Page 211
ABORIGINAL
NAVIGATION AND OTHER NOTES.
By R. H. Mathews, L.S.
[Read
before the Royal Society
of N.S. Wales, December 4, 1907]
In this paper I have briefly
touched upon the aboriginal methods of navigation, for the
purpose of showing that practically the same kind of
canoes and rafts is used
throughout Australia, which is suggestive of the unity and
common origin of the
native race.
Canoes
made from a single sheet of bark, generally stripped from
a bent tree, were
used by the natives of every part of Australia, with the
exception of a portion
of the coast of Western Australia from Eucla to Albany and
onward about as far
as Gladstone.
One of ray friends who has been acquainted with the
country
between Perth and Israelite Bay since 1844, states that he
never knew or heard
of either canoes or rafts being used by the natives
between the points
mentioned.
Canoes were never seen among the natives of Tasmania, but
rafts took
their place.
The rafts were made of two or more logs of buoyant wood
lashed
together with bark ropes or thongs of skin.
Rafts
were also in use on the north-west coast of Western
Australia, all the way from
the mouth of the Gascoyne River along the seaboard to
Cambridge Gulf, and on as
far as Port Darwin.
The rafts used in Tasmania were practically of the same
construction as those made at Port Darwin and other parts
of Australia. Canoes
made of one sheet of bark were seen by Capt. P. P. King at
Port
Essington (1)- apparently just such a canoe as one might
see
Footnote 1. 'Narrative of a
Survey of the Intertropical
Western Coast of Australia' (London 1827) Vol. I, p. 90.
Page 212
on
the
Murray River in New South Wales or on the Gippsland lakes
in Victoria.
From Port Essington, which is one of the most northern
points of the Australian
continent, to the southern coast of Tasmania, comprises
about thirty-three
degrees of latitude.
These facts show the wide geographic distribution and
uniformity of our native navigation, whether by canoes or
rafts.
With
the exception of Tasmania and the portion of the coast
of Western Australia
above referred to, canoes were used in the same regions
as the rafts.
When a
suitable sheet of bark was not obtainable for making a
canoe, a raft was
constructed in its stead.
I have seen both canoes and rafts afloat at one time
on the same large lagoon in New South Wales.
Capt. Watkin Tench says the
natives of Sydney
Harbour and Botany Bay paddled their canoes "several
miles in the open
sea.' (1) Lieut. C. Jeffreys says the Tasmanian natives
could "cross an
arm of the sea or a lake in their rafts, which were made
to skim along the
surface of the water by means of paddles, with amazing
rapidity and
safety." (2)
Although the canoe is more
serviceable for
many purposes than the raft, yet the latter possesses
the advantage that it is
not so subject to damage by accident, or exposure to the
sun.
Bumping against a
sharp rock or other obstruction may cause an injury to
one of the logs or
bundles of which it is made, without interfering
seriously with the buoyancy of
the rest of the raft.
Such a mishap to a canoe might damage it beyond repair,
or even cause it to sink.
Perhaps this is the reason why rafts are so
universally used.
It has been said by some
writers that because
the aborigines of Tasmania had no canoes, they must have
reached that country
before it was cut off from the main
Footnotes
1.
'Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay,' (London,
1789), p. 84.
2. 'Van
Dieman's Land,' (London, 1820) pp. 127-128.
Page 213
land
of Australia by Bass' Strait.
I am of opinion, however, that it is quite
possible that the Tasmanians crossed over in their rafts
from island to island,
long after the continuous land connection had been
broken through by the sea.
For a long period subsequent to the first severance of
Tasmania from Victoria,
there probably was a chain of islands extending from
Wilson's Promontory via
Kent's Group, Flinders and other islands to Gape
Portland.
There were no doubt
other islands at moderate intervals, reaching across
from Gape Otway via King
island to Cape Grim, and at other places as well.
All such islands, with the
exception of those at present in existence, have
disappeared either by
subsidence or by the wearing action of the sea.
The
hypothesis just stated appears to me more reasonable
than the old theory that
the Tasmanians travelled on dry land all the way from
Victoria to their final
home, because it brings us down to a much later
geological epoch and agrees
better with the time usually assigned to the advent of
man.
Moreover, from my
investigations among the natives of South-east Victoria,
as well as among those
of the Great Australian Bight, I am disposed to think
that there is not much
difference between them and the defunct inhabitants of
Tasmania, pointing to
the conclusion that they have not been separated by a
very great interval of
time.
In certain northern portions
of Australia,
abutting on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the
natives employed two or
three or more pieces of bark in building a canoe, and it
is noteworthy that
such crafts are more elaborate in their manufacture than
those in use in the
southern parts of the continent, a fact which might
suggest foreign influence,
such as that of the Malays or Papuans at some
comparatively recent period.
Rafts and logs were like-
Page 214
wise
used on some of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of
Carpentaria.
The "catamaran" and the
"dug-out" canoe, now used by the aborigines of Cape York
Peninsula,
Port Darwin, and other northern parts of the continent,
will not lie included
in this article, because I do not consider them of
purely Australian
origin, but believe them to be introductions from
Torres Straits.
I would like to offer a few remarks on certain
statements made by two of
the early writers on the New South Wales aborigines.
Dr. George Bennett, when
travelling from Cullen Bullen to Dabee in the Rylstone
district saw some
kurrajong trees, upon which he makes the following
comment:-
"The wood of
the kurrajong tree is used by the aborigines for boats
and canoes.'' (1)
Some
years ago I was all through that district discharging my
duties as a surveyor,
and being aware of Dr. Bennett's statement, I made
inquiry from old
blackfellows if ever they had made canoes out of wood,
but they had never heard
of such a thing.
I also asked white settlers of long standing in that
part, and
their replies were to the same effect.
I am
of opinion that Dr. Bennett was told by white people
that the natives sometimes
used dry logs of kurrajong and other light and buoyant
woods as rafts, and that
he did not differentiate between these and the actual
canoe.
Mr. G. P. Angas says:—"Their
canoes were
very rude.
To the southward and on the Murray River they are mere
pieces of
bark tied together at the ends and kept open by means of
small bows of wood.
Towards the north they have canoes of a more substantial
character, formed of
the trunks of trees, twelve or fourteen feet long; they
are hollowed out by fire and afterwards trimmed into
shape
Footnote 1. 'Wanderings in
New South Wales' (London 1834) I, 115.
Page 215
with
the mogo or
stone hatchet.'' (1)
In 1850 I was working amongst stock on the Clarence
and Nymboida, two important rivers in northern New South Wales, when the blacks were numerous
and I saw them almost every day.
I frequently crossed streams in bark canoes,
but never beard of one cut out of a log of wood by the
blacks.
In several parts
of New South Wales, however, I have seen canoes made by
white men for crossing
over rivers at sheep and cattle stations.
A large, hollow tree was selected aud
cut down.
The rotten interior was burnt out, and then cleaned more
thoroughly
with an axe. The ends were then blocked up with thin
wooden slabs, securely
nuiled in position and afterwards caulked with rags or
wool.
From the vagueness of the
statements of both
Dr. Bennett and Mr. Angas, I feel confident that they
never saw log canoes (or
"dug-outs") in use by the natives, but that they were
misled by the careless
reports of white men.
It is of course possible that some of the aborigines
occasionally copied the white man's method of
constructing a canoe, after they
had been supplied with iron tomahawks and axes, but I
never heard of such a
case.
Footnote 1. 'Waugh's
Australian Almanac for 1858' (Sydney) p. 66.
