bottlebrush flowers[5].
Where it grows
M. leucadendra grows along the creeks and rivers of northern Australia, where floods wash over it. It also grows in beach forest, swampy rainforest and gallery forest, and it tolerates very wet and salty ground. It is found from sea level to about 700 m, across northern Australia and in New Guinea[2].
Seasons
Bark comes off most easily at the end of the wet season, 'when the sap is up and the bark slips'[7]. The dome huts were built mainly for the wet season. For much of the dry season people slept in the open by their fires. Sheets of Melaleuca served as blankets in cold weather[4]. The dictionary's season words include kambar 'wet season' and wangariji 'the hot season'[1].
Uses
Earth oven. On the Bloomfield the stone oven (Roth spelled it kurma, the dictionary's kurrma) was capped with leaves or tea-tree bark and then earth[3]. Kuku Yalanji descriptions from the 1970s put ti-tree bark over the bark trough and the hot rocks before the sand went on[4].
Light and fire. Jidi, the paperbark torch[1], lit the way for night fishing. On the tidal estuaries one person sat in the front of the canoe 'holding aloft a burning paperbark torch' while another speared the fish that came to the light[4]. In wet weather the inner bark of the forest paperbark was used to start fires. Men carried their fire-sticks wrapped in paperbark in their net bags[4].
Shelter. Bloomfield huts were domes of bent saplings thatched with whatever was nearest: fan-palm or lawyer-palm leaves, grass or bark[4]. The thatch was laid from the top down and weighed with logs[8]. The bark of wanjakan was used for house roofs[1].
Troughs and water carriers. The spiked bark trough was made from the Bloomfield northwards, from 'tea-tree or other' bark. Roth's Bloomfield name was tu-bal, the dictionary's dubal 'coolamon'[7][1]. Troughs carried water, honey and food, and were pushed ahead of a swimmer to ferry babies and gear across flooded creeks[7]. On the Bloomfield, eucalypt and other barks were often used for these troughs too[4]. Large troughs also had a part in funeral custom[7].
Bedding, wrapping and binding. Melaleuca sheets served as mats, seats and blankets[4]. Strips of paperbark were 'a very common material' for tying things[9]. Valuable small things such as pigments were rolled in bark and tied for travel or trade, and 'tea-tree appears to be the bark invariably used'[7]. Thick rings of Melaleuca bark served as head-pads for heavy loads at Cape Bedford and in the Palmer camps[7].
Water in the dry. Inland, on the Palmer and Pennefather rivers and elsewhere, a bulge low on a paperbark trunk could be cut to give 'a pint or two' of slightly salty water[3].
Medicine (neighbouring peoples). On the Mitchell River the young leaves were bruised in water and drunk for headaches and colds. Palmer River women massaged sick people with a mush of Melaleuca leaves soaked in water[6]. These records are not from Kuku Yalanji people.
How it was done
Taking a sheet of bark (Roth's general account for North Queensland)[7]:
- Wait for the end of the wet season, when the sap is up and the bark slips.
- Make two cuts around the trunk and one long cut joining them.
- Tap the sheet with a stone to loosen it, then peel it off.
- For blankets, some canoes and water-carriers, pick the inner surface clean as well.
For their hut sheets, Bloomfield people pounded the bark flat with stones and smoked it over the fire[4].
The earth oven on the Bloomfield[3][4]:
- Heat round stones that are known not to crack in a big fire.
- Rake out the stones and ashes and dig a hole where the fire was.
- Lift the hot stones into the hole with lawyer-cane tongs.
- Lay leaves (ginger, eucalypt or wattle for flavour), then the meat. Kuku Yalanji often put the meat in a bark trough set on the stones.
- Pack more hot stones and ashes around and on the meat.
- Cover it all with leaves or ti-tree bark, then earth and stones (or sand), and leave it to cook for several hours.
A spiked bark trough, as Roth watched it made on the Endeavour River (Guugu Yimithirr country). This trough type is found from the Bloomfield northwards[7]:
- Take a sheet of tea-tree or other bark from the full width of the tree, so that it curls naturally.
- Pick and peel off the outer layer with a kangaroo-bone point. Pare the two ends thin.
- Warm the ends over a fire.
- Make two shallow cuts across the inside near each end, and bunch the end into pleats.
- Heat the ends again and pin the pleats with a curved, sharp ironwood peg. The smooth inner bark becomes the inside of the vessel.
Kuku Yalanji makers soaked the bark in water before bunching the ends into a 'spike'[4]. The dictionary does not say how jidi torches were made, and neither do the Bloomfield records.
Safety
Paperbark itself is safe to handle. Fire is the main danger. Kuku Yalanji knew that some woods are dangerous to burn. The smoke of a mangrove, Excoecaria agallocha, and of brown cedar (Canarium australasicum) is said to cause blindness[4], so take care what goes in the fire under a bark-covered oven. The leaf medicines above are historical records from other peoples, not tested remedies. The leaves hold strong cajeput oil[6].
On Country today
Under s 211 of the Native Title Act 1993, native title holders can hunt, fish, gather and carry out cultural activities for personal, domestic and communal needs without the licences other people need[10]. Visitors need Traditional Owners' permission to take bark, and park rules apply.
Old trees with bark or wood cut out of them are records of past use; see each place below. Everyone in Queensland has a legal duty of care not to harm Aboriginal cultural heritage[11].
Language
kurrma 'earth oven'; dubal 'coolamon', also a bark coffin; bayan 'house, camp, shelter'; wurun 'humpy'; ngunjil 'charcoal; hot coals or hot ashes'; wanjakan 'ti tree, used for bark painting'[1].
Images
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
- Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants (RFK8), Melaleuca leucadendra. CSIRO / Lucidcentral. apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/melaleuca_leucadendra.htm
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from R. Hislop. — Ch. 6 Cooking (Bloomfield earth oven); ch. 7 Water (Melaleuca); plant list, 'Melaleuca sp.'; sect. 15 (j), hollow logs archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- 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. archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- Queensland Herbarium, Regional Ecosystem 9.3.14 (Einasleigh Uplands): Melaleuca fringing woodland on channels and levees. Queensland Government Regional Ecosystem Description Database. apps.des.qld.gov.au/regional-ecosystems/details/?re=9.3.14
- Roth, W. E. (1903). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5: Superstition, magic, and medicine. Brisbane: Government Printer. archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1904). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 7: Domestic implements, arts, and manufactures. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 1 Wood-work; sect. 49 Head-pads; sect. 58 Pleat-type bark trough; sect. 65 Packages; sect. 37 'Hammers' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1910). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 16: Huts and shelters. Records of the Australian Museum 8(1): 55–66. archive.org/details/records-australian-museum-8-055-066
- 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. 6, 'Melaleuca leucadendron' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Australian Law Reform Commission (2014). Review of the Native Title Act 1993, Discussion Paper 82, ch. 8: Relevant provisions in the Native Title Act (s 211, preservation of native title hunting, fishing, gathering and cultural activities). 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/
- Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld), s 23 (cultural heritage duty of care). www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-2003-079
- Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records of Melaleuca in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann River, Laura and western Rinyirru (15.6–14.8° S, 143.5–144.3° E), queried 28 October 2026: 346 records, dated 1932–2023 (M. viridiflora 131, M. citrolens 74, M. leucadendra 27, M. stenostachya 21, M. fluviatilis 17, M. argentea 10, others fewer). biocache-ws.ala.org.au/ws/occurrences/search?q=genus:Melaleuca&fq=decimalLatitude:%5B-15.6%20TO%20-14.8%5D&fq=decimalLongitude:%5B143.5%20TO%20144.3%5D
- 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. researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64274/
- 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 and waters; prescribed body corporate (Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation); affidavit evidence on hunting www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Queensland Herbarium. Regional ecosystem descriptions, Cape York Peninsula bioregion: 3.3.10a (Melaleuca fluviatilis fringing woodland), 3.3.24 (Eucalyptus leptophleba woodland on riverine levees, Laura area), 3.10.6 and 3.10.10 (Darwin stringybark woodland on sandstone), 3.3.66 (lakes and lagoons). apps.des.qld.gov.au/regional-ecosystems/
- Wikipedia. Hann River (Queensland) (accessed 28 October 2026). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hann_River_(Queensland)
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Nature, culture and history: Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) (web page, last updated 1 July 2024; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/about/culture
- Queensland Government, WetlandInfo. Normanby catchment story: physical features (springs and base flow). wetlandinfo.detsi.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ecology/processes-systems/water/catchment-stories/normanby/norm-physical.html
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online. Station 105001B, Hann River at Sandy Creek: daily and monthly mean discharge 1968–2026 (recent data provisional), retrieved 28 October 2026. No day of zero mean flow in 20,711 days of record; mean flow highest in February–March, lowest in September–November. www.bom.gov.au/waterdata/
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. About Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) (web page, last updated 1 July 2024; accessed 28 October 2026). Park rules for visitors. parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/about
- Cheng, Y. et al. (2017). Geology and mineralization of the Mt Carbine tungsten deposit, northern Queensland. EGRU Contribution 69, James Cook University. researchonline.jcu.edu.au/54656/
- Wikipedia, 'Mitchell River (Queensland)' (catchment and settlements, including Mount Carbine and Mount Molloy). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_River_(Queensland)
- Brady on behalf of the Western Yalanji People #4 v State of Queensland [2013] FCA 958 (Logan J, 24 September 2013), consent determinations of native title over lands in and around the Palmer and Mitchell River systems north-west of Mt Carbine. www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2013/2013fca0958
- Queensland Government (29 September 2021). Ministerial media statement: Daintree, Ngalba-bulal, Kalkajaka and Hope Islands National Parks returned to Eastern Kuku Yalanji Traditional Owners as Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land, to be jointly managed. statements.qld.gov.au/statements/93360
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