From My Cyberjournal 24 December 2003

When the gum trees shed their bark, the scars and wounds on their bodies are exposed. Cruel cuts on the trunk, or pencil sized tunnels dug by insects such as beetles emerging from their larvae homes, are sealed by gum secretions. Blood and wound. But they also take the form of jewels: crystal quartz, amber yellow, red ruby. Sunlight plays on the sanguine sap. In some large trees where the copious red gums drip in macabre scale, a legend of violent murders and hangings haunt the wooded area. The eerie atmosphere may well have inspired that national song about a swagman's suicide "And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the billabong, you'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me..."