Reference Material

Bark Watercraft: From Peron, Francois and Freycinet, Louis Claude,
Voyages de decouvertes aux terres Australes Atlas,
No. 4 2nd Edition, Paris 1824

Model of a bark watercraft made by a Tasmanian Aboriginal man
living on Flinders Island , probably 1843 - 1847

Offshore Islands & Maritime Explorations in Australian Prehistory:  Sandra Bowdler Centre for Archaeology University of Western Australia Nedlands WA 6009 Australia

"Tasmania, some fifteen times the size of Kangaroo Island (67,900km2), presents a very different case. The archaeological record indicates a human presence in Tasmania since at least 35,000 b.p.. Like Kangaroo Island, Tasmania was isolated from the Australian continent by the post-glacial sea rise, 12,500 years ago; like Kangaroo Island, there is no evidence whatsoever for any ensuing contact between Tasmania and the Australian mainland; but unlike Kangaroo Island, an Aboriginal population survived until modern times. Tasmania is, besides being a lot larger than Kangaroo Island, a lot further from the mainland ... There has been considerable debate about the effect of 12,500 years of isolation on a relatively small hunter gatherer population. Archaeological opinion has been divided. On the one hand is a school of thought which suggested that the effects of isolation were detrimental, and that Tasmanian Aboriginal society was on the way to extinction (Jones 1977b, 1978). On the other, is the argument that Tasmanians at the time of European contact were in fact enlarging their universe, and exploiting new resources and new territories including the exploitation of small islands (see below) (Allen 1979, Bowdler 1980, 1982) ... Recent research on human skeletal remains has suggested that not only must the Tasmanian population have been much larger than previously thought, but also that the physical differences between Tasmanian Aborigines and Aborigines of the southeast Australian mainland were in many respects much less than would be expected after 12,500 years of separation (Pardoe 1986, 1991) ... Some smaller islands show a history similar to that of Kangaroo Island, while others appear to reflect the Tasmanian situation. In the first category are most of the islands of Bass Strait, lying between Tasmania and Australia. Jones (1976, 1977a) published a detailed survey of Tasmania's offshore islands, as well as Tasmanian Aboriginal watercraft and their capabilities. The larger islands in Bass Strait, namely King in the west, and the larger Furneaux islands (Flinders, Cape Barren, Clarke) were not occupied nor visited by Aborigines in the ethnographic present. At the time of Jones's writing however there was some archaeological evidence for prehistoric occupation of these islands, dated to between 6500 and 7000 years ago on Flinders Island and c. 7700 b.p. on King Island ... It was assumed that these dates represented an early Holocene occupation by a relict Pleistocene population stranded on the newly formed islands by the post-glacial sea rise. These populations were however too small to survive on these islands, themselves too small to support a viable independent population and too far from either mainland (Australian or Tasmanian) for visitation or seasonal occupation. Recent research by Brown (1993) and Sim (1994) has in general confirmed this view, although Sim's work in particular challenges some specific details of Jones's modelling. Sim confirms the evidence on King Island of human occupation dated to c.7700 b.p., at a time she calls the "final peninsula or initial island phase". She suggests that current geomorphological research shows that this is about the time King Island was finally severed from northwest Tasmania. With respect to Flinders Island, a number of midden sites show occupation of the island qua island between 7000 and 5000 b.p.. At the present time, the most likely interpretation is that this represents the lingering survival of a stranded population, as for Kangaroo Island."

 MARITIME HERITAGE ONLINE NSW: "In Tasmania, a unique form of reed canoe/raft developed while in the north west of Western Australia wedge shaped rafts were made from the trunks of mangrove trees. These could be a single wedge or two wedges overlapped end to end. By means of poles, the rafts were navigated long distances along the coastal waters."... Click here to read more 

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ningenneh tunapry review by Kim Akerman ... "It is amazing how much can be fitted into a very restricted space in a museum display without losing clarity of message or creating visual clutter, especially when it is done with forethought and taste. By necessity confined within a relatively small area, the ningenneh tunapry exhibition (the name means 'to give knowledge and understanding'), focusing on the lives and history of the Tasmanian Aboriginals, is packed with objects and texts yet does not impose a sense of compression that would detract from the messages presented. Lifesize replica of a toilline Lifesize replica of a toilline, a three-part canoe unique to Tasmania Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery The entrance into the approximately 5-by-13-metre gallery space is dominated by a large, beautifully made replica of a toilline — a three-part, stringy-bark raft or canoe — one of several watercraft unique to Tasmania." ... Click here to access the review

Wooden Boat Festival: Hunter St precinct "The Hunter St area had two tents, with some smaller things around the edge. The endmost tent, shown here, had the Shipwrights Village (displays of maritime-related crafts) and a display of Indigenous Watercraft. In the Indigenous Watercraft tent, there were two different traditional canoes on display, showing the differences and similarities between the two cultures. Tasmanian Aboriginal bark canoe, which I think is made by tying bundles of bark together. This one uses a lot of melaleuca (paperbark/tea-tree) bark" ... Click here to access this site

"The Spring Bay Centre has only recently opened, and ANMM assisted with advice on one of their exhibits featuring parts of an early wooden craft found in a riverbed, which probably came from the first decades of European settlement in the bay.  However, the centre realised that the true origins of local vessels were the Indigenous canoes. So, consultant and vice president Sue Atkinson formed a plan to build a canoe that would be the centerpiece for a display on the Indigenous community and their stories for Spring Bay and Maria Island.  Colony47 assisted with the project that saw Indigenous mentors working with younger community members to build a canoe from local materials. It was a huge success; they even took it to a field day further north and launched it in a lake where they paddled it around. The canoe is now housed inside the centre" ... Click here to visit this site

Transcript Bark Canoe Broadcast: 10/08/2007 Reporter: Airlie Ward "AIRLIE WARD: After years in the planning and months in the making, members of the Tasmania's Aboriginal community and the Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery's Indigenous unit have re created a Tasmanian Aboriginal bark canoe. It's the largest cultural retrieval project the museum has undertaken. The 5m long creation will be the centre piece of the gallery's new Aboriginal gallery which opens later this year." ... Click here to read more

Bark Canoe Project wins award 05/11/2007 : "TMAG's Bark Canoe project has won a Knowledge Management, Gold Award (in the Cultural Initiatives Category) at the ACTKM Forum. The award was for the project's success in rekindling the knowledge and skills to build traditional canoes. Bark Canoe close-upTMAG Indigenous Collections Curator (Repatriation) Zoe Rimmer says the award seeks recognition of a highly successful initiative to restore the knowledge of building traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal bark canoes." ... Click here to access this site