Spear with hafted wooden head

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Type: Spears
Date: 1933 - 1934
Materials: Adhesive - non specific, Pigment, Sinew, Wood
Collection: Professor H Davies collection
Accession number: 1985.0079.0021

Description

A pigmented, cylindrical two piece wood shaft spear that is hafted with sinew and adhesive. The flattened elliptical wooden head is hafted with binding and blunt at the end. The distal end of the spear is rounded with a circular indentation to about five milimetres. Handwritten text in white ink reads "A-WS 1328". The shaft has a number of diagonal and vertical splits along it.

This object is one of 17 in the National Historical Collection, that Professor Whitridge Davies collected from Aboriginal people in Central Australia in 1933 or 1934. Davies, a physiologist from Sydney University, led two expeditions '… to study the possibility that Aborigines living in the hot, arid conditions there could have become especially adapted to water deprivation. The first expedition, with H.S. Wardlaw and three students, was to Hermannsburg, 70 miles (113 km) south-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The second, which included T. G. Strehlow, was to Mount Liebig, 155 miles (249 km) north-west of Alice Springs [and Hermannsburg].' ADB entry – HW Davies (1894-1946). Artist Arthur Murch also accompanied Davies on the two expeditions, during which he shot a silent film of life at Hermannsburg. Back in Melbourne Murch showed the film at fundraising events supporting the construction of a new water pipeline at Hermannsburg.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 7:06:45 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.