ABOEIGINAL FISHERIES. 95 



CHAPTER IX. 



ABOEiaiNAL FISHEKIES. 



Contributed by E. G-. W. Palmee. 



Pish, in almost all its edible forms, including molluscs and 

 Crustacea, must always have formed a very important item 

 in the bill of fare of the Australian Aborigines, and have 

 been the great standby of many of the principal tribes. This 

 is clearly evidenced by the " Kitchen Middens" along the 

 shores of many of our rivers and estuaries, and the rock 

 shelters or caves around Port Jackson present, on even a 

 casual investigation, abundant proof that fish and oysters, 

 with other marine products, entered largely into the daily 

 cuisine of the tribes who held sway here before the white 

 men took their place. Considerable ingenuity was exercised 

 by them in obtaining supplies, and many devices were used 

 according to the class of fish to be taken and the character 

 of the waters they frequented. Probably the greatest quantity 

 was obtained by the use of the muttock or three or four 

 pointed fish-spear. Where the water was shallow they would 

 wade about on the mud flats spearing the mullet, whiting, 

 bream, and flatheads as they came within range, or, in deeper 

 waters they would float in their bark canoes striking the 

 larger fish with a dexterity born of long practice and 

 the promptings of a healthy appetite. Spearing fish by 

 torchlight w^as a device often practised by them, and in 

 Port Stephens, when the tribes were numerous, I have seen 

 a number of canoes in which the gins held the flaming 

 firesticks while their husbands darted their muttocks at the 

 fish attracted by the light. Some of the tribes were good 

 net-makers, and they also fabricated hooks of sharp splinters 

 bones and shells which served their purpose fairly well, but 

 have now been discarded for hooks of European manufacture. 

 Nettle-bark, Kurrajong, and various other fibrous plants were 

 used to make their fishins^-lines and the twine or cordage of 

 their nets. On the Clarence, and probably elsewhere, they 

 pormded up certain plants and barks which they cast into the 

 waterholes and creeks, making the water so obnoxious to the 

 fish that they speedily came to the surface and were made an 

 easy prey. Eels would glide from the water and hide among 

 the grass and sedge and the fish would make every effort to 



