500 PROCEEDOGS OF SECTION F. 



cliorite, or some similar closely-gi'ained rock, was preferred for making 

 the axe-heads; these were hig-hly prized, and special products of other 

 districts were given in exchange for the axes or the coveted material 

 for making them. 



An extensive native stone quarry of diorite near Lancefield, Vic- 

 toria, reveals conclusive traces of having been regularly worked, 

 probably for ages, to obtain pieces suitable for making axe-heads. 

 Most of those formerly used in Northera Victoria and the Riverina 

 district were probably obtained from this source, the native ovens 

 along the Murray and its tributaries often containing diorite axes. 

 The absence of stone on the great northern plains, of necessity, com- 

 pelled the tribes of this district to obtain the material from the south. 



Along the coast from Port Phillip westward, and particularly to 

 the south of Geelong, the majority of the axe>-heads, of which very 

 many have from time to time been found, are of gabbro, or diallage 

 rock, of which an outcrop, bearing evidence of having been worked by 

 the aborigines, occurs near Batesford, about 6 miles from Geelong. 

 This stone, although not so dense in texture as diorite, takes a beauti- 

 ful polish, a sharp edge, and is specially suitable for axe-heads. 

 Although not outcropping within some miles of the coast, pieces of 

 gabbro, used as hammers for striking off chips, or sometimes roughly 

 chipped for ' construction into axe^heads, may be foiind in the old 

 kitchen-middens at Bream Creek, Torquay, Anglesea, and other places 

 on the coast; whilst finished axes of gabbro, ground and polished,, 

 were not infrequently discovered. 



Although material like gabbro or diorite was highly prized and 

 sought after, yet, in the absence of more suitable material, quartzite, 

 hard compact coast limestone, chert, and the denser basalts, were 

 occasionally made into axe-heads and cutting instriiments, although 

 they were not such effective weapons. Stones partly shaped in the 

 river beds or creeks by water action were sometimes chipped to shape ; 

 but the diorite or galobro Avas quanied from the outcrop, and carried 

 great distances to be manufactured into weapons. For splitting 

 trees, or stripping bark, wedges of basalt, hard limestone, or sand- 

 stone, Avere chipped to the required shape. The anvil-stones of basalt 

 or limestone were carried from the creeks or rivers to the camping- 

 places, and are invariably hollowed in the centre on one or both sides 

 by continued percussion ; whilst smaller stones of similar materials, 

 used for crushing shell-fish, roots, or tubers, &c., bear similar marks. 



Among the shell-mounds, and near the ovens, are found cores of 

 flint from which chips have been struck off, whilst numerous chips, 

 lance or knife-shaped, Ciccuf with quartz-chips, the latter probably 

 used for lateral insertion in fishing spears, for it seems the spear-head 

 of the Northern and Western Australian blacks was unknown to the 

 South-eastern tribes. Mills or grinding-stones are not so numerous 

 in comparison near the coast as in the interior, Avliere the food was 

 more often of seeds, nardoo, &c. In Northern Victoria and Riverina, 

 where stones are indeed a luxury, hundreds of square miles being 

 devoid of stone, some fine specimens of grinding-stones have been 

 found, often one or more feet m length, usually of a close and hard- 

 grained sandstone, and hollowed out by ages of use on one or both 

 sides. These were undoubtedly carried hundreds of miles, and wer& 



