Mallee Gates

My recent musing on Mallee roots also led to me thinking of another now forgotten but then common place object, the Mallee gate. Again although a long way from the Mallee we had a few Mallee gates especially in the early pre 1962 Bush Fire days, but not exclusively before that date. Most of these Mallee Gates were little more the a few strands of Wire attached to the fence post at one end and a pole at the other end that was put into a loop of wire at the bottom of the other post and Pulled up as tight as you could before looping another loop of Wire over it at the top, to make it tight and effective as a gate. I remember one particular gate Dad made for the cow yard which was basically a wooden framework like a metal gate and covered with wire netting. Very effective as a gate but also very heavy for us kids to open and close. Not that the wire loop ones were that much easier though.

In response to the above my brother replied, “We found an 8 foot mallee gate in the Gulf of Carpentaria in a dog fence. Anne tried to shut it by herself, but the barb wire got tangled and it took 3 of us shut it”.

Obviously another like me who is glad Mallee gates are not that common these days.  What about you? What fond or forgettable experience have you had with mallee gates? Either recently or in the long distant past?

Mallee Roots

 A little while back there was a big windstorm in our area which brought down a few trees in the area. In nearbye Cheong Park, one dead Gum came out roots and all near the Hall. A week or so later I noticed that it had been cut up into 2 foot lengths; and a few days later I noticed that all but the stump had been taken. I also noticed on the stump one root that had it have been nicked off would have made a great Mallee root for someone’s fire.

 The moment I thought that, I thought, “My Goodness. How long is it since I have heard that word?” Once upon a time, like back in my childhood, words like Mallee root and Mallee gate were very common, but as indicated above, rarely used these days.

Way back after World War 1 areas of rural Australia were set apart and allocated to ex-soldiers to farm, including parts of Gippsland and also the Mallee region. Now in the Mallee there is a specific Eucalyptus tree called surprisingly, the Mallee Gum. It only grows around 30 feet but can regrow and have a good root system.  As part of the Solder settlement scheme the recipients had to clear and farm the land. For the Mallee area this meant clearing the Mallee Gums. A side benefit of this clearing process was that the fire wood from the trees was also a good money earner back in the days of wood Fires. The Mallee roots were not so easy to sell but being cheaper turned out to be much desired for open fires for their long burning abilities, as well as at a cheaper cost. Thus while originally reserved for the roots of Mallee Gums, it soon became the generic term of all tree roots; whether from the Mallee, or from Watson’s Creek, of from anywhere for that matter.

 Thus although nowhere near the Mallee we had more than our share of Mallee roots , especially from a hill that Dad cleared that was originally called Sapling Hill because of the large number of small Gum tree saplings on it at the beginning of the process. Although Dad sold a fair bit of Firewood himself, I don’t think he ever sold any of the roots. Instead we used them ourselves in the lounge room open fire. All that is almost long forgotten now with open fires in most places, a thing of the past now.

Coincidently upon reading the above, our son in Adelaide replied, “Interestingly enough we bought some mallee root for the fire last year from the garden place down the road.” 

So obviously Mallee Roots are not completely in the past after all? What about you? When was the last time you used mallee roots to burn?