AustLit

'Mallee Country is a many-layered environmental history of three separate regions extending east from Perth in Western Australia to Swan Hill in Victoria. Their shared name is derived from ‘mali’, a term used by the Wemba Wemba people to describe a growth habit of some eucalypt species in their country in northwestern Victoria. In these semi-arid regions, eucalypts developed a large lignotuber, popularly known as a mallee root, from which multiple stems emerge. The scrubby growth on the surface looks like the main part of the plant, but it can be desiccated by drought, burned by fire or dragged flat by an anchor chain without lasting harm to the organism as a whole, and green shoots arise from the mallee root as soon as conditions improve. This act of mallee-ing, of demonstrating resilience through adaptation, is an underlying motif for Mallee Country.' (Introduction)