Aboriginal Australian Tools
To describe in detail the arts and crafts of even a single Australian tribe would be a work of some magnitude. A survey of the whole field might be interesting…
Location: Australia
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Natives of Australia by Northcote W. Thomas.
To describe in detail the arts and crafts of even a single Australian tribe would be a work of some magnitude. A survey of the whole field might be interesting to the technologist; but the ordinary reader might fight shy of a systematic treatment of the manufacture of stone weapons alone, not to mention other industries. This chapter will therefore make no pretension to being complete, nor will a survey of any particular area be attempted; the material will be taken now from one, now from another tribe, as the interest of the subject or the chances of our information direct.
Although the Australian has learnt to use metals, in his native state he was guiltless of any acquaintance with them. His knives, his axes, his spearheads were of stone, bone, shell, or wood. The manufacture of stone implements has always been a great feature in the culture of peoples unacquainted with metals, and the Australian is no exception to this rule. Among the Arunta the stone axe takes days rather than hours to make.
First a large, rounded, diorite pebble is taken; then with a lump of quartz the workman removes fairly large chips, bringing the stone down to something like the proposed dimensions. This done, a rounded pebble of quartzite is brought into requisition, and for a day or even two, he will sit, probably upon his heels, and patiently tap away, hour after hour, at the surface, taking off small flakes, until no sign of the original rough working is left. Then one of the nardoo mills, blocks of stone which are brought long distances, sometimes on the backs of women, for grinding seeds, is brought into use as a grindstone.
With sand and water the axe is rubbed down until the surfaces are smooth; next comes the hafting; a withy is made and bent round the blunt portion of the stone till it holds it tightly; then the two halves of the withy are joined half-way down with two pieces of grass or other string. The next operation is to squeeze a lump of softened porcupine grass resin in between the haft and the stone; this done, a fire-stick smooths down the resin, and nothing more remains than to decorate the haft with red ochre.
In other tribes the haft is more often bound just below the axe-head, which may be grooved in the centre to give the withy more hold; the withy may also be crossed before it is tied, to make the grip surer, or the whole may be covered with gum. The axe is not a recognised weapon, though of course it would be used on occasion; its usual function was to cut notches in trees for climbing, to cut open trees wherein are concealed an opossum, honey, or other booty, to take off sheets of bark for canoes, to shape the wood for shields, and so on.
Turned in the opposite direction the stone axe becomes an adze, and is then used for hollowing out wooden vessels. A knife set in a haft forms a pick, and all sorts of flakes are used as scrapers; they have also saw-like implements in the form of a row of fragments set in a handle of gum.
Stone hammers are made, without flaking, and fitted into handles like axe-hafts; pounders are employed for breaking hard seeds; with the nardoo mills or grinding stones we are already acquainted. A curious thing about the lower stone of these mills is, that there is only one quarry for a large area in Queensland; the position of this is kept a secret by the old men, for the stones are valuable articles of commerce.
It is reported to be on the Georgina River; the material is sandstone, and it is said to be removed from the natural rock by fire and then split with bone pegs. It is an oval slab, some eighteen inches long, which after use shows two longitudinal depressions along which the rubber has been moved backwards and forwards in grinding. As already mentioned, these slabs are carried immense distances on the backs of women.
Somewhat rare perhaps is a stone drill; but they are made and used in the same way as the fire drill.
Before leaving the subject of stone implements it may be mentioned that, according to some authorities, the tribes which had no suitable stone within its own boundaries was at liberty to send tribal messengers to a quarry and procure what they wanted without molestation. On the other hand, we hear of private ownership of quarries at which axes were procured, but possibly customs differed.
Teeth are occasionally used as scrapers, knives, and drills, but as a rule shells are more important items in the aboriginal tool-chest. They may be used for cutting hair or bark; for making adzes, when they are fixed in a handle of gum, hafted with wood; for making body scars or keloids, or for drills. Mussel shells were important implements in Victoria in working the opossum skins. On the Tully River a snail shell was ground down to act as a spokeshave, not of course for use with wood, but in order to slice Cycas nut or some other fruit which needed to be cut thin; the whorl of the shell was ground off close behind the opening; the shell in use was held in the hand between the thumb and second finger, the sharp edge turned backwards, so that it had to be drawn towards the body; in this position a slice of any desired thickness could be taken off.
Awls are made of the leg bone of an emu or kangaroo; they are ground down and serve, amongst other things, to pick out the concavity for the peg of the wommera which is described in the chapter on weapons; the women had a stiletto or needle for piercing holes in skins, or the edges of bark which they sew into canoes, or for piercing the septum of the nose for the reception of the nose-pin or feather (PI. Xll.).
As water-carriers a number of objects were used. A Melo shell is a very common pail in the districts in which it is found; it is of course traded for considerable distances. In some parts it is used as a cooking-pot, but it is not certain that this use has not been derived from the Europeans. Under this head may be mentioned the use of Melo or nautilus shells as spoons.
When water has to be conveyed long distances, the skin of an animal is a natural method of preserving it; kangaroo, opossum, or dingo skins serve in this capacity. They are taken off, the neck being cut through high up and the forepaws cut off close to the body; then it is tanned with coolibar gum, the various openings are closed by transfixion with a peg which is wound round with twine or tendon; the two hind-legs are tied together to serve as handles; the whole is carried in the hand or may be slung over the shoulder.
Bark vessels are made of excrescences or of pieces of bark cut in the shape of a canoe, or something like trays, or perhaps, rather, punts. These pitchis sometimes serve as cradles.
Wooden troughs also serve the purpose of water-carriers and are manufactured by men only. They are carried on the head or slung at the level of the hip; spilling is prevented by strewing leaves on the top, which also serves to reduce the loss by evaporation. Sheath stalks of palm-leaves are used as pails; so are rolled-up leaves where the distance is short. The gourd is found in North Queensland, and in North Australia water-tight baskets are the means of transporting water.
Fish hooks are made of various materials, as will be seen in the chapter of fishing. Dr. Roth describes the process of manufacture of one from a shell. ‘The operator chipped round and round the valve between two stones until he succeeded in breaking it down to a more or less circular plate about 2 inches in diameter with rough uneven edges. He next placed two pointed pieces of hard wood on the fire, and as soon as their sharpened ends were burned and charred, put the smouldering extremities close to the centre of the shell plate, and blowing upon them with no inconsiderable force, caused the flame to play only upon its very centre, which was thus rendered comparatively brittle. But little difficulty was then experienced in breaking through, at this point, with a pencil of white coral; the hole once made, became gradually enlarged into the required oval by filing backwards and forwards with the coral, which at very frequent intervals was dipped into water to assist in the grinding.
The uneven outer edge of the hook so produced was next gradually ground into shape until the desired width of hook was produced. The final processes consisted in grinding its middle very carefully up and down on a sharp vertical edge of rock until a break was obtained, then finishing off with the rock and coral file into the completed crescentic form. Then the line is bound on the hook and it is ready for use.
Equally ingenious is the manufacture of the tortoise-shell fish hook. A more or less irregular piece of shell is wedged from the scutum; this is ground down on a piece of stone and finally finished off with a shell scraper, so as to produce a headless pin some 2 inches long, which tapers to a fine point. This end is then inserted in a piece of wood standing vertically on the ground, and sloping against the tortoise-shell pin is placed another piece of wood, which is loosely tied to the upright to prevent it from slipping off. Then a fire is lighted, and as the pin gets warm it softens and bends into a gentle curve; then it is taken from its socket, and alternately cooled in water and heated at the fire, being moulded in the meantime in the fingers. The final result is in the shape of a t without the cross. On the Palm Islands the simpler method of heating a pebble in the fire and bending the pin across it is used; but, as Dr. Roth remarks, it is certainly curious that the natives do not use boiling water.
Of minor implements may be noticed swabs of grass for mopping up honey, head pads of bark for use when heavy weights are carried, strainers for filtering yam mush, etc., prodders for feeling after the occupants of opossum’s holes, grub hooks for extracting them from trees, sheaths for knives, bark sandals, and many others.
The woman’s digging stick will be mentioned more than once; it varies from two to four feet long, and broadens out at one end.
It will be seen from many of the descriptions above that gum is an important item in native life. It is obtained from spinifex, grass-tree, brown cedar and other trees, but undergoes little preparation. Beeswax is used for some purposes in the same way as gum; for fixing down on the body on ceremonial occasions human blood is often the means employed. The Brisbane blacks used a sort of clay in the early days for mending their water vessels; it was also used for caulking boats, and became so hard that it could only be dug out with a hammer and chisel; in the account from which this statement is taken it is not clear whether the natives used it for their own canoes as well as European boats.
Thomas, Northcote W. Natives of Australia. Archibald Constable and Company, 1906.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
