Carved Trees

The only massive carvings of the Australian aborigines are to be seen on the carved trees, which have a wide distribution in New South Wales, to which State they are limited. They are carved for initiation ceremonies and as grave-posts, and each of the designs, which have a mythological significance, belong to a totemic clan, local group or tribe. Geometrical designs similar to those on the shields form the chief motifs with some important additional elements; many of the patterns are curvilinear, and include the scroll, spiral and ovate elements, whilst a heart-shaped figure also occurs. The presence of concentric circles is of interest, for these are typical of Central Australia; they occur on the carved trees both on the coast and in the interior. Animals, including the goanna, snake, turtle, fish and echidna, have been featured, but are not very common, and the same applies to the human form.

The designs on the carved trees are engraved in the trunk to a depth of as much as one and a half inches. The specimens figured above is from the Dubbo district, New South Wales, and a series of other examples from the same State is illustrated.

One pattern resembles the texture of a twined basket. The designs, cut in the solid wood, are reasonably well executed, and are exceedingly attractive on account of the strength of the line work, which is formed by a combination of angular, curvilinear, and zoomorphic elements, all framed in a long oval of natural bark. All but very few of the large number of carved trees in the Australian Museum collection have been cut with steel tools; it is possible that they were re-cut over the older lightly incised designs after the aborigines acquired steel tools, or that the use of the more efficient implements induced the natives to carve many more trees than when they used stone.

One magnificent specimen in the Australian Museum bears a design consisting of concentric diamond figures cut with perfect regularity into the bark all round the trunk from top to bottom. It is a remarkably skilful example of workmanship, and is fifteen feet in height and two feet six inches in diameter.

On initiation grounds on the western plains of New South Wales large figures of culture heroes and spiritual ancestors, were modeled on the ground with soil and branches; geometric designs were worked out in the loose soil or sand by the cutting of shallow grooves along the lines of the pattern.

It is interesting to note that the concentric diamond, set in the same field of flutings as in south-eastern Australia, occurs on the bull-roarers of the southern Kimberleys, the Condon, and Boulder districts of Western Australia. On some Murray River shields it is combined with a zigzag, the latter being the principal geometrical element of Western Australian art. Similar designs to those incised on the weapons and carved on the trees were shown by shallow grooves in the soil on the initiation grounds of south-eastern Australia.