The Bullroarer Atlas

AUSMAIN-008 - museum specimen

Bangerang (Pangerang)

Australia - Murray-Goulburn River, northern Victoria and southern NSW (Cummeragunja)

Play / practical

A Kurnai (Gunai) bull-roarer covered in a crossed diagonal lattice, cord wound at its stepped neck, as figured by Howitt in 1904; the Bangerang...
Representative image. A Kurnai (Gunai) bull-roarer covered in a crossed diagonal lattice, cord wound at its stepped neck, as figured by Howitt in 1904; the Bangerang 'wind toy' made in 1988 by Elder John 'Sandy' Atkinson, now in Museums Victoria's Australian Children's Folklore Collection, has not been photographed. A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), fig. 37 Public domain Image source

This wooden bull-roarer, catalogued by Museums Victoria under the alternative name "wind toy," was made in 1988 by John "Sandy" Atkinson, a Bangerang Elder born in 1932 at the Cummeragunja Reserve on the New South Wales bank of the Murray River. In 1983 Atkinson was made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his service to Aboriginal arts; he had earlier driven the creation of the Bangerang Cultural Centre at Shepparton, often called Australia's first Aboriginal "keeping place," which opened in 1982. He donated this piece to the Australian Children's Folklore Collection, where it is held as a child's wind toy rather than a ceremonial object.

Made by John 'Sandy' Atkinson in 1988 and donated by him to the Australian Children's Folklore Collection.

Museums Victoria, Bullroarer SH 990088 (Australian Children's Folklore Collection)
Object
Wooden bull-roarer ('wind toy') made by Bangerang Elder John 'Sandy' Atkinson AM in 1988; Museums Victoria SH 990088 (Australian Children's Folklore Collection).
Function
Hand-crafted as a Bangerang play/teaching object for the children's folklore collection.
Map confidence
high - approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)
Source location
SH 990088

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