Fire Sticks

Fire sticks are one of the most important tools used by many of the tribes within Australia. They were our matches and as the name suggests, they started the fire!

The sticks are placed on top of some dry grass or a coconut husk then rubbed together fast. This action makes the top stick ‘dig’ into the bottom stick. In doing this the bottom stick is rubbed away by the top stick and the dust falls out of the side where we cut a groove.

Once the groove is full of dust the continuous rubbing makes the dust extremely hot. The dust then starts to create a hot coal and you can see it start to smoke!

Once there is a coal big enough to start its own smoke, we gently roll the sticks off to the side leaving the hot smoking coal on the Coconut Husk.

This coal is very delicate so you must be gentle with it, rolling the coconut husk around the coal and then blowing softly at first, making the coal glow red.

This will make the husk start to smoulder, growing with each breath until it ignites in flames.

The top stick is made from the Grass Tree or black boy, it’s the single flower stem that comes straight out of the middle of the tree.

It is nearly always perfectly straight and is smooth, this allows us to use this stick to roll through our hands while pushing down and putting pressure on the bottom stick.

For the Gubbi-Gubbi tribe from South-East Queensland the bottom stick is made from Beach Hibiscus or Milk Wood, which has a hard outer layer and a soft inner core.