Photo by Wayne Beck

Accession Number: QE25905

Museum: Queensland Museum

Date Acquired: 1992

Collector: Frank Palmer Woolston (1911 – 1998)

Date Collected: 1932-1960s

Where from: White Rock

Description: Morahs are a specialised type of grooved sedimentary rock grindstone such as grey slate, and used with a top stone. They are found only in the rainforests of north-eastern Queensland where the processing of toxic starchy plants is common and used in a ‘rolling crushing’ motion rather than grinding. Morahs have roughly parallel incised grooves running across the grinding surface perpendicular to the axis of the stone. Morahs seem to have been used as a ‘grater’ to reduce seeds such as zamia (Lepidozamia hopei) or black bean (Castanospermum australe). This Morah was originally donated to the Material Culture Unit, James Cook University, and later transferred to the Queensland Museum in 2003.

Frank Palmer Woolston (1911 – 1998) was an avid collector of artefacts made by Aboriginal people and he had a particularly keen interest in their stone tools made by groups from the wet tropics area of north Queensland.

See: ‘Frank Woolston’ authored by Trish Barnard

http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=808

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