An article is in use locally among the Worora at Port George IV, which perhaps interests us most on account of its similarity to the orthodox water-carrier employed by ourselves, viz. the bucket. What makes the fact more interesting still is that this unique type of water-vessel is found in a locality, than which even at the present time none other is further remote from civilization. The bark-bucket of the Worora, known vernacularly as “wirrauwa,” is beyond doubt an indigenous evolution. It is much like a bushman’s billycan in shape—a cylindrical vessel closed at one end and with a handle at the other, measuring from four to twelve inches in height, and from six to nine inches in width. A circular piece of woolly-butt bark is cut for the base, and this is surrounded by another sheet which forms the cylinder. The joints are carefully stitched together with threads of split cane, using a bone-awl to prick the holes; then melted resin from the eucalyptus tree is applied over the seam to render it water-tight. The edge of the open mouth may be strengthened by cross-stitching and applying resin. The handle is made of human hair-string, several pieces of which are threaded diametrically across the open end of the bucket, through holes previously made with a bone-awl, and tied. The outer surfaces of the vessel are often painted. The usual device consists of alternate bars of red and white or red and black, joined at the top and bottom by horizontal lines of red; occasionally the whole surface may be splashed or daubed with white, or the above designs may be embellished with regularly spaced dots and “emu tracks.”
Lastly we shall briefly refer to the skin water-bag which is used (or has been used) by the desert tribes of central Australia, from central Western Australia to Western Queensland. A kangaroo, wallaby, euro, or dingo is killed and the animal’s skin removed almost in toto by making a circular cut around its neck, and, whilst one or two men hold on to the head, others detach the skin from the carcase and pull it off inside-out. The neck-hole forms the mouth of the bag, but all the other openings are tied, stitched, or pinned together. The limbs are cut off near the paws, the tail near its root, and the resulting holes securely tied with string. The limb-pieces are tied together and act as straps to assist the native carrying the bag when filled with water.
To fill these vessels with water, bailers are available either in the form of specially constructed or of naturally occurring objects; no matter which they are, they usually also answer the purpose of drinking cups. Along the north coast of Australia the large melon shell is perhaps the handiest; it is either used as it is found or its inner whorls and columella are broken away, leaving just the spacious outer shell to hold the water like a bowl. The same remarks apply to the large Fusus pricei, and other molluscs.
The Narrinyerri and other tribes south of Adelaide used human calvaria as drinking vessels. The facial skeleton of a complete skull was broken away so as only to leave the brain-box; and this held the water.
The broken shells of the large boabab nuts are similarly used in the Northern Kimberleys of Western Australia, and now and then the broken shell of the emu egg also makes a very serviceable cup.
A miniature bark-cooleman is constructed by the Wongapitcha, Aluridja, and Arunndta tribes, like that described on [page 92], about eight inches long and half as wide, which serves the purpose of a bailer, drinking-vessel, fire-shovel, and special food-carrier. It is strongly convex lengthwise, and therefore comparatively deep.
The Bathurst Islanders tear or cut a piece of bark from a tree, usually the ti-tree or “paper-bark,” out of which they fashion a cup. The piece of bark measures about twelve inches in length, and eight in width. It is first folded longitudinally at about its middle, and then both ends of the doubled piece are folded transversely at about one-quarter the whole length. The overturned parts of the inner sheet of the first fold are clasped between the fingers on the inside and the thumb on the outside, when the cup is ready for use.
The natural water supplies available over so vast an expanse of territory as is embraced by the continent of Australia and its subjacent islands, occur, as one might have expected, in great variety. There is no need for us to consider such familiar supplies as rivers, creeks, lakes, billabongs, waterholes, and springs; we shall just briefly consider a few of the more uncommon cases, which are of special interest. The native has a wonderful instinct for locating hidden supplies of water; and many a European wanderer has perished in the Australian bush, within a stone’s throw of the life-saving fluid, all for the want of that gift, which to the primitive inhabitant of the desert central regions means his very existence.
Along the superficially dry, sandy beds of “rivers” in arid Australia, he is able to pick sites, at which, by shallow digging with his hands and yam-stick, he can in quick time produce a “native well,” sufficient to supply the needs of all the camp. The water is often exposed within a foot or two of the surface, but at times he has to dig to a depth of from five to six feet, which so far as my experience goes seems to be the limit. When not in use, or when the camp moves on, the natives always take care to cover the mouth of the well in order that wild animals cannot reach the water and pollute it. When the well is deep, its sides are made secure with pieces of timber and brushwood, and cross-pieces are left to serve as a ladder whereby the native can attain the water. Similar wells are constructed in the catchment basins adjacent to the hills.
