These are notable not only for their tasteful and well executed designs but also for their perfect form and balance. The multiple zigzag designs are incised on the hardwood shields of the northern part of Western Australia, and the flutings vary greatly in width. They are either colored alternately red and white or red and yellow, but in the Pilbara district series of five or six flutings form colored zigzag bands. The incised angular meander pattern, frequently combined with a concentric diamond design, occurs on the back of the Kimberley shields, and the transverse herringbone on the softwood Desert shields. Incised and painted concentric circles form striking designs on the shields from Leonard.
Similar designs to those on the shields are even more varied on the spear-throwers, as shown in. In addition, on some of them occur rows of large concentric diamonds, or rows of small fluted triangles in panels separated by zigzag lines.
On the Kimberley boomerangs, however, some interesting naturalistic motifs appear. These include human figures and hands, birds and their tracks, crocodiles, turtles, .» snakes and fern-leaves, combined with spirals, hour-glass, concentric squares, diamonds, circles and U-shaped figures and meandering lines. Another group of boomerangs, commonly painted red with broad white bands, bears complex fluted designs of zigzags, triangles, squares and circles. Finally, the plain dark-brown mulga boomerangs from southern districts are fashioned so that they are either edged or blotched with the yellow sapwood.
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