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Yulunga: gunane

Skipping with a vine was an amusement for the Jagara (or Jagera) people in the Brisbane area. Some of the people were excellent skippers. A popular place to skip was on the hard sand near the water at the beach. The kind of vine used was the one that was handiest at the time — either those of the scrub or a creeper that ...

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Yulunga: barambah gimbe

Throwing a ball or object high into the air and attempting to catch it was an activity observed in various parts of Australia. This proved to be a particularly popular activity at Barambah (now Cherbourg) after an Aboriginal settlement was established by the Queensland government on the lands of the Wakka Wakka people in ...

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Bound for South Australia 1836: systematic colonisation of South Australia, 1829-36

This section of the website 'Bound for South Australia 1836' summarises the historical background to the decision to establish a settlement in South Australia. The text explains the roles of the South Australian Association, the South Australian Colonization Commission, the South Australian Company and the British Government ...

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Yulunga: gorri

Bowling-ball or disc games were played by Aboriginal boys and men in all parts of Australia. A piece of rounded bark (disc) was rolled by one of the players for the other boys to use as a target for their short spears. A version of this activity is still played in the Kimberley area and Northern Territory (and perhaps elsewhere) ...

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Yulunga: weet weet

The throwing of the play-stick, commonly called the weet weet (‘wit-wit’) was a popular activity among Aboriginal people in some parts of Australia, and various contests were held. The weet weet was often referred to as the ‘kangaroo rat’, because when thrown correctly its flight resembled the leaping action of this small ...

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Yulunga: makar

Various types of toy boats and canoes are found in parts of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. On Sunday Island in northern Australia, small models of the raft (kaloa) were made for children to play with. In other areas of Australia small replicas of dugout canoes were fashioned. In parts of the Torres Strait simple ...

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Yulunga: kabi kabi buroinjin

This was a traditional game of some Aboriginal groups such as the Kabi Kabi in south Queensland. The game was played with a ball made of kangaroo skin, which was called a buroinjin. The ball, which was smaller than a football, was sewn with tendons and stuffed with grass. The game was often played until sunset. Spectators ...

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Yulunga: kai

In this game from the Torres Strait Islands, a number of players stood in a circle and sang the kai wed (ball song) as they hit a ball up in the air with the palms of their hands. The game was played using the thick, oval, deep-red fruit of the kai tree, which is quite light when dry. This is a hand-hitting (volley) game ...

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Yulunga: turlurlu

Turlurlu is the name of a traditional ball rolling and hitting game played by boys in the Great Sandy Desert of central Australia. A rough ball called a kamikami was cut from the thick root of the ngulyungu tree. Each player held a mukurru, or fighting stick, as a bat. The boys formed teams and each side took turns to bowl ...

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Yulunga: edor

This version of a chasing-and-tagging game originates in the Aurukun Aboriginal community and has been popular and played for as long as most can remember. This game has been frequently played around the streets, in the school at break time and before physical education lessons as a fun warm-up activity. The enthusiasm ...

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Yulunga: Gapala

Playing in small dug-out canoes, bark boats or rafts was (and still is) a popular water activity. A favourite game of the Tiwi children of Bathurst Island (northern Australia) in the wet season was pushing a tin, box or other flat-bottomed object along the water. Children’s rafts were observed in parts of Northern Australia ...

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Yulunga: meetcha kambong

A wrestling game of the Noongar people of the southwest of Western Australia was called meetcha kambong (‘nut game’) or boojur kombang (‘ground game’). In the Swan district it was called boojoor-eleeja. A team beaten at this game might resume the contest in a month or so. A ‘wrestling’ game where attacking players attempt ...

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The First Fleet - dataset collections

The dataset provides information about 780 of the convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet ships 'Alexander', 'Charlotte', 'Lady Penrhyn', 'Friendship', 'Prince of Wales' and 'Scarborough' in 1788. The dataset includes information on items such as the convict's name, occupation, crime, date of trial and term ...

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Gold nugget

This is a gold nugget (approximately 3.4 cm x 2.2 cm), which was probably found in about 1865 on a goldfield in Otago (in the southern South Island of New Zealand).

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The 1864 eight-hour day demonstration

This is a black-and-white print that shows the eight-hour day demonstration entering the Zoological Gardens (now the Royal Melbourne Zoo) in Melbourne, Victoria. The large procession of people, some carrying banners and flags, can be seen in the background, while in the foreground, several spectators including a few policemen ...

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Convicts boarding a hulk at Portsmouth, 1828

This is a hand-coloured etching, sized 16 cm x 24 cm, of a hulk (prison ship) anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, England. A large rowboat filled with convicts and soldiers approaches the hulk with oars held upright ready for boarding. The ship has stairs and additional rooms built on it, washing hangs from lines strung across ...

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'Cultivation paddock, Challicum', c1850

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows the cultivation paddock at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. Two figures in the foreground are manually harvesting a cereal crop, while on the left of the paddock, a bullock-drawn dray collects the stooks (bundles) of harvested crop. The various ...

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'A ship's boat attacking a whale', c1813

This is a hand-coloured aquatint (a print made from an engraving on copper) showing a boat's crew from a British whaling ship about to harpoon a whale. Measuring 18 cm x 22.8 cm, the print appeared in a book entitled 'Foreign field sports, fisheries, sporting anecdotes ...'

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'Diggers licensing, Forest Creek, 1852'

This is a black-and-white print that shows diggers (miners) at Forest Creek on the Mount Alexander diggings in Victoria lining up before the Gold Commissioner's tent to pay a licence fee. A policeman stands guard next to the tent while, in the foreground on the left, two policemen can be seen speaking to a digger. The print, ...

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Drovers and their horses resting, c1850

This is a watercolour, measuring 44 cm x 64 cm, by the famous colonial artist Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80). It shows two drovers camped next to a fallen tree, with their horses tethered and at rest behind them. One of the drovers and a dog remain vigilant, looking towards cattle that are spread out on a wide plain below, ...