Bimble box and bluebells border the soft sandy track leading from the Warrego Highway to Mitchell's Yumba, the former home of the Aboriginal population living in and around Mitchell. Today this special place came alive as a group of women created soaps, each containing a bush medicine picked the previous day.
Sandalwood with thick, leathery, dull green leaves; emu bush with long thin leaves; wild orange with stiff, oval, dull green leaves; wait-a-while with narrow green leaves arranged along zigzag stems; and gumbi gumbi with shiny dark green leaves with pale undersides -- all these were finely chopped as we sat around a long table chatting easily. Each bush medicine was added to a hot soap base and beeswax mixture then poured into plastic moulds where they were left to set. When cool, the individual soaps dropped out easily and were wrapped in clear cellophane and tied with a ribbon; a different colour for each bush medicine. The oils from these indigenous plants are known to cure a wide variety of skin complaints.
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