Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 26 February 1921, page 6


AUSTRALIA'S PRIMITIVE MAN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS.

Sir,—In "The Argus" of last Saturday, under the above heading, occurs the fol-lowing from your London correspon-

dent:—

"The Australians of to-day seem to be a hybrid race, consisting of Asiatic and Tasmanian ele-ments. The race represented by Dr. Dubois's discoveries seem to have come into Northern Australia by boat, with their dingoes. They drove the Tasmanians southward into Victoria and Tas-

mania. Even in recent times the vestiges of the Tasmanian type were more pronounced in Vic-toria than in New South Wales and Queensland.

Professor Baldwin Spencer has recalled that the Victorian native dialects contain a number of pure Tasmanian words."

There is some confusion here. If my name were substituted for that of Professor Spencer, the statement would be correct. I was the originator of what has been termed "the conflict theory" of the origin of the Australian aborigines, and it was I who first discovered and published the affinities between the Tasmanian and Aus-tralian languages, and showed that ves-tiges of the Tasmanians were most pro-nounced in Victoria. My theory was first enunciated in a prize essay "Jour. R. Soc. N.S.W.," 1899, 14 years before Spencer and Gillen investigated aboriginal life in Central Australia. It was further elabor-ated in my "Eaglehawk and Crow," 1899, and received its final form in my "Two Representative Tribes of Queensland,"

1910.

There is a tendency to father every-thing of importance that has been done in Australian anthropology on to three or four investigators; in racing parlance—the rest are nowhere. My views were out of line with those in vogue, and I had to smart from suspicion and opposition. Even here, in Melbourne, my "Eaglehawk and Crow" (of which my theory of origins was a conspicuous feature) was pronounced "suspect" (not by an anthropologist) to my Alma Mater, and the ban has not been removed. My views were endorsed con amore by Professor A. H. Keane, vice-

president of the Anthropological Institute, and author of "Ethnology," "Man Past and Present," "The World's Peoples," &c. As I have had to suffer for my scientific heterodoxy, I may as well claim the little credit due when it becomes scientific ortho-

doxy.—Yours, &c.,

JOHN MATHEW.

Coburg, Feb. 21

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS.

Sir,—The admirable and interesting an-

thropological argument bearing upon the

"Talgai" skull which appeared in "The Argus" on Saturday last carries us a good step nearer to conclusions upon the subject of primitive man in Australia. But "the missing page of human history"— which un-doubtedly lies buried in the bosom of this great continent—can only be exhaustively interpreted when the archæological and eth-nological sciences have contributed their quota to the scientific sum. Will you there-fore allow me to place before your readers a brief account of some archæological dis-coveries which I have recently made, which support your London correspondent's an-thropological argument?

When corresponding with the director of our National Museum some two and a half years ago upon the subject of primitive implements and weapons which at that time I had found in the earliest and latest de-posits of the present Moorabool River, I ventured to inform the director that I expected to prove man's presence beneath the basalt flows during the following sum-mer. Since that time I have made excava-tions in the now exposed gravels of a once-buried river at Morangburk, and during the past year I have discovered, amongst other things, from 60 to 70 very primitive representations, in stone, of animal, bird, and human heads, all of which were buried around and within six feet of a large rock in the upper half of the sub-basaltic river gravels. Originally this ancient river was buried to a depth of nearly 300 feet by those great lava flows which so completely changed the face of the Western district. Accounts of these discoveries have appeared in the Geelong Advertiser from time to time, and the primitive sculptures have been forwarded to the Geelong Field Naturalists' Club in connection with the ###The letter appears to be truncated here without identification of the writer, but may be continued and concluded at the head of the next column, beginning "Gordon Technical College..."###

ABORIGINES' QUARRIES

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS

Sir,—I heartily endorse the sentiments ex-pressed by Mr A. F. Cameron in his letter on this subject, published in "The Argus" of Saturday, February 19.

The blackfellows' quarries at Mount Wil-liam, 10 miles from Lancefield, have the principal claim to be the most remarkable historic landmark of the aboriginal race, which is still as the blacks left it.

When I visited it some years ago I was struck by the impression one receives that the aborigines might have only left it yes-terday. It is not overgrown by native scrub and timber, the ground being too hard and rocky.

There are thousands of partially comple-ted axes lying about which doubtless had some defect the black artificers alone could observe The face of the quarry is bold and sheer. In the centre of a cleared space in the ground there is a large stone anvil, part

of the solid rock foundation The centre is cleft to hold the partially chipped axe in position for finishing. In other surround-ings it might be taken for a sacrificial

altar.

The stone to be wrought was flaked off the face of the quarry by fire. When the axes were shaped into the form observed in all relics of the stone age in Australia and Europe, it was taken down to the creek at the foot of the rise and polished by rubbing in a stone trough. I saw one of these troughs which had ground many

an axe in olden times.

I was at that time an enthusiastic mem-

ber of the Geographical Society of Mel-bourne and the Anthropological Society in Sydney. Assisted by another member of the former society and my son, I collec-ted many specimens, sending some to Sydney and some to Mr A. C. McDonald, secretary of the Geographical Society. I also wrote a description of the quarry,

which was published in the journal of the Anthropological Society, and I think also in the journal of the Geographical Society.

About the same time I excavated "black ovens" or "kitchen middens", as they are called in Europe, at Kerang Lakes in Vic-toria, and the banks of the River Murray at Mathoura, near its junction with the Gulpha Creek, in New South Wales, and sent relics found there to Sydney, there being no facilities for storing such ugly and cumbersome things as skeletons in the Mel-bourne rooms in Queen street.

Anyone interested in this subject should read Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria," in which excellent work this quarry is men-

tioned.

Mr Cameron states:—the whole cost to purchase and reserve the necessary area could be carried out for the sum of £300, the quarries being on private property.

I suggest that some cultured Victorian, who can spare £300 for a hobby, should purchase this remarkable memorial of a race that has passed, leaving very few traces of its existence behind it

The land might be enclosed with a sub-stantial iron fence, vested in the Govern-ment and named after the generous donor.—Yours, &c., C. H. D.

South Yarra, Feb. 21

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE ARGUS.

Sir,—With reference to Mr A. F. Cameron's letter in "The Argus" of Satur-day, suggesting that the Government should purchase the piece of land at Mount Wil-

liam upon which are the ancient native diorite quarries. I have visited these quar-ries, and as they now stand, there is little evidence that they have been much inter-fered with; but as greater interest is now being manifested in the collecting of Vic-

torian native stone implements, which have great scientific interest, if this wonderful historic [workshop] is not immediately pro-tected from spoliation, it will soon be ruined and gone for ever.

This stone-age workshop, existing in almost its original state within the 20th century, goes back to its counterpart of the stone age of Europe 10,000 years ago, and it is a wonderful fact that we in Australia are living within touch of native tribes of the stone-age.

This native quarry is not one large mass of stone, as we know a quarry from which material is blasted, but at Mount William it consists of a whole series of small out-

crops of diorite perhaps in number about 150, within an area of about 25 acres. These outcrops vary in size from about seven yards to 20 yards square. Nearly all of these outcrops show evidences of having been worked upon, and some of the exten-sive workings are of very great age.

The reputation of this quarry for produc-ing the finest and toughest stone for mak-ing stone axes was known to the natives throughout Australia, and the stone was traded right up to Port Darwin.

The labour of production was immense, as the aborigine had no other tool but another piece of stone to smash off a large flake from the outcrop upon which he was working and then with another stone re-duce this piece by roughly flaking it down to the required shape and size. When finally it was closely chipped, the rough edges were pounded smoothly down ready for the fine-cutting working edge to be ground on a sandstone rock with the aid

of water.

At Mount William to-day there is the stone anvil the workman used to flake the stone upon; there are the great pon-derous stone hammers which he used to break off the large pieces from the outcrop, and there are heaps of discarded shapes which either broke or flaked badly, together with the accumulation of chippings, show-ing where the workman sat and laboured.— Yours, &c., W. H. GILL.

Feb. 21

Gordon Technical College, through the

editor of the "Advertiser."

Having made an exhaustive search in the sub-basaltic and post basaltic gravels and a study of the archæological and ethnolo-gical evidence which I have found in both,

I now have no hesitation in saving that the primitive works of art from these basalt or pleistocene gravels beneath the basalt are the work of the autochthonous ?????? tants of Australia that they, support and

are supported by Dr Howitt's tentative hypothesis—of a race of which the Tas-manians were the remnant, which occupied the Australian continent at that remote geological time when Tasmania was a part

of the mainland

The evidence which I had previously col-

lected from post basaltic gravels (much of which is now in the hands of Mrs Daisy M. Bates and Dr. Herbert Basedow) indicates that those autochthonous inhabitants of Australia continued upon the present Moorabool River until one or two thousand years ago and that they were then using the same class of instruments and weapons

and were making primitive human animal, and bird forms similar to those which their sub-basaltic ancestors had made hundreds of thousands of years before them.

It is probable that the ancient works of art from around the rock beneath the basalt have a totemic significance that they have some connection with the Churinga Nanja burials of the Arunta myths (?) and it is possible that this connection may be estab-lished thereby proving the immense an-tiquity of those totemic beliefs and prac-tices The evidence generally indicates that in those remote ages these primitive ment had a language and that they were, both figuratively and literally imaginative They sometimes display ingenuity in their de-signs and in adapting their implements and weapons to the fingers or hands. A large number of the animal and bird forms have thus been adapted to the grip and they appear to have been used for rubbing other implements or weapons. The evidence from beneath the basalt also shows that the human group which made and used these primitive works of art remained in this locality for ages during which time the river gravels accumulated to the extent of six feet in depth thus buring the Nanja (?) rock and finally covering it with a forma-

tion of fine sand

Are these remains those of a magical society and were the objects used for magi-

cal purposes? And have they an exogamous significance? These are questions for our great authorities upon the subject of totemism I shall be pleased to place the evidence before them —Yours &c.,

J. MUMFORD.

Moranghurk, Lethbridge Feb 23