kurrajong

English

the flower of a little kurrajong

Alternative forms

• currajong, currijong, curryjong, koorajong

Etymology

From Dharug garrajung (“fishing line”), from the use made of the bark.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

kurrajong (plural kurrajongs)

1. (Australia) Any of a number of species of tree or shrub in the genus Brachychiton.
   • 1906, Henry Charles Lennox Anderson, Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, volume 16:

     My young friend, Master Keith McKeown, now finds this beetle under the stones about the roots of the kurrajong at Wagga, and also sheltering during the winter in the seed-pods on the trees.

   • 1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 187:

     From the mallee and kurrajong trees came a rowdy chatter of parakeets, while queer soughing of air-currents came from the valley top.

   • 2008, Philip A. Clarke, Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century, page 50:

     The black kurrajong has a fibrous bark that Aboriginal artefact-makers used as a raw material to make string for their lines and carry-bags.

   • 2011, Ian Fraser, Peter Marsack, A Bush Capital Year: A Natural History of the Canberra Region, page 90:

     The groves of Kurrajongs along the saddle of Mount Majura were founded last century.

2. (Australia) A peanut tree, Sterculia quadrifida, native to eastern coastal Australia; a red- or orange-fruited kurrajong.

Derived terms

• desert kurrajong
• green kurrajong
• lace kurrajong
• northern kurrajong
• pink kurrajong
• red-flowered kurrajong
• red-fruited kurrajong
• white kurrajong

Further reading

• Brachychiton on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Brachychiton on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Sterculia quadrifida on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sterculia quadrifida on Wikispecies.Wikispecies