434 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



etc., but all are conventional in treatment. Also the character of 

 the weapons and utensils to a certain extent is opposed to anything" 

 but simple ornamentation as described. In examining the splendid 

 collections of Australian handiwork in the museums at Melbourne, 

 Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, etc., illustrating the native arts of 

 war and peace as well as " religious " feeling, one cannot but be 

 convinced that it is not owing to want of skill, but to restraint, 

 that there is so little of the imitative art exhibited. 



When we come to the pictorial and carved representations on 

 sheets of bark, trees, smooth rocks, the walls of caves and cliffs, etc., 

 we find more freedom, if less skill, in the character of the forms 

 represented, many of which are zoomorphic. Some, like the 

 Churingas, are evidently sacred and significant in character, and as 

 such are conventional in form and design, and of almost geometrical 

 proportions. Others are evidently drawings, stencils, or carvings 

 of ordinary natural objects, mostly natural objects, chiefly animals. 

 Throughout the whole of Australia we have evidences of such work 

 more or less skilful in execution. Early in the last century Flinders 

 discovered drawings in the hollow of a precipice, where porpoises, 

 turtles, kangaroos and human hands were drawn with burnt stick 

 and charcoal and red pigment. In the account of the English Colony 

 in New South Wales in the 18th century, by David Collins, the 

 aborigines of Port Jackson are described. Mention is made that 

 " on the rocks are frequently to be seen various figures of fish, clubs, 

 swords, animals, and branches of trees, not contemptibly repre- 

 sented." In Lieut., afterwards Sir John, Grey's explorations near 

 thf Glenelg River, Western Australia, in 1838, mention is made of 

 cave paintings on the sandstone representing human figures and 

 kangaroos, black, white, red, yellow, and blue pigments being used. 

 On an isolated rock the profile of a man was seen cut in solid stone. 

 Allan Cunningham also found, at Clack's Island, on the north-east 

 coast of Australia, galleries on a sea-cliff, where dogs, turtles, fish, 

 clubs, canoes, kangaroos, etc., were figured on a red ground, white 

 lines and dots being also freely used. On the Swan River rude 

 paintings have been found. 



In the north-west, near Broome, at De Puch Island, similar 

 arawmgs and carvings, representing kangaroos, wallabies, turtles, 

 turkeys, fishes, and gum trees are to be seen. At many other 

 places in Western Australia records of a like nature remain. Pro- 

 fessor Spencer and Mr. Gillen describe rock-paintings at Ayer's 

 Rock, Barrow Creek and elsewhere. Although not so numerous or 

 so well-preserved in South-eastern Australia, yet some examples 

 are known, as in the Victorian Valley, where a cavern has old 

 aboriginal paintings on its walls. In New South Wales and 

 Queensland many rock paintings and carvings have been noticed 

 and described. At Melville and Bathurst Islands, North of Aus- 

 tralia, the natives of which are Australoid, the carving of wooden 

 memorials to be placed over the remains of the dead shows con- 

 siderable skill. Mr. R. H. Matthews has described and figured a 



