Photographed by Trish Barnard.
Accession Number: QE1728
Museum: Queensland Museum
Date Acquired: 1923
Collector: Edmund Banfield
Date Collected: c.1900
Where from: Dunk Island
Description: Shell fish hook with natural fibre twine
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).
Some fish hooks were made from a piece of turtle or tortoise shell ground down to a thin strip which was then softened by heat and moulded over a small round preheated stone to form an incomplete circle. These fish hooks were commonly used during the winter months to catch bream, catfish and sardine on the upper reaches of rivers.
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