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aboriginal rafts and canoes, 1770 

Images of Australian Aboriginal Rafts and Canoes, from 1770

Warning: This page contains images that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
In most cases the images have been cropped, and some adjusted, to highlight the vessels or the action.
Some images have been removed by request.

Rafts Rolled-Bark and Reed Catamarans - Tasmania
Tied-Bark Canoes - East Coast Australia Thomas Dick Photographs - Macleay Valley, c1910.
Sewn Bark Canoes - North Coast Australia [Awaiting content]
Dugout and Bark Canoes  - North Coast Australia
Museum Collections
Fishing References

Rafts
1818
Phillip Parker King: Articulated log raft, Northern Australia.

A page from King's Remark Book, reproduced in:
Horden, Marsden: King of the Australian Coast.
The Work of Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid and Bathurst, 1817-1822.

Melbourne University Press, 1997, plate facing page 84.


1818
Phillip Parker King: Raft rider, off Lewis Island, Northern Australia.

- King:
Western Coasts of Australia (1827), title page.
King observed:
[Off Lewis Island] three natives were seen in the water ... each native was seated on a log of wood, which he propelled through the water by paddling with his hands.
[The "log" is] made of the stem of a mangrove tree; but as it was not long enough for the purpose, two or three short logs were neatly and even curiously joined together, pages 38-39.
For a another three log craft, see below: 
Catamaran and Rider, Bruinie [Brumer] Island,1850.
1819
Number 56: View of Goold Island and Mount Hinchinbrook from Rockingham Bay.

Etched by P. P. King

A aboriginal paddles his very small raft across a wide bay.

Phillip Parker King - album of drawings and engravings, 1802-1902.
State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=442570


1821
Number 4a: Aboriginal Raft , Hanover Bay, 1821.

Phillip Parker King - album of drawings and engravings, 1802-1902.
State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=442570


1821
Number 94a: Raft and Aborigines, Hanover Bay, 1821.

Phillip Parker King - album of drawings and engravings, 1802-1902. 
State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=442570


1844
This unusual floating wurly was a primitive watercraft seen on the Murray River about 1844.

[George French Angas?]

- State Library of South Australia (Archives Department)

It is likely that there two, or more, wurlies (rafts) in the illustration.
 
- Edwards:
Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 9.


1844
N
ative Raft, Roe Islands, King Sound, WA.


-Stokes, J. Lort, Stanley., Owen:

Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.
T. and W. Boone, London, 1846.


"Nine small poles pegged together, ten feet in length by four [feet wide].
[Built of] palm tree poles,
largest three inches in diameter, a wood so light, that one man could carry the whole affair with the greatest ease.
By it there was a very rude double-bladed paddle."

1850
Number 9a. Catamaran and Rider, Bruinie [Brumer] Island, New Guinea, detail and adjusted.

While not from the Australian mainland, this three log design provides the template for the rolled-bark or reed canoe of Tasmania, see below.
The similarity with the Madras catamaran is remarkable, except for the decorative sculptured prow as used in New Guinea.

Oswald W.B. Brierly :
New Guinea coast and Cape York area during the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, ca. 1849-1850.


State Library of NSW

http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=421776
1916
Worora youth on a mangrove tree raft (or 'kaloa'), George Water, Western Australia, 1916.
Photograph by Herbert Basedow (1 of 2).

- Basedow, Herbert: The Australian Aboriginal.
F. W. Preece & Sons, Adelaide,
1925, plate 22. 

National Museum of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=11791



1931
A model raft made from six cylindrical wooden rods, collected in 1931 by Gerhard Laves from Bardi people at Cape Leveque, WA.
Description:
A model raft made from six cylindrical wooden rods with pointed ends and joined together with thread.

A second "deck" of five pointed cylindrical wooden rods are attached to the first with a metal nail.

National Museum of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=16523



1931-1994
Double triangular raft, pole and paddle, Western Australia.

Illustration by Xiangyi Mo.
- Barlow: Aboriginal Technology: Watercraft (1994) page 27.

The illustration by Xiangyi Mo is possibly based on the model raft held by the NMA, above.
The logs are pinned, and not bound, the grass matting is represents a seat, and b
elow are a punting-pole and a short-staffed spoon or pudding-stirrer paddle, as used by George Water in the above photograph.

Their use throughout the continent and Tasmania indicates the
pudding-stirrer's great antiquity, perhaps back to the early voyages from SE Asia.


1940
Aboriginal fishermen on boats in the North-West
The two rafts in the foreground are double mangrove tree rafts, or kaloa, as described above.
A dugout canoe is in the background.
 
From the Frank Bunney collection of photographs taken mainly in the North-West ; published or produced 1918-1951, with the majority from 1930 to1939.

State Library of Western Australia


http://innopac.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b2163041~S2#.U5T233bm7ow
1945
River beauties, Daly River, NT.
1 January 1945.
Boerner Collection, Photo No: PH0764/0095

Description:
Front of photo notes 'Daly River NT 45 (Paper Bark Canoe)', depicting two women and two dogs on a paper bark canoe.

Likely a raft mostly of paper bark branches mixed with other plant material, see below:
Wooden raft from Sydney Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, 1965.
Museum Collections



Northern Territory Library
http://hdl.handle.net/10070/8897



Rolled-Bark and Reed Catamaran* - Tasmania (*often called a canoe)

c1802
Nicholas Petit: Van Dieman's Land Aborigines carrying fire in their canoe, 1802.

- Museum d'Historie naturelle, Le Harve.

- Muekee and Shoemaker: Aboriginal  Australians (2004) page 18.

From the voyage by Peron and Freycinet.

Also see a Reproduction in Hobart Museum.

1803
Campfire and rolled-bark or reed fishing canoes, Tasmania, 1803.

Nicholas Petit: View of Schouten Island, Van Diemen's Land, 1803
- Museum d'Historie naturelle, Le Harve.

- Muekee and Shoemaker: Aboriginal  Australians (2004) page 13.
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 267.


  





Louise de Sainson :
A canoe made from bark [Tasmania], 1830.
Pirogue aus zusammengenaketer baumrinde

Louis Auguste de Sainson (1800-1887) was in Australia and the Pacific in 1826-1829.

At the National Gallery of Australia
NGA 2011.58

Hand coloured print titled:
Pirogue en ecorce cousue, [Sewn bark canoe],1834 


1843
Model of a Tasmanian canoe in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, such as were used by the Aborigines to "cross to Maria Island and islets in the vicinity of the mainland."
Brought from Australia, in 1843, by Sir John Franklin and presented to Eton College.


- Roth, Henry Ling: The Aborigines of Tasmania (1899) facing page 153.
Roth rightfully suspected that the ends of the model had been significantly elevated during storage or in dispatch, and the model was not intended to have this extreme curvature.


University of Tasmania
http://eprints.utas.edu.au/6471/1/b2_1_aborig_canoe_baskets.jpg


1843, Illustrations of Models of Tasmanian canoes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
- Roth, Henry Ling: The Aborigines of Tasmania (1899) page 156.

Tied Bark Canoes - East Coast Australia

1770
Sidney Parkinson: Australian Aborigines' canoes,
Botany Bay,1770 [detail].
- The Trustees of the British Museum, photograph by Michael Holford.


- Rienits: Voyages of Captain Cook (2004) page 49.

1788 (1789)
A View of Botany Bay, detail.
Medland, Thomas,1755-1822, engraver.
Cleveley, Robert,1747-1809,artist.

Robert Clevely did not visit Australia, however his brother James was as a carpenter on Cook's third voyage and through him, Robert obtained some of the illustrations compiled on the three voyages.

Clevely's illustrations appear to be based on
Sidney Parkinson's sketches of 1770 (above), and in the image (left), the position of the paddler is obviously incorrect.

State Library of Victoria
http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/266682
Note that these three images all show a bound gunwale, that is not present in other illustrations or any contemporary account.

The earliest engraved view to show the First Fleet in Australian waters, it is based on both a work by an unnamed artist aboard one of the ships, and on further information provided in Governor Phillip’s journal and dispatches to London.

- Phillip, Arthur: Voyage to Botany Bay (1789) opposite page 46.

1788
View of Port Jackson
, detail.
Shows group of Aborigines in canoes.
Prattent, T., engraver.
Cleveley, Robert,1747-1809, artist.

- Phillip
, Arthur: Voyage to Botany Bay
 
(1789) opposite page 62.

State Library of Victoria : http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/266724
State Library of NSW (coloured print)
Series 01: Views of Australasia : album of prints from various sources, some hand coloured, ca. 1773-1848
30. R. Cleveley: View in Port Jackson

1788 (1789)
Natives [Aboriginal Australians] of Botany Bay, detail.
Shows three Aboriginal men, hunting with a barbed-spear, fishing, with hook and line, and the third with short pudding-stirrer paddles.
Medland, Thomas,1755-1822, engraver.
Cleveley, Robert,1747-1809, artist.

- Phillip, Arthur: Voyage to Botany Bay (1789) opposite page 82.

State Library of Victoria
State Library of NSW (coloured print)
Series 01: Views of Australasia : album of prints from various sources, some hand coloured, ca. 1773-1848
94. R. Cleveley: Natives of Botany Bay


1788
First encounter with Aborigines at
Port Jackson in 1788 [ Manly Cove].
- Bridgeman-Giraudon


- Muekee and Shoemaker: Aboriginal  Australians (2004) page 15.


Governor Phillip visited and named Manly Cove, befitting the "confidence and manly behaviour" of the local aboriginals, on 21 January 1788.
 In November he returned
when a large number of aboriginals had assembled to feast on a stranded whale, that had been in the harbour for a number of days.
See below:
Joseph Lycett:
Aborigines cooking and eating beached whales, Newcastle, New South Wales, ca. 1817.

The beached whale is depicted in Port Jackson Artist:
Governor Phillip wounded at Manly Cove, November 1788.
United Kingdom Natural History Museum

1800
Pimbloy [Pemulwuy]: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that country.
Samuel John Neele 1758-1824, engraver.
The amount of freeboard, compared to all other contemporary images, is exaggerated.
However, note

- Grant,
James: Voyage in the Lady Nelson (1804) opposite page 170.

State Library of Victoria.
http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255652


1800
"Port Jackson Painter": Canoes at Port Jackson, 1800
[three illustrations]
- The Trustees of the British Museum.

- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 7.


a. Campfire and fishing canoes,
Port Jackson, 1800



b. Fishing canoe ,
Port Jackson, 1800

c. Four bark canoes,
 Port Jackson, 1800


c1800
Unknown: Natives fishing with the Fiz-gig, circa 1800.

An fiz-gig is a pronged fishing spear.

Illustration from
Ida Lee: The Coming of the British to Australia 1788 to 1829.
(1906), Chapter 1, plate 12.


1802
During their voyage of discovery in 1802 the French navigators Peron and Freycinet
found the Aborigines at Port Jackson, New South Wales,making extensive use of bark canoes.
From a lithograph by Charles Lesueur.

[Photograph from Voyage de Decouvertes Aux Terres Australes, M. F. Peron (Atlas par Mm.Lesueur et petit)]

- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 7.

1802
Tied bark c
anoes in use at at Port Jackson, New South Wales, 1802.

- Photograph from Voyage de Decouvertes Aux Terres Australes, M. F. Peron (Atlas par Mm.Lesueur et petit).


- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 8.

Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/voyagededcouve03pr

1805
Number 11: Aboriginal female fishing from a bark canoe, [Port Jackson].
Attributed to George Charles Jenner and W.W. [William Waterhouse]

Australian Aborigines, pre 1806.
State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=447340


1810
Barrington, George:
Vignette of an Aboriginal woman fishing in a canoe
.
The fishing rod is incorrect, and fishing was with a hand line only.

An Account of a Voyage to New South Wales

M. Jones and Sherwood, Neely & Jones, London,1810., title page.

National Library of Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an7896959


1812
John Eyre: Aboriginal fishers and canoes at Cook's Point, Botany Bay (detail).

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Views in New South Wales, 1813-1814 [and] Historical account of the colony of New South Wales, 1820-1821
John Eyre: Botany Bay Harbour, taken from Cook's Point


1815
Number 1: Natives fishing in a bark canoe, [Port Jackson].
Attributed to R. Browne.

Drawings of Aboriginal Australians, ca 1813-1819.
State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=411337


1817
Lycett, Joseph: Fishing [Port Jackson?], 1817.
Aborigines spearing fish, others diving for crayfish, a party seated beside a fire cooking fish.

 National Library of Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2962715-s17
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 35.

Note the tied-bark canoes, spear-fishing, and the three aboriginals at the left who are diving, swimming, and returning to shore with a catch of crayfish.

1817
Lycett, Joseph: Fishing by torchlight, other Aborigines beside camp fires cooking fish, 1817.

National Library of Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2962715-s8


1819
Turtle Fishing [from bark canoes] at
Endeavour River, North Queensland, 1819.

- King: Western Coasts of Australia (1827), page 245.

1819
[Bark] Canoes at
Goold Island, Northern Australia, 1819.
Reported as about 5 ft long and paddled with a strip of bark.
- King:
Western Coasts of Australia (1827), page 200.

1826
Canoe of Jervis Bay,
New Holland by
(Francois-Edmond) Paris.

Pirogue de la Baie Jervis,
Nouvelle Holland par Paris, 1826.

Plate 112


1829
An Aboriginal returns to the beach in a bark canoe, Wallinga Bay, NSW.
Robert Hoddle: Murremurrang and Walliga Bay, South of Jervis Bay, 1829.

State Library of Victoria
http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/109429
Catalogue notes:

Watercolour; 25.5 x 39 cm. on cream board mount 44 x 51 cm.
Inscribed in ink on l.c.of original mount: Murremurrang and Wallinga Bay, South of Jervis Bay New South Wales.
Drawn by Robert Hoddle. 1829.

Inscription on original mount cropped and adhered on l.c. of present mount.

1835
Number 56:
Natives fishing in a bark canoe, NSW, detail.
Govett, William:
Notes and sketches taken during a surveying Expedition in N. South Wales and Blue Mountains Road, 1830-1835
.

State Library of NSW

http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=824687



[1835]
The Enterprize in the Yarra.
Frederick B. Schell (1838 - 1900): 
An American artist, Schell
was active in Australia from 1886-1889.
Copy of ink and watercolour drawing by the artist Frederic B. Schell, based on sketches by W. F. E. Liardet.
An engraving of Schell's drawing appears in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, vol. 1, page 164 (Sydney, 1883-1886).

State Library of Victoria
Image H15361/37



1844
Number 8: Twofold Bay Canoe.
An almost identical design to that of Jervis Bay, above.

Brierly O.W.: Sketches made in Australia (1842-1844)

State Library of NSW
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=422040

1844
Number 10a: Native [Aboriginal] and canoe, Twofold Bay, NSW.

Brierly O.W.: Sketches made in Australia (1842-1844)


State Library of NSW


http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=422040

c1840?
This picture of fishing canoes on the Murray River shows how Aborigines used their heavy spears to propel these simple craft.

- The Natural History of Man, page 31.

- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 31.

1847
George French Angas:
Murray River Aborigines in a bark canoe.

South Australia Illustrated, South Australian Museum.

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 35, detail.


Angas wrote:
Their canoes are nothing more than frail sheets of bark, moulded into a hollow shape by means of heat and steam, the ends and orifices are stopped with clay, and in the centre is a small fire, raised upon a heap of wet weeds and sand; over this fire they frequently cook their food whilst on the water; although upset by the slightest breath of wind, the natives are wonderfully expert in the management of these rude and frail canoes.




For an alternative version of the illustration, see:
 Angas: Scenes in Australia and NZ (1847) plate 30?
State Library of South Australia

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/murray/content/aboriginalaustralian/life/fisherman_fromangas_pt30.htm
1860-1862
Tommy Barnes: Fish-spearing, Fig. 253, detail.
Tommy Barnes: Man in a canoe catching a turtle, Fig. 254, detail and adjusted.

drawings with pen and ink by an untaught Aboriginal lad of the Upper Murray, known as "Tommy Barnes."
...
There is much spirit in these drawings, the attitudes of some of the figures, and the faces of some of the women, are very good.
If carefully examined, I think we cannot avoid the conclusion that Tommy Barnes is a close observer, and is possessed of some artistic skill, which, if cultivated, would have enabled him to draw well.
These sketches were hastily drawn, with no particular object in view, and probably only for his own amusement, p
ages 257-258.

-Smyth
, Robert Brough: The Aborigines of Victoria, (1878) pages 257-258.

Figure 253

Figure 254

1860
Number 13: Canoe of the Aborigines, Busby Park
[Gippsland, Victoria]
, 25th November [1860]
The hand paddles are shown on the left
, adjusted.

Eugene von Guerard:
Volume 11: Sketchbook XXXII, No. 13-14 Australian. 1860-1861

State Library of NSW

http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=82542
1862
Number 15: Canoe of the Aborigines, Mitta Mitta [North-east Victoria], 3 Nov '62.

Eugene von Guerard:
Volume 12: Sketchbook XXXIII, No. 15 Australian. 1862

State Library of NSW


http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=8254

1881
Eucalyptus rostrata bark peeled for canoe building.

Gabriel Marcel: Australian Aborigines
Popular Science Monthly

Volume 19
, page 683.
-


1886
Lake Tyers
[Gippsland, Victoria] people in traditional bark canoes, 1888.

- from the Riley Collection, National Library of Australia.

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 307.


c1887
One of the canoes issued by the Government of south Australia for use by Aborigines on the lowwer Murray River and on lakes Alexandria and Albert.
-Illustrations from the Taplin Collection in the South Australian
Museum

- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 61.

1888
Tied bark canoes on Lake Tylers, Gippsland, Victoria, about 1888.
-National Library of Victoria, photograph by Mr. N. C. Caire.

- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 11.

1888
The Barron River, near Cairns.
J.R. Ashton

Garran: Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888)
Part 37, page 402.



Julian Rossi Ashton (1851-1942), art teacher and artist, was born in 1883, moved to Sydney to work on the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia until 1886.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ashton-julian-rossi-5073


1888
Dugong Fishing.
[Northern Australia]
Schellsberson:

Garran:
Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888) page 402.


1888
Making a Bark Canoe.
[Inland NSW?]

Ellis Rowan

Garran: Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888) page 711.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Rowan


1910
Thomas Dick:
Two Aboriginal men spearing fish from canoe
, Port Macquarie.

State Library of NSW
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/itemID=392831

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 75.

For a selection of Dick's photographs from the Macleay Valley in the early 1900s, see below.





1962
A unique photograph of a Murray River bark canoe being made in 1962.
- State Library of South Australia (Archives Department, photograph by George Burnell)
[cropped]

- Edwards:
Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 28.


Left:
1972

Many centuries ago, the aborigines cut bark for a
canoe from this fine red gum at nor-West bend
station, near Morgan, South Australia
.

Photograph: Robert Edwards
- Edwards: Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley (1972) page 32.

Right:
1988

A canoe tree at Broulee.
Photograph: Colin Totterdell
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page
318.


Also see:

NSW Office of Environment and Conservation, 2005.


Thomas Dick: Tied-Bark Canoes, Port Macquarie, c1910.
In the early 1900s, Thomas Dick took a series of photographs of the Aborigines in the Macleay Valley
in an attempt to record a culture
that was rapidly disappearing.
As such, the images were posed with the participants, some
appearing in multiple images, in minimal clothing and with appropriate tools. 
These important, probably unique, images
illustrate building and using tied-bark canoes, tool manufacture, and fishing practices.
Variously dated c1905-1910, they appear to be mostly around a coastal salt-water estuary
around Port Macquarie, but the images of canoe construction, where the  trees larger, were possibly taken further inland.

A substantial of the images are held by the Australian Museum and the State Library of NSW,

Tool construction.

Left: Stone flaking.

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page
68.

Right: Grinding and chipping flakes.

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page
28.



Using hatchets and stone wedges to harvest
 bark for a shield.


State Library of NSW

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 75.

Two Aboriginal men removing bark from
mangrove tree for shield.

State Library of NSW
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/itemID=392819

- Muekee and Shoemaker: Aboriginal  Australians (2004) page 32.

Three methods of climbing a tree:

1. Using a strap.

- Burnum:
Burnum Burnum (1988) pages 68 and 75.


2. Using pegs or wedges
.

State Library of NSW



3. Using a beam, while removing a
sheet of bark from the tree trunk.







Left:
Removing a sheet of bark from the tree trunk.


Right:
Heating the bark for making a canoe
.

- Burnum:
Burnum Burnum (1988) pages 22 and 75.


State Library of NSW
 http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/itemID=393076

Aborigines forming a bark canoe.
After removing a large bark section from a tree, it is held like a flue over a fire, monitored by another, to make it more pliable, above.
It is then placed on the ground and the ends prepared for binding.

State Library of NSW
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/itemID=392798

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 75.


Two Aboriginal men spearing fish from canoe, c1905.

State Library of NSW
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/itemID=392831

:
Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 75.
Other similar photographs by Thomas Dick are reproduced on pages 31 and 66.


Collecting pippies on the shore near Port Macquarie.
Photograph: Thomas Dick, Australian Museum.
Removed by request of members of the Birpai community.
- noted, with thanks, by Vanessa Finney, AM.
 - Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 66.


Stone wall fish traps, Barwon River, Brewarrina, NSW.
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 70.
The two young Aboriginals in the foreground hold successful catches.


The title was adjusted after Corey commented (July 2016):
The photo of the stonewall fishing traps is not in the upper Macleay River.
It is actually next to the town of Brewarrina, just before Bourke.
I have travelled to the spot and it is still structurally there. .
See:
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/ancient-site-australias-outback


Sewn Bark Canoes - North Coast Australia.
1818
Phillip Parker King:
A sewn bark canoe and stone-headed spear found at Port Essington in April 181.
A page from King's Remarks Book, reproduced in:
Horden, Marsden: King of the Australian Coast.
The Work of Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid and Bathurst, 1817-1822.

Melbourne University Press, 1997, plate facing page 90.


Dugout and Bark Canoes - North Coast Australia.
Some variants of Queensland seafaring bark canoes must predate dugouts because they, or their earlier prototypes, allowed visiting offshore islands (e.g Whitsunday Island, Great Keppel Island) from at least 8,000 years ag - See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/BlogPost/Science/Tentative-Chronology-of-Indigenous-Canoes-of-Eastern-Australia#sthash.GDWINtev.dpuf
Some variants of Queensland seafaring bark canoes must predate dugouts because they, or their earlier prototypes, allowed visiting offshore islands (e.g Whitsunday Island, Great Keppel Island) from at least 8,000 years ago. - See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/BlogPost/Science/Tentative-Chronology-of-Indigenous-Canoes-of-Eastern-Australia#sthash.GDWINtev.dpu

1819
Spear Fishing from an Outrigger Canoe
, Northern Australia, 1819.

- King:
Western Coasts of Australia (1827), page 225.

1888
Spear-Fishing
[from Outrigger Canoe, Northern Australia]
Schellsberson:
Garran:
Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888) page 402.

Note the outrigger canoe.



1935
Outrigger Canoe on the Endeavour River, North Queensland, circa 1935.
Courtesy of Keith Kennedy

Kennedy was the President of the Anthropological Society of New South Wales.

Wilfrid D. Hambly: Primitive Hunters of Australia
Anthropology Leaflet 32 [
Fieldiana, Popular Series]
Field Museum of Natural History, Chigago, 1936, Plate III.
https://archive.org/details/primitivehunters32hambl




Aboriginal Watercraft: Museum Collections

1870
Canoe - Woi wurrung, Yarra Canoe, Bark, Melbourne, circa 1860s
,
Reg. No: HT 24782
Bark canoe, made by Woi wurrung, a clan of Victorian Aboriginal people, whose land extended from the lower Yarra to the mountains east of Melbourne.
This is the only remaining 19th century Aboriginal canoe from the Melbourne region.

Description:
Sharp marks show that the bark was cut with a metal axe.
Charcoal marks suggest that the bark was heated to help shape it into a canoe.
The canoe is tied in several places with rope to hold the bark in place.
The two thicker ropes are hand-made, and most likely an original part of the canoe.
The thinner twine tying the canoe at each end is machine-made.
Hoops from a barrel have been used to hold the bark.
Possibly the Aboriginal makers used these hoops, combining a European material with the traditional design.
Or they may have been added by the collector.
Museum Victoria
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/1557376/canoe-woi-wurrung-yarra-canoe-bark-melbourne-circa-1860s

1930?
Canoe - possibly Hunter valley

Reg. No: E 78217 Canoe (A1-98-10)

Tied bark canoe with four folds in both ends, and a timber pins.
On initial observation, the twine is possibly a natural vine and one of the 4'' timber pins appears to be dowel, possibly replacing the original.
There is
no evidence of internal struts or supports or binding.
There are a significant
number of cracks and splitting, and some sections of the hull have possibly warped over time.
Photographic material suggests the canoe's construction is similar to that of the
Macleay Valley NSW, (Thomas Dick, c1910) and Lake Tylers, Victoria (N. C. Caire, c1888).

Dimensions (all approximate):
Length: 11ft 4'' - 3450 mm
Width: 17.5''
- 230mm @  +12'' - 300 mm
Bow: 9''
- 230 mm @ 12'' - 300 mm
Stern: 8''
- 200 mm @ 12'' - 300 mm
Depth: 6'' - 150 mm
Thickness: 0.25-0.5'' - 5-10 mm

Photographs: Australian Museum, 6th August 2014
Many thanks to Rebecca Fisher (
Australian Museum), David Payne (Australian National MM), and Graham Hinton (Lady Denman MM).





Canoe - possibly Hunter valley
Reg. No: E 78217 Canoe (A1-98-10)
AM Catalogue, 16 Dec 1982.
Photograph: unaccredited

1965
Wooden raft from Sydney Island, Gulf of Carpentaria
Description:
A slightly concave and triangular raft made from long cylindrical wooden logs of variable diameter, lashed together with thick two ply fibre rope.
The rope is secured at the distal and proximal end by lashing together underneath the raft.
The anterior surface is covered with a thick layer of dried grass to form a level deck.
The wooden logs have extensive borer damage
.
Mornington Island Mission Collection, made in 1965 for a documentary film on traditional hunting and ceremony.

National Museum of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=180718


Aboriginal Watercraft: Modern Replicas

2014
Abo
riginal Canoe, South Coast NSW.
Constructed in association with David Payne and the Australian  National Maritime Museum.
Sydney, September 2014

Photograph courtesy of David Payne.

Nawi Workshop, ANMM, Darling Harbour, 28-30th November 2014.
Crew
Stage 1.
The large sheet of blue stringy bark was harvested by the NSW Forestry during the winter from Watagan State Forest on the Central Coast of NSW.

This was Debra Swan, Aboriginal Partnership Liaison , Hardwood Forests Division, Forestry Corporation of NSW
and


It was then transported to
the ANMM where it was and stored undercover and kept regularly hydrated by David Payne.

The workshop was supervised by David Payne and included:
Debra Swan, Aboriginal Partnership Liaison , Hardwood Forests Division, Forestry Corporation of NSW
and

Donna Carstens, ANMM Indigenous Programs Manager
David Payne, ANMM
Dean Kelly
, National Parks and Wildlife Service Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer
Paul Carriage, Aboriginal Affairs Co-ordinator, State Forests, Batemans Bay
, Botany Bay Park
Geoff Cater, Lady Denman Maritime Museum, Huskisson
 

Stage 2.
On the 28th, David Payne supervised the construction of a model of a nawi, to serve as a guide for the building of the full scale vessel.

It dimensions are approximately 6ft 5'' x 14'' x 4.5''.


Stage 3.
On the morning of the 29th the model nawi, the bark, a variety of metal tools, ropes,  a portable hearth, a supply of heated freshwater, some tarpaulins, and a few house-bricks were assembled in the Museum forecourt.

The modern tool kit; comprising a hammer or mallet, paint scrappers, and a screwdriver; replicated traditional tools of stone, bone or shell and vastly reduced the labour and time.
Likewise, the use of hot water to assist the steaming of the canoe ends also significantly compressed construction time.
Whereas a nawi was possibly assembled over a number of weeks, here production was reduced to a couple of days.

The sheet of bark, approximately 13 ft x 43'' and in some places, over 2'' thick, was laid inverted.
That is, with the smooth internal "sap bark" became the outside of the canoe, with the rough stringy surface as the inside.

A "waterline mark" was scored across the sheet with a hatchet, approximately 43'' from either end.

These areas were progressively thinned, initially using wedges and mallets to split the bark at the ends away from the hard sap wood.

The bark was then further separated with scrappers and torn by hand back to the score line.


It took about 30 minutes to suitably prepare each end to a thickness between  0.5 - 1''.
 

The removed strips of bark provided fibre for the twisting and plaiting of rope or cord (not shown).


When both ends were thinned (below), one end was heated over the hearth and soaked with boiling water.

The bark was steamed, with the occasional addition of more hot water, for about 20 minutes.
When David and  Dean agreed that its flexibility was suitable for folding and binding, it was removed from the heath and laid flat.
Two strong ropes were looped
under the bark, without tension, one placed at the "waterline mark" and a second at about the centre of the thinned section.
A layer of damp clay was then rubbed and worked into an area about 12'' - 30 cm from the end.



Small strips of paper-bark were lightly soaked and layered and bound with the clay, creating a poultice which serves as a sealer for any internal cracks or splits that might occur when the end is folded, which is clearly an acquired skill.
The bark is folded by simultaneously from both sides, the
builders working in unison and the size of the seams somewhat determined by the inclination of the the bark itself to bend.
The compression of the folds is assisted by progressively increasing the tension on the
two ropes positioned earlier along the hull, the process taking about 30 minutes




At this point, the hull is rotated and the other thinned end now dampened and steamed over the hearth,
another clay and paper-bark poultice added,  and the folding process of replicated.

With both ends bound, the damp clay is used as a filler or sealer to block the seams.
 Any cracks or splits in the hull apparent after folding are likewise sealed with clay and paper-bark.




A screwdriver was now forced though the folds,
and a sharpened stick of (?) wood inserted
through the hole, tightly locking the bow and stern.

With both bow and stern now tied, plugged and pinned, the hull was blocked with house bricks at either end, enhancing the waterline.

The craft  was now left overnight for the moisture induced by the steaming process to evaporate.

Various cross struts and ties were intended to be added the following day, before launching.

Reed Canoe Reconstruction
Hobart Museum, Tasmania, c 2000.
Photograph courtesy of Bob Green, April 2020.



Fishing

1817
Lycett, Joseph: Fishing [Port Jackson?], 1817.
Aborigines spearing fish, others diving for crayfish, a party seated beside a fire cooking fish.

 National Library of Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2962715-s17
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 35.

Note the tied-bark canoes, spear-fishing, and the three aboriginals at the left who are diving, swimming, and returning to shore with a catch of crayfish.

1817
Joseph Lycett:

Aborigines cooking and eating beached whales, Newcastle, New South Wales, ca. 1817.

National Library of Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2962715-s11

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 57 (flopped).


Louis Auguste de Sainson:
Sharing the catch, Jervis Bay, 1826.

Dumont D'Urville:
Two Voyages to the South Seas
Volume 1: Astrolabe 1826-1829
Translated by Helen Rosenman
Melbourne University Press, 1987, facing page 91

1847
George French Angas: Aboriginal fishing implements, Murray River, SA.
South Australia Illustrated, South Australian Museum.

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 246, detail and adjusted.
The descriptions are yet to be confirmed.
2. Scoop net.
3. Drag net.
7. Fishing net, detail.
16. Abalone, or mutton-fish, shell.
20. Harpoon barb
21. Pole or shaft


1847
Unaccredited: Natives Fishing at Port Jackson, [circa 1800].
Using a net or trap.

Illustration from
Ida Lee: The Coming of the British to Australia 1788 to 1829.
(1906), Chapter 1, plate 8.

Derived from:
George French Angas: Coast Scene near Rapid Bay, Sunset Natives Fishing with nets,
1847.
Second Vallery, from the South Australia Illustrated
series.
or
Samuel Calvert (1828-1913): South Australian Natives fishing- near Rapid Bay, at the Mouth of the Parananakooka Creek, 1871.
From the Illustrated Sydney News (1854 to 1889)


1888
Mullet Fishing
[Northern Australia]
Schellsberson:

Garran: Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888) page 402.

Figure 6: Fishing at East Corrimal. ('Condon's Creek', Captain Robert Westmacott, circa 1846, lllawarra Images)

Figure 7: Spear fishing at Tom Thumb lagoon. (Tom Thumb Lagoon'John Skinner Prout 1840-1850, State Library of NSW)


Figures 8: Fish spears, bone hook, woven basket and spear thrower. (Etchings from Brough Smyth 1878)


Wesson, Sue (editor): A History of the Aboriginal people of the Illawarra 1770 to 1970
Department of the Environment and Conservation, NSW, 2005, page 11.



1910
Collecting pippies on the shore near Port
Macquarie.

Photograph: Thomas Dick, Australian Museum.
Removed by request of members of the Birpai community.
- noted, with thanks, by Vanessa Finney, AM.
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page


1910
Children with a catch of lung-fish, originally found only in the Mary and Burnett Rivers of south-east Queensland.
Growing to some 2 metres in length, the lungfish was called a barrumundi by Aboriginal people, subsequently applied to a differ­ent fish from northern rivers.

Photograph: possibly by Charles Kerry or Henry King, Australian Museum.
(accreditation noted by Vanessa Finney, AM)

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 100.


Stone wall fish traps, Upper Macleay River (?)

The two young Aboriginals in the foreground hold successful catches.
Photograph: Thomas Dick.
 
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 70.


c1930
Fishing with scoop net or trap, Nth Queensland.

Photograph: Donald Thomson, courtesy Mrs Thomson.

 
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 134.



The Donald Thomson Collection at Museum Victoria:
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections...donald-thomson/


circa 1920
Left:
Barramundi was appreciated as a fine eating fish
long before the arrival of European chefs.
The Australian Museum.
Photograph: Frank Hurley, registration AMS320/V5217.
(accreditation noted by Vanessa Finney, AM)
 
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 154.

Right:

Turtles were a favourite delicacy of the peoples of North Queensland.

Photograph: Donald Thomson, courtesy Mrs Thomson. 

- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 135.


1988
Woven reed eel trap, Murray River.
Museum of Victoria.
Photograph: Reg Morrison
 
- Burnum: Burnum Burnum (1988) page 273.


References
Angas, George French: Savage life and scenes in Australia and New Zealand : being an artist's impressions of countries and people at the antipodes
Lithographers Day & Haghe, Publish
ed by Smith Elders & Co., Adelaide, 1847.
 
Brierly
O.W.: Sketches made in Australia, and during the voyage of the H.M.S. Maeander, in New Zealand, Tonga, and South America, 1842-1844, 1850.
An almost identical design to that of Jervis Bay, above.
Brierly's notes for Canoe of Twofold Bay, Number 8 read, in part:
 b_ of sitting - kneeling and sitting on their heels
Oars mer(e)ly a small bit of bark about the size of a china plate
at the bow are a m_ of wooden skewers r_ in which the spears rest
two half hoops keep it in shape
- 9ft long, 6 in deep, 14 inches beam
made from the inner rind of gum tree, gathered togr. (together) at each P_


Barlow, Alex: Aboriginal Technology: Watercraft, Macmillan Education Australia,1994.
[Junior publication]

Bass, George: Journal of a Whaleboat Voyage.
Queensberry Hill Press, Carlton, Victoria, [1986?].
Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/14140153

Burnum Burnum (edited by David Stewart):
Burnum Burnum's Aboriginal Australia : A
Traveller's Guide.
Angus &​ Robertson, North Ryde, 1988.

Dumont D'Urville: Two Voyages to the South Seas, Volume 1: Astrolabe 1826-1829
Translated by Helen Rosenman
Melbourne University Press, 1987.


Edwards, Robert: Aboriginal Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley.
South Australian Museum, Rigby, 1972.

Garran, Andrew (editor):
Picturesque Atlas of Australasia.
Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company, Sydney, 1886-1888.

Grant, James: Narrative of a voyage of discovery, performed in His Majesty's vessel the Lady Nelson.
T. Egerton, Whitehall, London, 10th January 1804.

King, Phillip Parker: Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts ofAustralia
Performed Between the Years 1818 and 1822, Volume 1
John Murray, London,1827.
Australian Fascimile Editions Number 30.
Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1969.

Muekee, Stephen, and Shoemaker, Adam:
Aboriginal  Australians - First Nations of an Ancient Continent
Thames and Hudson, London, 2004.


Phillip
, Arthur: The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay.
J. Stockdale,London, June 17, 1789.

Rienits, Rex and Thea: The Voyages of Captain Cook, Paul Hamlyn, London, Sydney, 1968.

Roth, Henry Ling, assisted by Marion E. Butler , James Backhouse Walker, John George Garson, Edward Burnett Taylor:
The Aborigines of Tasmania
F. King & Sons, England, 1899.

Smyth, Robert Brough
The Aborigines of Victoria: With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives, Volume II.
The Government of Victoria, Government Printer, London, 1878.

Stokes, J. Lort, Stanley., Owen: Discoveries in Australia. with an account of the coasts and rivers explored and surveyed during the voyage  of H.M.S. Beagle in the years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43,  by command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty: 
also, a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's visits to the islands in the Arafura Sea, Volume Two. 
T. and W. Boone, London, 1846.

Also note:
Foreign field sports, fisheries, sporting anecdotes, &c. &c. : from drawings by Messrs. Howitt, Atkinson, Clark, Manskirch, &c. : with a supplement of New South Wales.
London : Edward Orme, [ca. 1819]

Hand-coloured aquatints of Australian aborigines were originally published separately as Field sports of the native inhabitants of New South Wales (1813).
 In 1814 they were issued as a supplement to the larger work,
Foreign field sports.
http://monash.edu/library/collections/exhibitions/recent-acquisitions4/virtual/photos/photo1.html
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lewin-john-william-2354
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewin

Film
Charles Mountford: Aborigines of the Sea Coast, 1948-1951.
The record of the 1948 expedition to Arnhem Land sponsored by the National Geographical Society and the Smithsonian Institution.
It shows the life of sea coast Aborigines at Yirrkala in the north-eastern corner of Arnhem Land.
Demonstrates how, as children, they learn to handle canoes made from bark and as adults how they use them for fishing and hunting turtle.

Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45481152

Return to Source Documents
surfresearch.com.au
home catalogue history references appendix

Geoff Cater (2013-2014) : History : Aboriginal Rafts and Canoes, from 1770.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/0000h_Rafts_Canoes_Australia.html