Teacher Background Information

This elaboration provides students with an opportunity to develop their knowledge and appreciation of First Nations Australians’ understandings of transformation of energy through investigating the sophisticated fire-starting techniques developed and used by First Nations Australians.

Fire has played a major role in all human communities. From earliest times, humans developed the skills and equipment to make and sustain fire. 

Typically, fire occurs when a fuel reacts with oxygen from the air in a rapid exothermic reaction. The reaction forms a range of products and transforms the chemical potential energy of the fuel and oxygen into heat and light. In order for a fire to start, the auto-ignition temperature or kindling point of the fuel/air mixture must be reached. It is at this temperature that there is sufficient heat to provide the activation energy necessary for the combustion reaction to proceed and be self-sustaining. This elaboration discusses common traditional fire-starting technologies that have been ergonomically designed to efficiently transform movement energy into heat energy until the critical auto-ignition temperature is reached.

Prior to the invention of the first chemical friction match in the 1800s, there were four principal methods used for raising tinder material to its ignition temperature. The fire drill, fire saw and fire plough generate the required heat through friction between two pieces of wood. A glowing hot ember is first produced, which is then placed into a tinder bundle and gently blown until a flame is produced. In the fourth method, the percussion method, two stones such as flint and ironstone are struck together to cleave off small shards of ironstone. These shards, having been heated by friction between the two stones, spontaneously ignite as they oxidise in contact with the air, producing high temperature sparks. The sparks are directed onto the tinder to set it alight.

Historically, in many cultures it was common for only one of the methods referred to above to have been used. In Australia, however, there is evidence of the use of all four methods and it is understood that some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had knowledge of at least three. Possessing this knowledge would have enabled fire to be created in a range of conditions, utilising whatever resources were available in a given location and climate. Furthermore, it was common knowledge among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians that a pinch of sand would increase the friction between two pieces of wood and hence speed up the formation of a glowing ember.

The fire drill and fire saw are the two most common methods used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, while the fire plough and percussion methods are less widely utilised. 

The fire drill method requires two basic parts; a flat piece of wood as a base or hearth, and a thin elongated stick as the ‘drill stick’. The blunter end of the drill stick is pushed down into a small indentation in the hearth and the stick is twirled by vigorously rubbing it between the palms of the hands. The kinetic energy of the moving hands is transferred to the moving stick. The friction between the two sticks transforms the kinetic energy to heat. A side notch in the indentation or socket allows the sawdust resulting from abrasion to collect and form an ember that can ignite tinder material.

The drill stick and the base can be made from the same type of, preferably, softwood. Grass tree, Xanthorrhoea species, is one such suitable timber. When two different types of wood are used, the harder wood is used as the drill stick. In some parts of Australia, mulga, an Acacia species, is a hardwood that is used for drill sticks. The choice of material to be used as tinder depends on availability and includes dry grass, coconut fibre, dried kangaroo dung, and even the volatile powdered Eucalyptus leaves. The fire lighting technologies and their associated materials are always kept protected from moisture.

The fire saw method, as its name implies, uses a sawing motion rather than a drilling motion to generate heat. The base may be a split branch with the slit being held open by thin wedges. Pieces of tinder are placed in or under the slit and a sharp-edged piece of hardwood, which could be a boomerang, woomera, coolamon, or wooden knife, is vigorously ‘sawn’ in a notch at right angles to the slit until a hot ember ignites the tinder. One of the advantages of this technique is that it incorporates the fire-making apparatus into objects that have a primarily different purpose. 

The fire plough method, the use of which was mainly confined to north-western Australia, involves creating embers by rapidly rubbing the dull point of a stick back and forth within a trough or groove cut into the base timber. 

Some Aboriginal groups located within modern day South Australia use the percussion method, as described above, to start fires. 

By investigating these different fire-making techniques students are given opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the energy transfers and transformations evident within traditional fire-starting methods of First Nations’ peoples, as well as developing an appreciation of the importance of fire to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies and the ingenious methods used to create and sustain it.