THE KALGOORLIE WHALE BONE, A PROBABLE EXAMPLE OF LONG RANGE ABORIGINAL TRANSPORT OF A MARINE OBJECT

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Introduction: A disc-shaped whale bone found in 1897 at an inland Aboriginal campsite 20 km south of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia (Figures 1, 2) suggests the diversity of marine and other objects distributed through long-range tribal exchange networks. The collector of the whale bone, the late Mr Christopher George ]essup (1881-1962), was 16 years old at the time, and later became a well known and respected naturalist in Western Australia. In his obituary Mr ] essup is noted as having"... formed extensive collectiom [from which] much carefully labelled material was passed on to local and overseas scientists and institutions". (Butler 1963: 195). At the time of Mr ]essup's death in 1962, Mr W.H. Butler, a close acquaintance, selected the most valuable, best documented specimens from the]essup collection for donation to the Western Australian Museum (W.H. Butler, pers. comm.). The whale bone is one of these donated specimens, and there seems little reason to doubt the authenticity of its provenance.