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CANOE TREES
Canoe Trees, this is not a local custom tip of today, but one of years ago, a part of early South Australian Aboriginal history.When going for a road drive, especially around the roads that skirt Lakes Albert and Alexandrina, the Coorong and the River Murray and its tributaries, you will see the River Red Gums, and the shape of a Canoe in their trunk. This is where the Aborigines cut and peeled long sheets of bark to make their canoes. The canoes were often propelled by the use of a long shaft like a punt. They did not have a long life as prolonged immersion in water caused the bark sheets to become sodden, so they were only used for fishing and crossing rivers rather than for extended journeys.The art of making these rafts was practised by most Aborigines in Australia from the rivers to the coasts. From as early as 1642 Abel Tasman had seen them in use on the north west coast of...
