Baobab with prison functions: how did people come up with the idea to use trees as prison cells? (9 photos)

Australia is a distant and unique corner of the planet. Animals and the vegetation here is original and different from the rest of the world. And local find extraordinary ways to use the gifts given to them nature.





The Australian baobab is also known as the bottle tree. due to a clear resemblance to a pot-bellied vessel. It can reach 15 meters in height and 3 meters in girth.



Baobab near Derby

But this is on average. Western Australia boasts absolutely amazing specimen, which has grown up to 15 meters in girth. Is a natural wonder hollowed out on the way to the King River south of Wyndham. A door is carved on the trunk, opening the way to the bowels tree.

And they equipped it by no means so that tired travelers could spend the night in a cozy monastery. History says that around the 90s years of the XIX century, the police accompanied a group of detained natives, who had to be taken to the city of Derby for sentencing. IN Wyndham found them in the night. One attentive policeman saw pot-bellied tree and invited colleagues to cut a hole inside to mark prisoners inside. This made it easier to follow them so they didn't run away. No sooner said than done. And since then, the baobab has been repeatedly used as transshipment prison. If there were many arrests, then the surplus chained outside.



And a group of up to 30 people is a hospitable dungeon on their own the inner nine squares accommodated. With difficulty, of course, but there is no time amenities. Baobab even got an official name - Hillgrove prison cell.

South of Derby there is another similar tree. A little more modest in size, but also impressive. used for the same goals.

Fiction or truth?



Prison Tree at Wyndham

Notes about natural casemates began to appear in newspapers since 1910. And the local community came out with a rebuttal. Baobabs for the natives were sacred. And their trunks could be used as ossuaries are places for storing the remains of the dead.



Ossuary urn

Cases of discovery of skeletal remains are indeed fixed. And, apparently, it was they who laid the foundation for the legend of unfortunate prisoners languishing in the baobab like sprats in a jar, waiting his fate.



The British did not consider Australian aborigines people until the 70s.

Researchers and historians have approached the version of prisons more calmly and rationally, without a touch of mysticism and religion. The fact is that the distance from Derby Prison to the city is no more than 15 kilometers. That's why there was no special need for the guards to stop for the night. Faster and it was safer to just keep going.

Therefore, it is highly likely that this is just a local legend, which has become so popular that it has become something of a folklore the truth. But at the same time, a bolt was found in the tree. These are the guards law was used to chain prisoners to trees or logs. There was no practice of stuffing them into trunks. But how do you know?



Sign next to the bottle tree

In any case, the local tourism industry with gladly exploits a marketing chip to attract vacationers. And they are happy. And their joy was so stormy and irresistible that near unusual trees not only were photographed, but also dotted the surface with inscriptions with initials, emoticons and stupid sayings.



In this regard, the authorities had to fence the sacred baobabs and put up signs explaining the significance of the sanctuary trees, which were used as crypts and were considered endowed with a soul. Besides but snakes and other unpredictable things can rest in the branches of baobabs. living creatures that will gladly bite excessively dispersed citizens.