The Werona property was in Mulga country, however there was so much more than Mulga there.  If I pause for just a moment I am flooded with memories of: the Poplar Box trees (Eucalyptus populnea) and several other Eucalyptus, Boronias, False Sandalwood (Eremophila mitchellii), Needle Wattle (Acacia rigens), Gidgee (Acacia cambagei), Ruby saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa), Hop Bush, Emubush (Eremophila), yellow burr daisy (Calotis lappulacea), and Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus). It was very arid country but it could be staggeringly beautiful.

As we made cubby houses in and under many different trees I have memories linked to many species. We gave our own special names to the trees we visited regularly. The names were often based on the tree’s shape. They could also be linked to events playing out in a ‘chapter’ of one of the saga length games that we would play for weeks. The trees functioned as the various sets on our very large stage.  Their names were rarely changed, but occasionally an event obscured their attributes. I do not recall the name that we had given the particular tree, but none of us ever forgot the afternoon that we were too frightened to descend from the branches because we thought we had glimpsed the colour of our neighbour’s bull in nearby scrub. The reddish colour that we had spotted from our high vantage point was later revealed to be a sheet of old roofing iron out on our tip. However even when we knew this, that particular tree lost its attraction for us.

One very insignificant woody sapling just outside our back gate gained a place in my permanent memory after Dad transformed it into ‘The Fairy Tree’.  We had been to town just days before that magical morning that we tumbled out of the the gate to be greeted by the amazing sight of a tree that was covered in brightly coloured sugar coated soft jubes! Dad had snapped the ends of dozens of small low twigs and skewered jubes onto them. 

Our yearly trips in the old yellow Dodge to visit the Quandong trees were almost as ‘magical’ and a lot more healthy. In the southern boundary area of Werona, where it adjoined Murra Murra, there was a small group of Quandong trees. Dad loved Quandongs! He had fond memories of going on ‘Quandong picnics’ with his Grandmother and aunts. The women were good cooks and they used to make the fruit picked on these outings into Quandong Jam, Chutney and Pies. The taste of the raw fruits certainly didn’t make them a treat for me, but I loved visiting that hidden patch of special trees when they were all resplendent with their shiny red fruits.  I thought that they were just like something from Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood.

When the fruit of the Quandong is ripe the stone inside becomes loose, and it rattles when the fruit is shaken. During the '40s and '50s Quandong seeds were used as a substitute markers in games such as Chinese checkers. Dad had one of these sets put away carefully in his wardrobe. We never played a game on it, but it was an object of awe and fascination to us.