Tilly Devine the infamous Underbelly Razor star (T.V.show) during her heyday occasionally used stinging nettles to elude police and avoid arrest for another day. Not in the way we would expect though. She didn’t charm them by making them a nice cup of nettle tea. Instead she jumped into a patch of stinging nettles to escape from them.
In the Underbelly time her name came up often as a person of interest to police for one reason or another. Almost daily she needed to be finding ways to outsmart them. She used stinging nettles as one of the ways. She did this by jumping into a patch of stinging nettles and escape out the other side. It is known she at least once jumped in while not wearing any pants. The element of surprise to police is the reason she got away with it. She caught them off guard. They just didn’t expect her to do that especially without pants. Ouch!
The story told is that she had the stinging nettle escapes down to a fine art. When she
saw police and especially if they were following her she headed towards the nearest patch of stinging nettles. She sometimes did it casually walked along to not raise suspicion until she reached the nettles and that’s where she said her goodbyes. She knew they wouldn’t follow her in and she made her escape. She had avoided arrest again to live another day.
It is reported that her great granddaughter is now a police officer in NSW. I wonder if she has heard the stories about her great grandmother Tilly Devine escapes from police by jumping into a patch of stinging nettles.
Stinging Nettle Botanical Name
The botanical name of stinging nettle is, urtica dioica and irtica ferox, is a nettle from New Zealand. Stinging Nettle comes from the plant family of, Urticaceae, and is said to be native to Europe. The stinging nettle plant thrives in Australia and is a vigorous growing perennial that readily dominates an open space however it dies back in winter.
Nettle can sometimes grow to around 2 metres in height.The eaves and stem are covered with fine stinging hairs. Once the nettle is dried for nettle tea the stinging hairs do not pose
a problem.
All parts of the nettle plant are known to be used for various reasons. The stem can be used as a fibre for making fabric. It was used in wartime to make military uniforms when cotton
was scarce.
The leaf of nettle used in tea is usually harvested when the plant comes into flower or shortly before.
Some elements in nettle are known to be, Flavonoids, amines, silicic acid, it is rich in chlorophyll, formic acid,tannins,
Stinging nettle is said to have large amounts of vitamins and minerals and enzyme secretin. Nettle is also an astringent although the meaning is not well defined. The active
components in Stinging nettle are, Nutritive, haemostatic and astringent,antirheumatic, anti-allergic, depurative, circulatory stimulant, diuretic, galactagogue, eliminates
uric acid, hypoglycaemic.
Nettle is Used for the relief of, hayfever, eczema, urticaria, arthritis (including osteoarthritis, rheumatoidarthritis and gout), uterine and gastro-intestinal bleeding, epistaxis, acne,
and to promote milk production.
A popular dosage is to pour one cup of boiling water over one teaspoon of the dried nettle herb and drink after about five minutes. Drinking a cup three times a day is the maximum
dosage recommended.
Caution is needed when using nettle as sometimes a rare allergic reaction can occur. Also wild growing nettle has been poisoned over many decades so for nettle tea use it is best to buy organically grown nettle. I get mine from the Victoria region.
