| Coordinates WGS84 | 17°16'S, 145°29'E -17.26, 145.49 |
AMus_E018337
Title: A message stick for coordinating a fight at Scrubby Creek, held in the Australian Museum
Description: Rectangular Message Stick; rectangular section, both sides: Decorated with bands of geometric relief design; ochre remains [ref L C]; Condition: not recorded. Message stick in Australian Museum, earlier published on p. 424 of “Aboriginal message sticks” by W. W. Thorpe
Message: From Billy Brookes to Jack Gerambey. We want you to bring all boys from Tully, Cedar Creek and Glenalis to fight Goldfield mob, Marraber, Tinaroo, Barron River, Geranda, and Atherton boys; fight take place Scrubby Creek next Sunday. (p. 424) AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "Message Stick (challenge to fight); Atherton, Qld., Exch. D. Grant; Message from Billy Brookes to Jack Gerambey, (16/12/1909) "We want you to bring all boys from Tully, Cedar Creek & Glenalis to fight Goldfield mob, Marreber, Tinaroo, Barron R, Garanda & Atherton boys. Fight to take place Scubby Creek next Sunday [ref Reg]; Reply to above Message Stick is E.18338 [RJC] [reference Register] 1910017"
Creator of Object: AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "From Billy Brookes to Jack Gerambey"
Date Created: 1910
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
Subtype: traditional
State/Territory: QLD
Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Djirbal Austlang: Y123 - DYIRBAL / JIRRBAL Glottolog: dyir1250
Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Atherton, Cape York, Queensland, Australia. The message stick is associated with Atherton, Cape York, Queensland according to the documentation. Note that the responding message stick (WWT1926P424F3) is listed as originating in Atherton, Cairns District, Queensland. This strikes us as more likely since there is no Atherton in Cape York. Atherton and Tully are in the Djirbal linguistic area and Cedar Creek is a long way away in the Turubul linguistic area northwest of Brisbane. Linguistic area is thus given as Djirbal. AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "REGION: Cape York; Atherton, Qld [reference Register]"
Semantic domains: sd_place, sd_request_alliance, sd_time, sd_war
Dimension 1: 240mm Dimension 2: 70mm
Sources:
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Acquisition date: unknown Accession date: 25 May 1910
Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E018337
Collector: Exchanged: Grant, D
Coordinates: 17°15'53.600400"S,145°29'14.499600"E (-17.264889, 145.487361)
Media copyright: The Australian Museum
Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Atherton
URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=4994&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FAdvQuery.php&highlight_term=
Notes: The message documented by Thorpe is not included in the public catalogue information from the Australian Museum
Media Files:
Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman