305 
.v. 
In March, 1872, Dr. Joseph Bancroft, of Brisbane, read a paper before the 
Queensland Philosophical Society on " Pituri." He obtained specimens' from 
Sub-Inspector Gilmour, who had procured them from the neighbourhood of the Kulloo 
waterhole, eight miles beyond Eyre's Creek. He stated that the use of the pituri is 
confined to the old men of a tribe called Malutha, all the males of which are circumcised. 
The pituri caused a severe headache in Europeans who used it. The blacks about 
Eyre's Creek appeared to use it preparatory to undertaking any serious business, 
i.e., as a stimulant generally. As an example, one old man Mr. Gilmour and party 
fell in with, refused to have anything to say or do until he had chewed the pituri, after 
which he rose and harangued in grand style, ordering the explorers to leave the place. 
Mr. Wiltshire, however, states that it is not used for exciting their courage, or for 
bringing them up to fighting pitch, but to produce a " voluptuous dreamy sensation." 
The following interesting letter from Rev. Thomas Hungerford, Ashfield, Sydney, 
dated 27th February, 1891, to the late Sir Alfred Roberts, connects the names of two 
distinguished men : 
" The vegetable matter enclosed herewith has come from Central Australia, grows on the Mulligan 
River, and is an article of barter amongst the aboriginal tribes inhabiting Central Australia. It is called 
' Pitchery ' by the natives, has the peculiar property of intoxicating, and is greatly prized by the blacks. 
The bag containing the Pitchery is manufactured by the aboriginals and is that kind of bag or net in which 
it is sent from tribe to tribe. 
" The Mulligan River is several hundreds of miles north-west of Innamincka, on Cooper's Creek, where 
the explorers Burke and Wills perished. I brought this curiosity with me from Central Australia a few 
weeks ago, and thought you would like to see and analyse it. The natives chew this Petchery and become 
intoxicated from its. effects." 
The following account of the pituri-chewing customs of the blacks is from the pen 
of a well-known North Queensland writer, Mr. J. R. Chisholm : 
" In the pituri country (the watershed of the Mulligan) the indigenous blackfellow has none of the 
questionable comforts of the white man. His revenue is derived from the pituri tree growing on the summit 
of his sandhills. He gathers it, chaffs it, and then bags it and makes his trade with his nearest neighbours, 
taking in exchange such as they have to offer perhaps weapons made from the timber of another towrie 
notably the heelaman or shield made from a species of currajong ; or perhaps he takes flint knives or the 
white brush tails of a species of marsupial rat used in lieu of cockatoo feathers at corroborree decorations ; 
or, if he can get it, some article of wearing apparel is very dear to his heart. I once gave a myall tribe a 
pair of moleskin trousers. I think within the two days I stayed near them, every blackfellow had a turn 
out of them, and no doubt among that tribe, even to this day, those trousers are a pleasing reminiscence, 
and so the trade goes on. What opium is to the Chinaman, what whisky is to the Scotchman, so is ' pituri ' 
to the western blackfellqw. It is his very soul without it he has no life almost. As I have said, in these 
trading transactions profit is lost sight of; they seek none. The intermediate tribes are ' on velvet ' minus 
cost of carriage. Thus -I trade my blanket for a bag of pituri to you. You take from it your own require- 
ment for the year ; you carry it across your towrie of 100 miles, more or less, and there you trade what 
is left, for similar value, to your neighbours ; they in turn do likewise, and so on, and on, until there is none 
left. 
The tribe on the borders of the trade never get enough, and with them it is a chronic state of crave, 
crave. Once, years ago, I carried for novelty a small sack full of pituri ' inside,' as far as the Landsborough 
River. I showed it to the blacks there, and although I had intended it for my scientific friends in Sydney, 
I parted with it ; I could not stand the continual begging of the Landsborough blacks. I was beseiged for 
it, they offered me all they possessed weapons, piccaninies, gins. 
