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THE USE OF THE WOMERAH, OR '* THROW STICK" 

 BY THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



[By Alfred J. Taylor, F.L.S.] 



In the course of a discussion that followed a lecture I de- 

 livered recently on the Aboriginies of Tasmania, Mr. Thomas 

 Lewis, a member of this Society, referred to the use of the 

 '' Womerah," or " Throw Stick " by our natives. This was the 

 first tiaie I had heard of the instrument being used by the 

 aborigines of Tasmania. There is no record of their use of it 

 in any of the works dealing with their history, nor is the 

 Womerah preserved in any of our Ethnological Collections of 

 Tasmanian Weapons, etc. On the contrary, Ronald Grunn, 

 F.R.S., informed Mr. R. Brough Smythe, who has duly 

 recorded the statement in his account of the aborigines of 

 Tasmania, th^t " they had no throwing sticks." 



1 he fact related to me by Mr. Lewis, that the natives of 

 this island used the Womerah ; that they knew it by that 

 name, and that he himself saw them using it when Robinson 

 brought in the remnants of the race after the celebrated 

 '' black war," about the year 1835, is interesting in more ways 

 than one. 



It is interesting to know that it was used by our natives 

 at all, and it is interesting to know that it was known by the 

 same name as it is known by among the Goulbuin tribe of 

 natives in Victoria. The latter fact may help us in unravell- 

 ing the mystery of the origin of our aborigines as a race — other 

 tribes calling the instrument by a different name. 



The Womerah used by the Victorian blacks is usually a 

 mere stick, with a hook or ^^I'ojection at one end, which the 

 hollow at the end of the spears used fits on to. The object of 

 the Womerah is to give length to the natural arm, and so 

 gain additional leverage power for casting the spear, whicli, 

 by its aid, could be thrown more swiftlv, and to a greater 

 distance. 



I was at first inclined to think that perhaps the natives of 

 Tasmania had been taught the use of the Womerah by the 

 native " Mosquito," who came over from New South Wales 

 to Tasmania in the early days of the Colony ; but Mr. Morton 

 tells me that there is no hollow in the end of the spears he 

 has in the Museum, showing that for such spears, at least, a 

 Womerah, similar to that made by the natives of other tribes, 

 had not been used. 



This, however, presents no difficulty, as Mr. Lewis tells me 

 that instead of having a hook at the end, the Womerah used 

 by the natives of Tasmania had a projection at one end that 

 was hollowed out, and into which hollow the end of the 

 spear was fixed. Perhaps others who read these notes may- 

 be able to throw some light on the subject. 



