Traditional Aboriginal Bush Medicine

Aboriginal people traditionally were much healthier than they are today. Living in the open in a land largely free from disease, they benefited from a better diet, more exercise, less stress, a more supportive society and a more harmonious world view.

Nonetheless, Aboriginal peoples often had need of bush medicines. Sleeping at night by fires meant they sometimes suffered from burns. Strong sunshine and certain foods caused headaches, and eye infections were common. Feasting on sour fruits or rancid meat caused digestive upsets, and although tooth decay was not a problem, coarse gritty food sometimes wore teeth down to the nerves. Aborigines were also occasionally stung by jellyfish or bitten by snakes and spiders. In the bush there was always a chance of injury, and fighting usually ended in severe bruises and gashes.

To deal with such ailments, Aboriginal people used a range of remedies – wild herbs, animal products, steam baths, clay pits, charcoal and mud, massages, string amulets and secret chants and ceremonies. Some of these remedies had no empirical basis, but it is clear from the accounts of colonists that they worked. Many of the remedies worked by healing directly through their chemical or physical action. Aromatic herbs, tannin-rich inner barks and kinos have well documented therapeutic effects. Other plants undoubtedly harboured alkaloids or other compounds with healing effects.

Crushed bulbs of the Onion Lily were used as a wash for infected skin

Aboriginal remedies varied between clans and in different parts of the country. There was no single set of Aboriginal medicines and remedies, just as there was no one Aboriginal language.

Unfortunately, much of the knowledge of traditional Aboriginal medicine has been lost. Very little is known of medical practice in southern and eastern Australia, where traditional Aboriginal culture was largely obliterated more than a century ago.

In recent years there have been attempts to record and test some of the medicinal uses in central and northern Australia - the most notable example being a project called the Aboriginal Pharmacopoeia in the Northern Territory.

Anthropologists have worked over the last 20 years in central and north-western Australia to record what is left of Aboriginal medical knowledge. In Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, and in the deserts of western and central Australia, there are still Aborigines living who grew up leading traditional lives.

Their testimony has produced a picture of a complex and sophisticated pharmacopoeia, embracing remedies for all manner of ailments. Whether Aborigines in southern Australia had the same range of plant remedies, it is impossible to say.

Changes Since European Colonisation

Compounding the problems of reconstructing the past are the changes that took place in the last 200 years. Early European settlers brought in a range of new diseases for which Aborigines had no natural resistance and no traditional remedies. Horrific smallpox plagues swept through Aboriginal Australia, killing as much as half the population. It is not recorded how Aboriginal people responded to these plagues for they preceded European settlement by several decades. However early explorers met people disfigured by smallpox scars who told stories of numerous deaths and mass graves. It is likely that in attempting to conquer these scourges, terrified Aborigines abandoned old remedies and experimented with new ones. 

The later arrival of influenza, tuberculosis, syphilis and other illnesses would have further disrupted Aboriginal medicine, as did the profound changes in diet and lifestyle imposed by white contact. 

The diseases afflicting Aborigines today are very different from those they would have experienced before European contact. Many early colonists, seeing Aborigines disfigured by disease they had introduced, thought Aborigines lived short lives of abject misery, in ignorance of any medicinal treatment. 

A second, more benign change was the introduction last century of the billycan. Almost everywhere in Aboriginal Australia, herbs that once were soaked in water are now boiled over fires. Aborigines today rarely distinguish this from a traditional practice, although they know the billycan is a white man's innovation. Boiling is much quicker than overnight soaking but it may destroy some active ingredients and increase the potency in solution of others. 

A third change is an apparent decline in the use of non-herbal remedies. Aborigines today rarely, if ever, engage in bloodletting, blood drinking, chants and the tying of healing amulets, though these were important remedies in the past. Aborigines were probably discouraged in these practices by early missionaries and after absorbing Western ideas about medicine. Sorcery, however, remains a potent belief and the casting and removing of spells is still practised. 

Aboriginal medicine has also changed in more subtle ways. Several communities now make use of exotic plants, usually claiming there to be traditional remedies. In the Northern Territory, medicines are made from the exotic weed called asthma plant (Euphorbia hirta); from the African tamarind tree fruit (Tamarindus indica), introduced from Indonesia up to three hundred years ago; the Latin American shrub, Jerusalem thorn (Parkinsonia aculeata); the South American billygoat weed (Ageratum). Central Australian Pitjantjatjara chew South American tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), and use the introduced rabbit in medicine. 

The adoption of so many introduced plants into bush medicine suggests the possibility that many of the native remedies would also have changed through time. White Australians often think that Aboriginal culture was static, but it has always been changing and adapting to new circumstances.

Beliefs about the Causes of Illness

Throughout Australia, Aborigines believed that serious illness and death were caused by spirits or persons practising sorcery. Even trivial ailments, or accidents such as falling from a tree, were often attributed to malevolence. Aboriginal culture was too rich in meaning to allow the possibility of accidental injury and death, and when someone succumbed to misfortune, a man versed in magic was called in to identify the culprit. 

These spiritual doctors were men (rarely women) of great wisdom and stature with immense power. Trained from an early age by their elders and initiated into the deepest of tribal secrets, they were the supreme authorities on spiritual matters. They could visit the skies, witness events from afar, and fight with serpents. Only they could pronounce the cause of serious illness or death, and only they, by performing sacred rites, could effect a cure.

Plants and Herbs used in Traditional Aboriginal Medicine

Medicine men sometimes employed plants and herbs in their rites, but they did not usually practice secular medicine. The healing of trivial non-spiritual complaints, using herbs and other remedies, was practiced by all Aborigines, although older women were usually the experts. To ensure success, plants and magic were often prescribed side-by-side.


Plants were prepared as remedies in a number of ways. Leafy branches were often placed over a fire while the patient squatted on top and inhaled the steam. Sprigs of aromatic leaves might be crushed and inhaled, inserted into the nasal septum, or prepared into a pillow on which the patient slept. To make an infusion, leaves or bark were crushed and soaked in water (sometimes for a very long time), which was then drunk, or washed over the body. Ointment was prepared by mixing crushed leaves with animal fat. Other external treatment included rubbing down the patient with crushed seed paste, fruit pulp or animal oil, or dripping milky say or a gummy solution over them. Most plant medicines were externally applied.


Medicine plants were always common plants. Aborigines carried no medicine kits and had to have remedies that grew at hand when needed. If a preferred herb was unavailable, there was usually a local substitute.

In the deserts, the strongest medicines are made from very widely occurring plants. Fuchsia bushes (Eremophila) and bloodwood trees (Eucalyptus terminalis) grow everywhere and were used fresh,or as ground leaves. Lemon grasses (Cymbopogon) sprout on every ridge top and jirrpirinypa (Stemodia viscosa) around every water hole.

Weeping Emu Bush (Eremophila longifolia)

In the Top End, many different kinds of large leaves are considered useful for staunching wounds, presumably because cases of profuse bleeding allow little time for searching.


Except for ointments, which were made by mixing crushed leaves with animal fat, medicines were rarely mixed. Very occasionally two plants were used together.


Aboriginal medicines were never quantified - there were no measured doses or specific times of treatment. Since most remedies were applied externally, there was little risk of overdosing.


Some medicines were known to vary in strength with the seasons. Aromatic lemon grasses had to be picked while green, and toothed ragwort leaves (Pterocaulon serrulatum) were strongest after rain. A wet season growth of green plum leaves (Buchanania obovata), used as a toothache remedy, was considered much stronger than that available during dry.
One area of Aboriginal medicine with no obvious Western parallel was baby medicine. Newborn babies were steamed or rubbed with oils to renter them stronger. Often, mothers were also steamed.


A notable feature of Aboriginal medicine was the importance placed upon oil as a healing agent, an importance that passed to white colonists, and is reflected today in the continuing popularity of goanna oil.


Earth, mud, sand, and termite dirt were also taken as medicines. In the Channel Country, healing mud for packing wounds was taken from the cold beds of water holes. In many parts of Australia, wounds were dressed with dirt or ash. Arnhem Land Aborigines still eat small balls of white clay and pieces of termite mound to cure diarrhea and stomach upsets. Clay and termite earth probably share the properties of kaolin, which is the white clay used in western medicine. They may also provide essential nutrients: some termite mounts are extraordinarily rich in iron -as high as two percent. But whether this can be absorbed through the stomach has yet to be determined.
The following table presents a sample of remedies, and only the more important ailments:

HEADACHE	Red ash (Alphitonia excelsa) Headache vine (Clematis microphylla) Rock fuchsia bush (Eremophila) Liniment tree (Melaleuca symphyocarpa) Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) Snakevine (Tinospora smilacina)	Bathe with crushed leaves in water Crushed leaves inhaled Leaf decoction drunk Crushed leaves rubbed on head Fruit pulp rubbed on head Mashed stems wound around head
COUGHS, COLDS	Lemon grasses (Cymbopogon) Fuchsia bushes (Eremophila) Tea trees (Melaleuca) River mint (Mentha australis) Great morinda (Morinda citrifolia)	Decoction drunk or applied as wash Decoction drunk Crushed leaves inhaled Decoction drunk Ripe fruit eaten
FEVERS	Turpentine bush (Beyeria lechenaultii) Kapok tree (Cochlospermum fraseri) Lemon grasses (Cymbopogon) Red river gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) Tea tree (Melaleuca viridiflora)	Leaf decoction taken Bark and flower decoction drunk External wash of boiled leaves Steamed leaves inhaled Bath of crushed leaves in water
DIARRHOEA	Lemon grasses (Cymbopogon) Eucalypt bark (Eucalypt) Cluster fig (Ficus racemosa) Sacred basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) Native raspberries (Rubus)	Decoction drunk Infusion drunk Bark infusion drunk Root infusion drunk Leaf infusion drunk Decoction drunk
WOUNDS	Billygoat weed (Ageratum) Tree orchid (Dendrobium affine) Spike rush (Eleocharis dulcis) Paperbark tea trees (Melaleuca) Cocky apple (Planchonia careya)	Crushed plant applied Bulb sap dabbed on cuts Decaying plant bound to wounds Bark wrapped as a bandage Bark infusion poured into wounds
ACHES AND PAINS	Northern black wattle (Acacia auriculiformis) Beach bean (Canavilia rosea) Rock fuchsia bush (Eremophila freelingii) Beaty leaf (Calophyllum inophullum)	Root decoction applied Mashed root infusion rubbed on Wash with leaf decoction Rub with crushed nut and ochre
STINGS	Nipan (Capparis lasiantha) Native hop (Dodonaea viscosa) Beach convolvulus (Ipomoea pes-caprae) Snakevine (Tinospora smilacina) Peanut tree (Sterculia quadrifida)	Whole plant infusion applied Chewed leaves bound to sting Heated leaf applied Root poultice applied Heated leaves pressed on sting
RHEUMATISM	Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) Konkerberry (Carissa Ianceolata) Beach bean (Canacalia rosea) Tick-weed (Cleome viscosa) Stinging tree (Dendrocnide moroides) Nettle (Urtica)	Bathe in bark infusion Oily sap rubbed as liniment Mashed root infusion rubbed in Leaves applied Boiled leaves and bark rubbed in Patient beaten with leaves
SORE EYES	Ironwood (Acacia melanoxylon) Green plum (Buchanania obovata) Regal birdflower (Crotalaria cunninghamii) Emu apple (Owenia acidula) Fan flower (Scaevola sericea)	Root decoction administered Infusion of inner bark applied Sap or leaf decoction given Wood decoction applied Fruit juice applied
SORE EARS	River mangrove (Aegiceras corniculatum) Lemon grass (Cymbopogon) Native hop (Dodonaea viscosa) Lady apple (Syzygium suborbiculare)	Leaf decoction applied Root decoction poured into ears Boiled root juice applied Fruit pulp applied
TOOTHACHE	Green plum (Buchanania obovata) Denhamia (Denhamia obscura) Supplejack (Flagellaria indica) Pemphis (Pemphis acidula) Quinine berry (Petalostigma pubescens)	Tooth plugged with shredded wood Tooth plugged with inner bark Benumbing stem chewed Burning twig applied Fruits held in mouth

Source: Aboriginal Art On line