ABORIGINAL FISHERIES AT BREWARRINA. 153 
worked by his relatives, such as uncles, brothers, brothers- 
in-law, nephews, or the like. Generally speaking, there 
were some straggling members of the tribe located about 
the fishing grounds all the year round. 
The fishing season was sometimes made the occasion of 
inviting neighbouring tribes to join in their great corob- 
borees, initiation ceremonies, or meetings for trade and 
barter. The people camped on either side or both sides of 
the river, because when the water was low enough to admit 
of the traps being used, it was quite easy for those who 
wished to visit friends on the opposite shore, to wade across 
the rocky bar. 
The principal] fish which formed the subject of operations 
at the traps were Murray cod, black bream, and yellow 
bellies. The black bream was the favourite fish among 
the aborigines as an article of food. The cod fish, so the 
natives told me, ramble down as well as up stream, and 
were caught in the pens at any time. 
In the “‘ History of the Fisheries of New South Wales,”’’ 
by Lindsay G. Thompson, published by authority of the New 
South Wales Commissioners for the World’s Columbian 
Exposition, Chicago, 1893, an article was furnished by Mr. 
H. G. W. Palmer, in which at pp. 96—98, he briefly refers 
to the Brewarrina Fishery, and gives a photographic view 
of a portion of the structure. He erroneously describes 
the rocky bar as a “granitic dyke.’’ 
EXPLANATION OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
No. 1. Diagram.—The accompanying plan has been pre- 
pared by me from a detail survey which I made about a 
year and a half ago, and shews twelve chains of the channel 
of the Darling River, representing the dykes and pens still 
existing on the best preserved portion of the ancient fishing 
locality. Extending upward from A, see diagram, there 
are about eight chains more of the river floor containing 
K —Auzg. 5, 1903. 
