Quantifying the Mulligan River Pituri, Duboisia hopwoodii ((F. Muell.) F.Muell.) (Solanaceae), Trade of Central Australia J.L. Silcock, M. Tischler and M.A. Smith Research Abstract Pituri (Duboisia hopwoodii (F. Muell.) F. Muell.) (Sola- cies within the alkaloid-rich family Solanaceae, particular- naceae) is a narcotic shrub which grows in the parallel ly numerous Nicotiana species, are also known as pituri dune fields of the Simpson Desert of far south-western in Central Australia (Latz 1995). In the present study, the Queensland, Australia. The ethnographic literature points term pituri refers only to D. hopwoodii, and the material to an impressive scale of trade of pituri between Aborigi- prepared from this shrub. Ethnographic accounts identi- nal groups across inland eastern Australia, and suggests fy Mulligan River pituri as a key commodity in the long total annual production of 2500-3000 kg of dried plant distance exchange networks that operated east of Lake material. However, there has been no attempt to assess Eyre and the Simpson Desert dune field (McBryde 1987). the feasibility of these figures, or investigate the number These accounts suggest that more than one ton of dried of pituri plants required to sustain such a scale of trade. pituri was traded on a quasi-annual basis. In this paper, We mapped the distribution and density of D. hopwoodii we use new field data to determine the annual harvest along four one km wide transects, totally 130 km in length. rate of D. hopwoodii shrubs and the number of plants re- Our results suggest that the population of pituri west of quired to sustain such a scale of trade. the Mulligan River could number around 36,000 mature plants. Ninety randomly selected plants were measured, Colonial history and the foliage of six of these was harvested and dried. Plants yielded between 0.15 and 6.68 kg of dry matter. From the beginning of contact between the Aborigines Our 90 measured plants would have yielded around 155 and Europeans, pituri has inspired intense scientific and kg of dried pituri. Therefore, between 1450 and 1740 popular curiosity (Keogh 2011). Explorer Edmund Kenne- plants would be required to sustain the purported level of dy saw Aboriginal people using pituri on Cooper Creek trade and use. With knowledge of the location of dense below Windorah in September 1847 (Kennedy 1847:137). pituri groves and highly efficient expeditions, harvest- However, the report by Wills of being given “some stuff ing this number of plants is feasible. However, numerous questions remain surrounding the ecological and ethno- graphic aspects of the pituri trade. Correspondence J.L. Silcock, The Ecology Centre, School of Biological Scienc- Introduction es, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, AUS- TRALIA. Pituri (Duboisia hopwoodii (F. Muell.) F. Muell.) is a nar- [email protected] cotic shrub from the family Solanaceae which grows in the M. Tischler, Bush Heritage Australia, PO Box 1090, Byron Bay extensive parallel dune fields of the north-eastern Simp- New South Wales 2481, AUSTRALIA. son Desert on the Queensland-Northern Territory border. [email protected] M.A. Smith, Centre for Historical Research, National Museum Although the species occurs across inland Australia, only of Australia, GPO Box 1901, Canberra ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA. plants from a relatively small, disjunct population west of [email protected] the Mulligan River (Figure 1) were used and traded as Ethnobotany Research & Applications 10:037-044 (2012) a narcotic (Letnic & Keogh 2010). Other Australian spe- Published: March 23, 2012 www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol10/i1547-3465-10-037.pdf 38 Ethnobotany Research & Applications Pituri density Simpson 1-10 plants CARLO Desert 11-20 plants Study NAIBAR 21-100 plants area >100 plants Potential high density pituri Permanent spring Semi-permanent waterhole Wongitta WH Ethabuka ETHABUKA MARION DOWNS Mirrica ETHABUKA Pulchera WH SANDRINGHAM Bookera N SIMPSON DESERT N.P. 0 2.5 5 10 Alnagata/ KAMARAN DOWNS Kilometers Cunjua complex Figure 1. Study area of the Ethabuka Reserve and Carlo Station adjoin the Queensland-Northern Territory border, Aus- tralia, where the alluvial plains of the Mulligan River merge with the Simpson dunefields. Mapped Duboisia hopwoodii (F.Muell.) F.Muell. populations are shown with current property and paddock boundaries, and permanent and semi- permanent waters. Pituri density refers to groves of plants where no individual is separated by >200 m. Base imagery provided by SPOT (Astrium GEO-Information Services, Canberra, Australia). they called bedgery or pedgery” in 1861 (Wills 1863:283) Mulligan River west of present-day Bedourie, local people brought the narcotic into the public consciousness. It brought him prepared pituri, but refused to take him to was reported to produce a “voluptuous, dreamy sensa- the location where it grew. He took a local man hostage tion” (Bancroft 1879:7). By 1872 chemists in London, Ed- in a vain attempt to be shown the location of the groves inburgh and Paris were running tests on samples of the – the fabled Peecheringa. Hodgkinson finally stumbled prepared drug collected by Brisbane physician Joseph upon the plant, a sand hill shrub to 1-2 m high, on 17th Au- Bancroft. In four papers presented through the 1870s, gust east of Twin Hills (-23°19’S, 138°16’E) (Hodgkinson Bancroft described various aspects of pituri, including its 1877). From the late 1870s, pituri became more promi- preparation, pharmacology and high value to Aboriginal nent in the European imagination. References appeared people, who “give anything they possess for it” (Bancroft in numerous popular and scientific accounts of inland 1878:8). Australia, including the surveyors Bedford (1886, 1887), Cornish (1880) and Winnecke (1884), ethnographer W.E. Despite this growing interest and knowledge, Europeans Roth (1897), grazier-naturalist Alice Duncan-Kemp (1934) had difficulty identifying the source of pituri. Most sam- and many bush correspondents to the Queenslander ples obtained were of dried, prepared plant material. Not (e.g., Brown 1879, Eglington 1881, Potjostler 1878). only did it grow in a remote and inaccessible habitat, Ab- original people refused to reveal its location. It was not un- Ethnography and pharmacology til 1876 that explorer William Hodgkinson, who had tried pituri during Howitt’s 1861 Burke and Wills Relief Expedi- Leaves and small stems of D. hopwoodii shrubs were har- tion, located the plant in situ. While he was camped on the vested in early March and artificially cured in heated sand www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol10/i1547-3465-10-037.pdf Silcok et al. - Quantifying the Mulligan River Pituri, Duboisia hopwoodii ((F. 39 Muell.) F.Muell.) (Solanaceae), Trade of Central Australia in pits (Aiston 1937, Gason 1882, Hodgkinson 1877) – a peditions as Gason does not directly record how many drying process that took about 2 hours and which arrest- men were involved. However, the ethnographic context ed the enzyme action that normally degraded the nico- suggests that 30-50 men is likely to have been the mini- tine level. The dried leaves and stems were then broken mum required for safe passage of these trading parties, up and packed into small semi-circular net bags made and it is relevant that this is at the lower end of the scale from plant material (probably native flax, Cullen sp. (Roth reported for red ochre expeditions. 1904:9)), each containing around 1.4 kg (Gason 1882) and often painted with bands of red and yellow ochre. Assuming each man was carrying 30-32 kg of dried pituri, During use the dried material was mixed with Acacia ash and there were 30-50 men per expedition (see above), and chewed into a ball, and was used as both a stimulant we have taken 900-1600 kg of dried pituri per annum as and analgesic (Watson et al. 1983). The active agent is a reliable estimate of the Cooper Creek trade, and 2500- the alkaloid nicotine, present in Mulligan River pituri at 3000 kg as a working estimate of the overall production of levels ranging from 2.4-5 % (more than twice the content pituri. These figures include some allowance for supply of commercial cigarettes or of the Nicotiana gossei Do- of pituri to meet local demand and also trade to the north. min, bush tobacco, used in Central Australia). Chemical As there is no hard data on local consumption or trade to analysis shows that in Central and Western Australia, D. the north, we have roughly doubled our Cooper Creek fig- hopwoodii is toxic because of the level of D-nor-nicotine, ures to 2500-3000 kg, on the assumption that local and a much more powerful alkaloid, which is only found in low regional consumption would be at least a similar order of levels in Mulligan River pituri (Watson et al. 1983). This magnitude as that to the south. This leaves the question explains why only Mulligan River D. hopwoodii was ex- of just how many D. hopwoodii plants this represents. It ploited as a narcotic and widely traded. The species was also raises questions about the ability of the pituri groves also used in Central Australia, but primarily to poison wa- to sustain this level of harvesting. In this paper we provide terholes to stupefy emus during hunting (Latz 1995). some further quantitative data to answer these questions. The scale of trade in pituri, recorded between 1860 and 1880, was impressive. Aboriginal groups in the Cooper Methods Creek area – including the Diyari, Wangkangurru and Yandruwantha – mounted annual expeditions involving a Study area round-trip of 800-1200 km to obtain supplies of pituri (Ais- ton 1937, Gason 1882, Horne & Aiston 1924, Howitt 1904, The Simpson Desert is the largest sand ridge desert in 2 Smyth 1878). Some pituri was also traded northwards the world, covering 200,000 km and comprising adja- from the Mulligan for 300-400 km to groups outside the cent portions of the Northern Territory, South Australia desert along the Flinders and Gregory rivers (Roth 1897, and Queensland (Gibson & Cole 1988).