According to the traditions of some Australian aborigines [sic], the deserts of Central Australia were once fertile, well-watered plains… where to-day the only vegetation is a thin scrub, there were once giant gum-trees… the air, now laden with blinding, salt coated dust, was washed by soft, cooling rains, and the present deserts around Lake Eyre were one continuous garden.

The rich soil of the country, watered by abundant rain, supported a luxuriant vegetation, which spread from the lake-shores and the river-banks far out across the plains. The trunks of lofty gum-trees rose through the dense undergrowth, and upheld a canopy of vegetation, that protected the country beneath from the direct rays of the sun. In this roof dwelt the strange monsters known as the ‘Kadimakara’…

Now and again the scent of the succulent herbage rose to the roof-land, and tempted its inhabitants to climb down… Once, while many Kadimakara were revelling in the rich foods of the lower world, their retreat was cut off by the destruction of the three gum-trees, which were the pillars of the sky. They were thus obliged to roam on earth, and wallow in the marshes of Lake Eyre, till they died, and to this day their bones lie where they fell.