Southeast Australian Aboriginal Fire Making
Information about the fire making techniques of certain Aboriginal cultures from Southeast Australia.
Location: Western Australia, Australia
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Native Tribes of Southeast Australia by Alfred William Howitt, 1904
The Dieri obtained fire by drilling with a straight- pointed stick on the edge of the shield. The shields are obtained from the tribes to the eastward by barter. I do not know what the wood is of which they are made. It is light coloured and soft. I frequently saw shields with a row of small holes burned in the side edge by this process. The same remarks apply to the other tribes of the Barcoo delta.
The Wurunjerri method of making fire was by drilling on a flat piece of the dry wood of the Djel-wuk, which grows plentifully in the gullies of the Dandenong Mountains and of the Yarra River. The drill-stick is one of the young shoots, about thirty inches in length, which is carefully dried. The thicker end is pointed, and is inserted in a small cavity in the flattened piece. A small notch is cut from the cavity to the edge of the lower piece. The drill is rapidly turned in the cavity, thus producing fine dust, which first turns black then falls on to some frayed bark fibre which has been placed below the groove to receive it. Finally the abraded dust takes fire, and being folded up in the fibre, is blown into a flame. I have seen fire produced in this way in a minute, and I once, and once only, succeeded in doing it myself in a minute and a half.
The blacks of the Manero tableland and their neighbours the Wolgal make fire after this method. A piece of grass-tree stem is laid down, and another piece is twirled on it. Two men work at it, and a little charcoal is put in as they drill, and when the dust ignites, teased-out bark is added. Another method is as follows. A spear- thrower is laid on the ground, and on it a piece of grass- tree flower-stalk with a flattened side. On either side of this a spear-thrower is put on edge, and between them vertically a piece of grass-tree stem, which is twirled. When smoke comes the two side spear-throwers are removed, their use only having been to confine the fire- drill stick. Twirling is continued until smoke arises out of each side of the horizontal grass-tree stem, and the dust and chips are turned over on to some teased-out bark which is blown into flame.
The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, by A. W. Howitt, MacMillan and Co., 1904, pp. 771–773.
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