20 ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF QUEENSLAND. 



was a <;ure test of race— a fallacy now abandoned. The 

 study of class systems demonstrates most emphatically 

 that our present day geographical delineations cannot be 

 said to have an^'thing to do %rith the distribution of the 

 native tribes originally, hence our references to Queensland 

 must of necessity be arbitrary. 



Howitt (56) also devoted much time and energy to 

 Australian initiation ceremonies, which, in so far as these 

 contain references to portions of Queensland, must be 

 briefly referred to here. The practice of sending a message 

 through a totem occurs in North Queensland, and the fact 

 is recorded that the message stick must be made of some 

 tree belonging to the same class division as both the sender 

 and the bearer of the message (page 438). E. M. Tyler 

 " On the limits of savage religion " (140), discusses 

 Australian conditions favourable to Queensland with 

 reference to the mythical being " Daramulum."' and 

 latterly R. Etheridge Jnr. (23, 24), has contributed useful 

 articles on various weapons and implements from Queens- 

 land, resulting in the description of a large mimber of 

 Ethnological specimens mostly from Queensland (22). 



The first ethnological paper in the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of Queensland was contributed by Henry 

 Tryon (138) on " Rock Drawings." The author depicts 

 Queensland rock drawings of a very crude character, 

 many being more Hke scratchings than drawings. Similar 

 typical engravings occur in different parts of Queensland, 

 including the locality of the Burnett River.* 



*With reference to Burnett River engravings, I would like to say 

 that I recently examined these in oompany with Aid. Maynard, of 

 Bundaberg (to whom I am indebted for many courtesie.«). The rocks on 

 whioh the engravings have been scratched, now form a pait of the bed 

 of the river. At the time these were made the rocks must have stood 

 some 6 or 7 feet high out of the creek's bed ; this is coiroborated by old 

 residents. In addition to the drawings, mealing-stones and sharf>ening 

 surfaces for stone axes are scattered over the surface of the rocks ne^r 

 the edge, so that the native by standing on a ledge eould work without 

 stooping. The position of these rocks is close to Bingera. near that part 

 of ti»e Burnett where Pine Creek enters, in the parish of South Kolajh, 

 Shire of Gooburrum, 21 miles west of Bundaberg by road. This is 

 evidently the "crossing place'" or "ford" to which "Bingera" owt^ 

 its name. Various stone axes, wedges, etc., found here demonstrate tht'. 

 this was at one time a popular camping ground. 



