Coastal Australia is home to plains covered in grasstree. There are almost thirty species of this plant; that growing in the south-east, is Xanthorrhoea australis. The slow-growing grasstree was important to Aboriginal people, who used the stem for spears, nectar from the flowers to prepare a sweet drink, and the resin exuded by the tree as an adhesive. 

European settlers were quick to realise the potential of the resin for making a cheap varnish, but believed that the grasstree plains had little agricultural value (the soil was thought to be ‘poisoned’ by the resin). This is the story of how an attempt was made to disprove this using the power of steam.