club
- Museum number
- Oc1848,0202.1
- Description
-
Club of wood, with pointed oviform head.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1846)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 62 centimetres
-
Width: 5.70 centimetres
-
Depth: 5.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Registration slip description:
South Australia. Interior
Club of pale wood, with pointed oviform head: handle end imperfect.
This attribution would appear to incorrect as this club and a shield (Oc1848,0202.2) were collected by Mitchell on 29 October 1846 during his fourth expedition into inland Australia. From analysis of his narrative, the objects were collected approximately 50 miles northest of St George, in southwestern Queensland. In his narrative about the expedition Mitchell noted '...We discovered this day a club and shield, such as the natives use on the Belyando, carefully put away upon a sort of scaffold of bark, and covered with bark. The shield was made of very light wood, the face being rounded, and having been covered with a dark varnish like japan; for which the surface had been made rough by crossed lines, resembling those made on the first coat of plaster. It was evident, from the marks on this shield, that the clubs were frequently used as missiles'. [footnote] 'Deposited in the British Museum'. From Chapter VIII, Mitchell, T.L 1848 'Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria', London.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1848
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1848,0202.1