Aboriginal Boomerangs

The treatment of the surface of the eastern Australian war boomerangs is the most effective decoration to be seen on these weapons throughout the continent. A highly ornate boomerang occurs in the area extending from western New South Wales to western and central Queensland. It is a fighting boomerang with a long even curve, and is broad and heavy; the upper convex surface is usually incised, and the lower flat surface is always plain. Longitudinal figures, which are invariably present and reach from tip to tip of the weapon, consist of straight and sinuous parallel lines, and of elongate fluted ovals strung together like beads. Dr. W. E. Roth has recorded their meanings as here described. They may be concentric pointed ovals or filled in with flutings, and are said by the natives to "represent large fishing nets folded up ready to be carried".

In the Cloncurry district they are described as leaves if the flutings are longitudinal, and as "white-shell marks " if they are diagonal. The half-ovals, present only in the southern Boulia district, are arranged in scallops along the edges and are called by the Pitta-Pitta tribes ripples on the river-bank ". The sets of parallel lines running from end to end of the surface resemble a snake, but their meaning is not definitely known ; on some specimens two or three snakes are to be seen extending from end to end of the boomerang. Kangaroo and emu tracks, the scarification on the women, which may form transverse zigzag lines, occur in the field. Sets of cuts like circumflex accents may be arranged end to end in lines, or facing to form lozenges, and these are said to represent " a hornet or bee, and an eye " respectively ; if placed one above the other in vertical sets, as in the Leichhardt-Selwyn district, they represent a " grass-woven dilly-bag".

The designs and their execution on these western New South Wales and Queensland boomerangs equal the finest decorative work produced on the continent. Some are made of a deep-plum-colored wood, and show rows of plain, smooth surfaced lozenges with marginal flutings parallel to their sides; on others lines of concentric diamonds may be incised on a plain polished surface. The admirable skill with which these patterns are executed is equal to any similar work in the Pacific area, but very few specimens are in collections. In the interior of New South Wales, especially in the Lachlan-Darling rivers district, long, slender, well made boomerangs exhibit delightful form and balance, and are covered with delicate tooling ; since the color of the mulga wood varies from cream to deep plum-red, the mottled effect is most attractive.