Section F, 
ETHNOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 
T. WORSNOP, Esq. 
THE PREHISTORIC ARTS OF THE ABORIGINES OF 
AUSTRALIA. 
For many years after the settlement of Australia little was known 
of the sculptures, carvings, and paintings of the aborigines of this 
continent. The first to call attention to these were Captain Cook, 
Governor Phillip, Surgeon White, Captain Tench, Flinders, and the 
officers of the first Government on the establishment of the colony 
of New South Wales. These were followed by Mitchell, Grev, and 
the officers of the Imperial Navy when surveying the eastern, northern, 
and western coasts. Subsequently Leichhardt, Sturt, McDouall 
Stuart, Giles, Forrest, Kennedy, Gregory, and others have written of 
their discoveries of artistic paintings and carvings of the natives. 
They have been discovered delineated in caverns, in rock shelters, on 
rocks, and up on the now almost inaccessible faces of high cliffs. A 
mass of valuable and interesting data spread over a wide field has, 
during the last few years, rapidly accumulated, by means of which it 
is possible to study the rude and primitive ideas of the original 
artist. The origin of these rock sculptures and paintings is really a 
matter of absorbing interest, and the solution of the problem of their 
origin is one to be anxiously looked forward to. These unexplored 
fields will, on investigation, no doubt supply information of wondrous 
interest to all, fora halo of romance and mystery lies over them, which 
the traditions of the native race utterly fail to interpret. 
The almost total absence of historical notices, relative to the 
aborigiues of Australia, during the long ages that have passed since 
this continent was first peopled, to a period within little more than 
100 years from the present time, precludes the possibility, in my 
opinion, of any satisfactory data from such a source being recovered 
upon which to base historical facts upon incontestable proof. We are, 
therefore, compelled to fall back upon artistic productions from 
which we may glean some evidence of the past life, history, and 
intercourse of the aborigines with other nations. 
It is difficult, and for most people quite impossible, to realise the 
conditions of a race having to face the needs of a struggle for existence, 
where the animal kingdom x>resents more remarkable anomalies and 
peculiarities in its mammalia than in Australia. There is certainly 
