Tea Tree

Scientific: Melaleuca alternifolia
Awabakal: Paiyabaara
Worimi: Yapay

This is a Tea Tree, known in the Awabakal language as Paiyabaara. Tea Tree describes a group of similar plants, and the example growing in Museum Park is Melaleuca alternifolia. Its common name came from the observations of European colonisers, who saw first nations people using its leaves to brew a healing drink. It wasn't taxonomically described until 1905.

Tea Tree can grow to about 7 meters and occurs in northern NSW and southeast Queensland. It has papery bark and is rich in oil. Flowers appear in white or cream-colored masses between spring and early summer. The oil Tea Trees produce is toxic in high quantities.

Tea Tree was once abundant in the area we know today as Beaumont Street in Hamilton. The Awabakal people knew the area as Ahwar-tah Bulboolba, which translates as "flat it is, Wallaby place." The Tea Tree attracted various insects and birds, and the Awabakal people hunted here for thousands of years. Tea Tree also had medicinal applications to treat sore throats and skin conditions.

When European occupiers arrived in the 1830s, the Tea Trees and hunting grounds were destroyed by intense industrial activity and suburban growth.
 

See in the museum:

Location: Beaumont Street
Label: 193 Beaumont Street - Wallaby Hunting Ground