waddy wood

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

or White Wood


n.

name given in Tasmania to the tree Pittosporum bicolor,Hook., N.O. Pittosporeae; from which the aboriginalsthere chiefly made their Waddies.

1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of VanDiemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 156:

«11th October, 1848. . . a sample of a very fine close-grainedwhite timber, considered by him suitable for wood-engravingpurposes, obtained in a defile of Mount Wellington. It seemsto be the young wood of Pittosporum bicolor, formerly inhigh estimation amongst the Aborigines of Tasmania, on accountof its combined qualities of density, hardness, and tenacity,as the most suitable material of which to make their warlikeimplement the waddie.»

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