The Bullroarer Atlas

ETHERIDGE1897-001 - museum specimen

Urania Tribe / Linda Creek

Australia - Western Queensland - Linda Creek

Function not recorded

Etheridge's Plate I, figures 3 and 4: the incised bullroarer from Linda Creek, its faces engraved with rows of concentric circles front and...
Etheridge's Plate I, figures 3 and 4: the incised bullroarer from Linda Creek, its faces engraved with rows of concentric circles front and back, cord still tied through the perforation at one end. R. Etheridge Jr, Records of the Australian Museum 3(1), 1897, Plate I Public domain Image source

Source term: Bull-roarer

Sixteen inches long and just over two wide, this bull-roarer carries five concentric-circle figures on each face, the central and largest disc holding sixteen rings set off by crossbars of four incised lines above and below. It is attached to a long cord of human hair and fine emu down, and the whole is covered with ruddle and grease. Robert Etheridge Jr. recorded it in 1897 as one of the most beautiful examples of circular concentric sculpture he knew, from the Urania Tribe at Linda Creek in western Queensland. He identified the object plainly as a bull-roarer but never set down what the Urania people did with it. Of the kindred incised stones he had been describing, ornamented objects he took to be "objects of Aboriginal veneration" employed "in some of the Black's secret rites," he could only write that the precise use "must still remain unknown."

It is attached to a long cord composed of human hair and fine emu down, and is covered with ruddle and grease.

Etheridge 1897, Records of the Australian Museum 3(1):3
Object
Incised bull-roarer with five circular/concentric figures on each face, sixteen inches long by two and a quarter wide, attached to a long cord of human hair and fine emu down, and covered with ruddle and grease.
Function
Object description; specific local use or ceremony is not stated.
Map confidence
medium - Toko/Linda Creek western-Queensland waterway anchor for Etheridge's Urania Tribe, Linda Creek source place; coordinate represents the named creek locality, not a precise collection spot.
Source location
Records of the Australian Museum 3(1): p. 3; Plate i figs. 3-4

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