46 
So, taken broadly, throughout Victoria, southern New South Wales, and lower South Australia 
Red Gum or Stringybark canoes were used, the former predominating. These two classes of canoes differed 
very much in construction, a difference necessitated by the adaptability of the material used. 
The process of making a Stringybark canoe was as follows : Usually a small-sized tree was select rd, 
when a choice was available, generally something under 2 feet in diameter. The bark, for a length of 10 or 
12 feet was entirely removed. The ends were then steamed over a fire, rendering it tough and pliant. Each 
end was then gathered together and securely tied with rope made from the inner skin of the same tree. 
All remaining chinks or openings were carefully closed up with clay. One or more spreader sticks were 
fixed across the middle to keep the sides out, and the canoe was complete. The process with the Red Gum 
bark was entirely different, as the material was not amenable to the same treatment. The bark could not 
be steamed, gathered, and tied, as it is without grain, and very brittle. To make a canoe, a tree was always 
selected having a bend or bulge, and a piece of bark, including this bend or bulge, was carefully removed, 
and the canoe was complete in one operation, as when the bark was laid on its back, so to speak, the ends 
projected out of the water. Of course this was a very primitive kind of craft, but all the canoes used along 
the Murray and other streams as above mentioned, were of this type. On every Red Gum canoe tree, 
wherever found, the bark was stripped from the " knuckle " or back of the tree, and never from a flat 
or concave side. This may be taken as a safe guide and the genuine canoe tree distinguished from one that 
may have had bark removed for some other purpose, or one on which the bark had died through the ravages 
of some insect, or through being struck by lightning. Many authentic canoe trees are preserved here and 
there, all presenting the above characteristics, about which there can be no doubt. 
There is one standing in the reserve between the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Punt-road, Richmond, 
bearing an inscription stating that a canoe was made from the tree about the time the first white settler 
arrived in Port Phillip. 
A few years ago, the marks of the " Mogo " or stone axe, could be plainly seen, but time and the 
elements have done their work, and I don't think the marks are now discernible. 
Some genuine canoe trees, all Red Gum, at least half-a-dozen I should say, are to be seen to-day 
along the Latrobe River, between Sale and the entrance to Lake Wellington. These can be seen from the 
steamer passing down the river, on the northerly bank anyone interested in the subject can see for them- 
selves what a genuine canoe tree looks like. 
According to Brough Smyth (Aboriginals of Victoria, i, 299), this is one of the 
woods used by the aboriginals for making their clubs or waddies (kud-jer-oongs or 
Gudgerons). 
Historic Red Gums. See the photographic view showing the spot where 
Hume's party sighted the Murray River, and the gum tree that Captain Hovell cut his 
name on, 17th November, 1824. Also the monument erected to the memory of 
the party. 
A second historic tree is in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, and is known as 
' Separation Tree " because under its shade and near about, some of the people gathered 
to celebrate " Separation Day," or the legal separation of Victoria from New South Wales, 
on 15th November, 1850. There is an article on this tree by Mr. A. C. Neate in the 
" Home and Garden Beautiful," (Melbourne), for 1st May, 1915, p. 1043. 
Habitat. It is found in all the mainland States. As regards New South 
Wales it occurs on the river banks of the interior, but is particularly abundant and 
readily available in the valleys of the rivers Murray (which forms the greater part of the 
boundary between New South Wales and Victoria) and Edwards, one of its tributaries. 
As regards the Murray, nearly the whole of the Red Gum is on the New South 
Wales side. 
