Bridport, North East Tasmania 7262
Grandfather and grandmother peppermint gum were culturally significant to the leenerrerter clanspeople both as a ceremonial tree and burial tree, and remain so for their descendants .
The leenerrerter people practiced complex forms of reverence towards the remains of the dead. One practice was to place the deceased in an upright position in the burnt-out hollows of the living peppermint gum using lengths of brushwood or spears. Strips of bark were around the tree to hide the remains and protect them from animals. Those who had departed the physical world went to the spirit one on the ‘Islands of the Dead’ (Furneaux Group), and were never mentioned again.
