74 



It. H. CAMBAGE AND H. SELKIRK. 



EARLY DRAWINGS OF AN ABORIGINAL 

 CEREMONIAL GROUND. 



By R. H. Oambage and Henry Selkirk. 



With Three Text; Figures. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N.8. Wales, August 4, 1920.~\ 



What has been regarded as the earliest plan of an aboriginal 

 Bora or other Ceremonial Ground appears in J. Henderson's 

 "Observations on the Colonies of New South Wales and 

 Van Diemen's Land," published in 1832. ] The sketches in 

 "An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales " 

 by David Collins (1804), portray various stages of the 

 initiation ceremony without giving a definite layout of the 

 ground. The rough drawings described in the present paper, 

 however, are of earlier date than Henderson's, having been 

 made by Surveyor General John Oxley at Moreton Bay in 

 October 1824, and have remained in obscurity for 96 years. 

 (Field Books 216 and 217, Lands Department). 2 These 

 drawings were made in pencil and the decipherable portions 

 were recently inked in for the purpose of preserving this 

 interesting ethnological record, but some of the notes are 

 too indistinct to be deciphered. 



Oxley made these drawings during an expedition to 

 Moreton Bay in 1824 in the cutter "Mermaid." He made 

 three visits to Moreton Bay, the first on his return journey 

 from Port Curtis at the end of November 1823, when the 

 Brisbane Kiver was explored; the second in September 

 and October, 1824, when an extensive marine survey of 

 the bay was carried out; and the third in November and 

 December of the same year, when he was accompanied by 

 His Excellency Sir Thomas Brisbane. 



1 See reference by R. H. Mathews, these Proceedings, Vol. xxvm, 102,. 

 (1894). a Now in Mitchell Libraay. 



