ETHNOHISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE HERBERT/BURDEKIN

The purpose of my research is to build up a pictiire of the traditional material life of the Aborigines, their distribution throughout the area, their exploitation of the environment and its possible effects, their material creations, in terms of dwellings, weapons, equipment, bodily adornment, their initiation and mortuary practices insofar as they are reflected in physical remains, their sacred and creative activities embodied in rock art. In this lecture I hope to give an idea of how the evidence can be used to illustrate these things, and to indicate how mindful one must be of the shortcomings of the evidence, and the problems this creates. The area under study, the Herbert/Burdekin district, extends north about to the Tully River, inland towards the Dividing Range, and south of Bowen. North of the Herbert River there are extensive areas of rainforest and some traces of rainforest are to be found along the eastern escarpment south as far as Mount Elliott. Inland on the Burdekin and south in the Collinsville-Suttor River region the vegetation is predominantly dry sclerophyll. The two principal sources of evidence being utilized in this study are the ethnographic literature, and the field; use has also been made of material held in museums and private local collections, and of information provided by a few Aboriginal people who still retain some knowledge of the traditional life. By 'ethnographic literature ' I mean literature which concerns traditional Aboriginal life, such as diaries and joiornals of early mariners, explorers and settlers. Some of this material is available here in Townsville, much more is situated in places like Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. While the second major soiirce of evidence which I referred to, namely the field, is all within a 150 mile radius of Townsville, much of it is considerably less accessible, involving the constant use of four wheel drive vehicles, once a horse, once a small aeroplane, foreseeably a boat and always, regrettably, the feet. The kind of evidence one looks for in the field consists of campsites, middens or food refuse heaps, quarries, fish traps, ceremonial sites and art sites. One area where the field reveals very little and the literary evidence has serious shortcomings is in relation to Aboriginal women. Unfortunatel