These are some distinctive signs of scarred trees: The shape of the scar.
Among other things, Indigenous people used bark both for containers and as sheets for shelters.
If a scar has a regular outline consistent with a particular known artefact type (e.
g.
with rounded ends in the case of canoes or containers, or squared ends in the case of shelter slabs), it is likely to be authentic (Long 1998).
There are a number of natural factors which can also cause scarring, but all involve the bark being ripped instead of cut off, and all consequently result in scars with jagged and sharp ends.
Such natural scars will often continue to ground level.
The height of the scar above ground level.
Indigenous people are likely to have removed bark from trees at comfortable working heights.
Bearing in mind that the scarring of trees by Indigenous people will probably not have occurred in many areas of Australia within the last 50 years, any tree with a scar with a height above ground of less than 1 meter is unlikely to be of Indigenous origin.
The position of the scar.
In the case of canoes and containers, bark was often removed from the convex side of the trunk or branch to give suitably upturned sides to the finished artifact (Long 1998).
Some deliberate human scarring removed bark from the branches of the tree, so examine all convex surfaces, not just the trunk.
Because the edge of a steel axe is so sharp, the cut marks it tends to produce are typically straight, narrow and often quite deep incisions.
On the left are marks produced by a modern hand steel axe; on the right are marks produced by a nineteenth century trade axe made from wagon sprig iron and dating to the late 1800s.