AUSTRALITES FROM EARAHEEDY STATION, WESTERN AUSTRALIA WITH NOTES ON AUSTRALITES FROM THE NEARBY GLENAYLE STATION

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract - Australites from Earaheedy Station totalling 8720 specimens have been classified morphologically and compared with australites from the Eastern Goldfields centred 500 km to the south. The only major difference is the high percentage (15.4'X,) of flakes and flaked cores in the Earaheedy specimens arising from widespread destructive use of australites by Aborigines, though the percentage has been inflated by the manner of collection of the sample. A much smaller and unrepresentative sample of 334 specimens is available from the nearby Glenayle Station. Australites were less abundant than at Earaheedy Station but at least equally popular as artifact material. Considerations of specific gravity suggest that they are of the "normal australite" chemical type of Chapman (1971).