Woomera (spear-thrower)

A woomera is a wooden Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device.[1][2][3] Similar to an atlatl, it serves as an extension of the human arm, enabling a spear to travel at a greater speed and force than possible with only the arm.

The woomera in this picture is the wooden object at left
Mokare with spear and woomera, another woomera lies at his feet.

Name

The word "woomera" comes from the Dharug language of the Eora people of the Sydney basin. The name was adopted for the town of Woomera, South Australia, founded in 1947 as the home of the Anglo-Australian Long Range Weapons Establishment, also known as the "Woomera Rocket Range" and now called RAAF Woomera Range Complex.[4]

Description

The woomera is 2 to 3 feet (61 to 91 cm) in length.[5] One end is 3 inches (8 cm) wide and possessing a hollow, curved cross-section not unlike an airfoil, while the other is more pointed and has a hook. Some woomera were traditionally decorated with incised or painted designs that indicated belonging to a particular linguistic group that it may be returned to if found abandoned.


Use
A sharp stone attached to the end of the handle

Records show that the implement began to be used about 5,000 years ago,[6], although the Mungo Man remains from at least 43,000 years ago show severe osteoarthritis in the right elbow associated with the use of a woomera.[7] It is still used today in some remote areas of Australia.. Like spears and boomerangs, woomeras were traditionally used only by men. Some woomeras, especially those used in the central and western Australian deserts,[8] were multi-purpose tools.[9] Often shaped like long narrow bowls, they could be used for carrying water-soaked vegetable matter (which would not spill and could later be sucked for its moisture) as well as small food items such as little lizards or seeds. Many woomeras had a sharp stone cutting edge called a tula adze[10] attached to the end of the handle with black gum from the triodia plant. This sharp tool had many uses, such as cutting up game or other food and wood. It is supposed that the woomera could be used as a shield for protection against spears and boomerangs. The woomera is held in one hand while the other hand places the butt of the spear on the woomera's hook; the hollow curved shape facilitates this alignment without looking. The woomera effectively lengthens the thrower's arm, greatly increasing the velocity of the spear. Correcting for the game animal's lateral dodging is accomplished by tilting the wing-shape woomera during the throw for last-second corrections. The kinetic energy of a spear launched from a woomera has been calculated as four times that of an arrow launched from a compound bow.[6]

Different aboriginal groups had different shapes and styles of woomera.[11] For example, the Woomera of the central desert tend to be very wide and slightly bowl shaped where as those of the Kimberley are flat long and narrow.[12]

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References
  1. Phyllis Mary Kaberry, Aboriginal Woman, Sacred and Profane. Gregg International, Westmead, Kent 1970. p14 "The Aborigines generally use a spear-thrower (noslal) and a shovel-spear (djinad), the fashioning of which is a long and delicate process. The blade made of iron, mudagandji, must be welded into an oval shape varying from three to five ..."
  2. Mitchell Rolls, Murray Johnson, Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines, Scarecrow Press, 2010. p157 "SPEAR-THROWER. A wooden implement that has a projection peg either carved into or secured to the butt, the spear-thrower greatly increased the range and accuracy of spears hurled by Aboriginal hunters. It could also be used for a ..."
  3. Linley Erin Hall, The Laws of Motion: An Anthology Of Current Thought, 2005. p66, "In Australia the spear thrower is popularly called a woomera, one of the many Aboriginal names for a spear thrower"
  4. RAAF Base Woomera Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  5. Earp, G. Butler (1852). The Gold Colonies of Australia. London: Geo. Routledge & Co. p. 126.
  6. "Extinction's group theory". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 25 June 2004. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  7. Lawrence, Helen (2006). Mungo over millennia : the Willandra landscape and its people. Sorell, Tas: Maygog Publishing. p. 42. ISBN 0-9758199-1-7.
  8. Gould, Richard A. (Richard Allan) (1970). Spears and spear throwers of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia. American Museum of Natural History, New York
  9. Cundy, B. J. (1989). Formal variation in Australian spear and spearthrower technology (Vol. 546). British Archaeological Reports Ltd. Chicago
  10. World Prehistory: In New Perspective
  11. "aboriginal spear thrower | aboriginal spearthrower | sell aboriginal spear thrower". Aboriginal Bark Paintings. 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  12. Aboriginal Australia. Cooper, Carol., National Gallery of Victoria., Australian Gallery Directors' Council. Sydney: Australian Gallery Directors Council. 1981. ISBN 0-642-89689-5. OCLC 8487510.CS1 maint: others (link)
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