Accession Number: QE5270.1

Museum: Queensland Museum

Date Acquired: 1923

Collector: Edmund Banfield

Date Collected: c.1900

Where from: Dunk Island

Description: Small round shell fashioned into early stage of a fish hook.

For 25 years Edmund James Banfield (1852-1923) lived on Dunk Island collecting material including these shell pieces from the Aboriginal middens. During that time, he corresponded regularly with the Queensland Museum until 1923, when his widow donated his collection. Banfield’s collection of shells and fish hooks represent all stages of making fish hooks employed by the Bandjin and Djiru people. Many of which were collected from the Tool-guy-ah camp (aka Toolgbar, Wheeler Island adjacent to Dunk Island).

Fish hooks were made from various shells, the shape often derived from the central valve section of the shell that had been secured between two stones and formed by chipping around the edge until the desired width was achieved. A hole was drilled using a piece of coral or a spiral shell fastened to the end of a long stick. The ‘drill point’ was regularly dipped into water to assist in the grinding process. The edges were smoothed by rubbing against the surface of a large rock or filed with coral to complete the crescent shape.

See: ‘Edmund Banfield’ authored by Trish Barnard

http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=780

Contact: Chantal Knowles, Head of Cultures and Histories, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, QLD 4001 AUSTRALIA

Phone: (07) 3842 9038

Email: Chantal.knowles@qm.qld.gov.au