G'day Brett,

"... as the trade winds tossed the casuarina pines ..."

That's a species you share with us Aussies - various casuarinas are found all over Australia - usually called "she oaks" (she-oaks, sheokes, &c). My 1898 Morris's Dictionary of Austral English says that the timber was fancied to resemble oak ... and the term "she" used adjectivally, in the sense of "weak" or "inferior"...

More recent dictionaries tend not to say that!

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton