Australites from Earaheedy and Glenayle Stations 
Table 1 Comparison between australites from, 1, 
Earaheedy Station (this work) and, 2, eight 
samples from the Eastern Goldfields of 
Western Australia, mean and standard 
deviation (Cleverly 1994). 
1 2 
Mean 
S.D. 
1 
Whole forms or essentially so % 
29.8 
38.2 
9.5 
2 
Incomplete but classifiable % 
11.4 
12.8 
2.2 
3 
Total classifiable % 
41.2 
51.0 
9.8 
4 
Fragments and indeterminate % 
43.4 
47.9 
9.9 
5 
Flakes and flaked core % 
15.4 
1.1 
1.1 
6 
Round forms % 
69.7 
69.0 
7.9 
7 
Broad oval forms % 
11.1 
8.2 
3.5 
8 
Round plus broad oval forms % 
80.8 
77.2 
4.6 
9 
Narrow oval forms % 
6.9 
7.6 
2.0 
10 
Boat forms % 
2.5 
5.1 
0.8 
11 
Dumbbell forms % 
6.0 
7.2 
1.5 
12 
Teardrop forms % 
3.8 
3.0 
1.7 
13 
Aberrant forms as a percentage 
of classifiable 
2.9 
3.0 
0.9 
14 
Flanged, disk and plate, bowl and 
canoe forms % 
2.7 
2.4 
3.0 
15 
Indicators I % 
0.8 
1.7 
1.4 
16 
Lens-forms % 
53.1 
60.4 
11.1 
17 
Indicators II 
2.4 
1.2 
1.1 
18 
Cores iocjyding conical % 
41.0 
34.2 
11.0 
19 
Cores/lens-forms ratio 
0.77 
0.61 
0.27 
20 
Number of whole australites 
2599 
21 
Mean weight of whole 
australites (g) 
3.30 
2.75 
1.07 
22 
Total number of specimens 
8720 
23 
Mean weight of all specimens (g) 
2.10 
1.87 
0.57 
24 
Number of shape types in sample 34 
and the Eastern Goldfields australites is the high 
percentage of flaked specimens - 15.4% at 
Earaheedy, 1.1% in the Goldfields (Table 1, item 5). 
The abundance of flaked australites collected at 
sites over a length exceeding 50 km is unique in the 
writer's experience. In the Mount Remarkable- 
Yerilla portion of the Eastern Goldfields, about one 
third of the available specimens were flakes, but 
they were from a single water source (Cleverly 
1988). The use of australites at Earaheedy appears 
to have been general, at least throughout the area 
which is well represented in the sample. Flakes and 
flaked cores constitute 28.4% of the 1319 australite 
specimens collected from fresh water claypans, and 
because collectors returned continually to those 
productive sites, the abundance of flakes in the 
overall sample (15.4%) is a slightly inflated figure. 
A minor difference between the Earaheedy and 
Eastern Goldfields samples is the low percentage 
of boat forms - 2.5% compared with 5.1% (Table 1, 
item 10). 
The mean weight of 3.30 g for whole australites 
is within the usual range of 2.75+ 1.07 g for those 
173 
of the Eastern Goldfields (Table 1, item 21); 
similarly, the mean weight of 2.10 g for all 
specimens conforms with 1.87± 0.57 g for the 
Eastern Goldfields (Table 1, item 23). 
Thirty four shape types are present in the sample, 
a figure within the range c. 28 - 40 for an Eastern 
Goldfields sample of comparable size (Cleverly 
1994). 
CONCLUSION 
Australites from Earaheedy station are similar in 
major features to those of the Eastern Goldfields 
except in the abundance of flaked specimens, and 
that is an artificial feature resulting from their 
destructive use by Aborigines. 
NOTES ON AUSTRALITES FROM GLENAYLE 
STATION 
Glenayle Station is north of Earaheedy Station 
with much of the intervening country unoccupied 
(Figure 4). The following australites found on 
Glenayle Station were available for examination. 
1. Twenty specimens from the claypan 1 km east of 
the homestead (Western Australian School of 
Mines collection). 
2. Ms J. Ward's collection of 257 australites from 
places as far west as Scorpion Bore (67 km west- 
northwest of the homestead and on the Canning 
Stock Route) to near the eastern boundary and to 
within a few kilometres of the far northern 
boundary. A major, but indistinguishable and 
unspecified, component of this collection was 
gathered meticulously from the claypan 1 km east 
of the homestead. The numerous small flakes in 
this component are responsible for the unusually 
low average weight of 1.05 g for the collection. 
Australites are known to the Ward family as 
"moppins" from an Aboriginal word, probably a 
Figure 4 Map showing location of Glenayle Station 
relative to Earaheedy Station. CSR signifies 
Canning Stock Route. 
