Some Australian Tree Carvings

Some Australian Tree CarvingsAuthor(s): Herbert PerkinsSource: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 29,No. 1/2 (1899), pp. 152-153Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2842588 .

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( 152 )

SOME AUSTRALIAN TREE CARVINGS.

BY HERBERT PERKINS.

[WITH PLATES XXV TO XXVIT.]

THE originals of my photographs are in the Australian Museum, Sydney. They form a collection unique of its kind, consisting of twenty-two logs or trunks of trees that have been cut down in various localities and presented to the Museum at different times. Through the kind permission extended to me by the trustees of the institution and its curator, Robert Etheridge, Esq., Junr., I was enabled to liave a series of twelve photographs of them taken for the purpose of illustrating this article.

Unfortunately there is very little knowni of the history of these carvings, or of their actual meaning. What they are intended to represent or commemorate is very largely a matter of conjecture.

"In fact," as Mr. Etheridge, to whom I ain indebted for my rather meagre information, said to me, "we know absolutely nothing reliable about them. Where some lingering native tradition has survived it has been embodied in the label attached to the exhibit. It is, however, known that all these carvings are of an earlier date than the exploration and settlement of the country by Europealns, .nd there is no instance on record of similar work having been done by the aborigines since that time."

It has also been ascertained that the area over which they are distributed is very limited. It may be roughly described as a lono narrow strip of country running north and south, on the western side of and nearly parallel to the main range, and wholly situated in the central portion of the Colony of New South Wales.

Outside these limits similar tree carvings have not, I believe, been discovered in Australia.

In the Museum are six photographs showing the trees as they actually aippeared standincg in the bush, aiid I may mention here that all the carved trees found were dead ones. Of these there is no further inlformiation obtainable other than what the various labels state, which are as follows:-

" Trees carved by Aborigines near iDubbo, N.S.W." "Trunk of tree carved by Aborigines near DDubbo, N.S.W. This carving

is possibly intended to commemorate some circumstance connected with the Boomerang."

"Trunk of tree carved by Aboriginies near Guntewong, N.S.W. Placed to mark the grave of a 'Doctor' or 'Medicine Man' at 'Derwent



Journal of the Anthropological Iiistitute (N.S.), T'ol. If, Plate X-YT-.

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TREE CARVINGS, NEW SOUTH WALES.



,Journal of the Anthropological Institute (1X.8.), T7ol. rl, Plate XXEVI.

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TREE CARINGS, NE SOtH WAES



Joitrnal of the Anthropological In.91itute (LY.S.), T'ol. II. Plate XXVII1.

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THE GAVEt8 OF At NAIV OF AS ii\>t'I IALIA

(Fr0> o X;i Oxe' Exedtin* s, p;S. 139.)!w1|



H. PERmINS.-So0nw AuStralian Tre,e Cariaigs. 153 ,

Park' niear Gunnedah. In the upper half is delinieated the 'Cobra' or head of the deceased and in the lower his distiinguishing scarifica- tions."

"This information obtained by Mr. Henry Powell, the local 'Forest iRanaer."'

"Trunk of tree carved by Aborigines at Narramine, N.S.W. Placed to markl the grave of a head-man of the 'Macquarie Tribe,' who was a noted 'Boomeranig' thrower, and killed in a tribal fight with the 'Bogan Blacks.' The carvings are possibly intenided for Boomeranogs to commemorate this."

So much for the description of these remarkable carvings. As to whether there may be any further meaning in them beyond that of the somewhat vague legends and surmises given above is, I think, a matter for legitimate speculation. It occurred to me that tlle carvings nmight have some conilection with the "Bora rites."

What are commonly known as "Bora Grounds," the places where the "Bora " rites or rites of initiation of youths iato manhood are carried out, were invariably ornamented by certain designs, generally traced in deep furrows in the ground, and even in some exceptional cases where there was a smooth rock surface cut into the rock. These designs are most remarkably similar to some of the carvings. I have come across several of these " Bora Grounds " in the course of my wanderings in the Australian bush during the last forty-one years, and can therefore speak of them from personal experience.

I would therefore venture the suggestion that some of these carvings may have been executed on the trees to mark the sites of certain particular "Bora Grounds," or even perhaps in some cases to mark the place of, and to commemorate the initiation of, some individual celebrated afterwards among the tribes.

The fact of not finding any tracings or designs on the ground near the trees is easily explained, as if not purposely obliterated, they would quickly become so through the action of the weather.

Note.-Mr. Perkins enclosed with his paper plhotographs of all the specimens in the Museum, but it was found impossible to reproduce them all, more especially as the greater number are published in the Efthrmographical Albumr of the Pacific Islands, 3rd Series. A plate from Oxley's Expeditiows into the interior of LNew Soutth Wales, p. 139, is inserted in order to show similar carvings oni trees stan-dingc nlear to the grave of a native.-EDITOR J.A.J



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Some Australian Tree Carvings