Tools & things made
Bailer shells and shell tools
The warkal is the baler shell, the big Melo volute of the northern coast, and the dictionary says exactly what it was: 'used in the old time for a billy'[1]. Roth wrote that boiling 'is done in a bark-trough ... or more usually in a large Melo shell', and that 'from the evidence of one of the earliest pioneers (Messrs. Hislop), it is a certainty that the Bloomfield blacks practised boiling before any permanent European settlement ever took place there', while Cook had found no boiling vessel sixty miles away at the Endeavour River and there was 'no such thing as boiling on the Tully River'[2]. The same shell, chipped down into a basin, was the water carrier of the whole east coast north of Bowen, the bailer in the canoe, the haft of the Bloomfield woomera, and a trade good that found its way 'to considerable distances inland'[3][4][5]. Around it stands the rest of the shell kit: the nautilus and baler-shell spoons (jurungurr) that were 'very personal' things, the freshwater mussel (mukirr) used whole as a scoop, scraper and cutter, and the sharp Cyrena valve that cut bark[6][3][1].
Nothing is written for the Eastern coast on this page yet. What follows is true across the country.
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
The baler is a sea shell and does not live on the Hann; the shell of the river is the freshwater mussel, which the Thaypan people still gather[12]. Melo shell came to this country by trade: about 1900 Roth found it passing from the Koko-warra of the Normanby to the Koko-rarmul of the Morehead, and he met boiling 'in the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay'[5][2].
Shells here
The Atlas of Living Australia holds one record of a Velesunio freshwater mussel (2000) and none of the Melo baler in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann, Laura and western Rinyirru[13]. A Thaypan man told the Federal Court in 2023 what he gets on Thaypan country: 'We get wallaby, barramundi, freshwater fish and turtles and mussels'[12].
Shells at work here
Trade. 'At Princess Charlotte Bay, the Koko-rarmul of the Morehead River give the Koko-warra (whose "country" extends along the course of the Normanby and Deighton Rivers) reed-spears, iron-scraps, European tomahawks, etc., getting in return melo shell, grass-reed-spears, nautilus-shell necklaces, stingaree spears and fishing-nets'[5]. The Endeavour and Bloomfield people who came up towards the Laura were paid in the same goods[5].
Boiling. Roth: 'I have met with the process in the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay'[2].
A shell scraper. On the Morehead and Musgrave rivers, the settled wild-arrowroot meal was 'scraped up with a shell' and cooked in the ashes[2]. See yams.
On country today
The upper Hann is the Possum People's country and the middle and lower Hann are Thaypan country, determined in November 2023 with rights to hunt, fish and gather[14][12]. Ask them before taking mussels from the river.
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
At Karma Waters the sea shell came only by trade, up the Laura road, but the mussel is in the river[5][7].
Shells here
Inland, the shell is the freshwater mussel. The Australian Museum holds Velesunio angasi from the Mitchell River a few kilometres from the homestead, and the dictionary's mukirr is the same kind of animal in the Daintree creeks[7][1]. A baler at Karma Waters came up the trade road from the coast[5].
On country today
The mussels are still in the Mitchell, and a baler brought up from the coast would work exactly as it did[7][3].
Everywhere
Names
warkal 'bailer shell used in the old time for a billy'. milbar is 'generic term for shell; nautilus shell; button'. jurungurr 'spoon made in old time'. mukirr 'mussel. Found in fresh and brackish water. There are many up the Daintree near Bairds, some up Granite Creek. Has to be cleaned from the black stuff that tastes like tobacco'[1]. Other shells: dakaldakal 'trocus shell'; kajarrbi 'clam shell, the giant clam'; munji 'big clam shell'; marakal 'spider shell'; kunkun 'periwinkle, flat shellfish with a smooth shell'; ngarrakaja an edible shellfish; jalan the sea urchin, 'with a shell like a porcupine with prickles'; dumbul 'any hard covering such as bark of a tree, crust of bread, shell of turtle'; kadan 'shell of turtle'; yijirr 'shell of egg; fish scales'[1]. Roth's Cape Bedford (Guugu Yimithirr) name for the shell-boiler was dirkai, 'Melo diadema = shell-boiler made from it', and the Unio mussel scoop warboparka[2][3].
The shell and what was made of it
The basin. 'The large "Lamp" (Megalatractus aruanus) and "Melon" (Melo diadema) shell is often used as a water-carrier. The latter, on the whole eastern coast-line north of Bowen, has the ventral surface of the last whorl, the spire, and columella chipped away so as to form a basin. If the shell be fresh, this removal may be effected straight away by means of a sharp piece of hard stone, the line of fracture following the tapping: otherwise, and the same holds good for all shell-work, it is soaked continuously in water for some three or four days previous to being manipulated. The chipped edge may be subsequently ground down with a stone. At the Bloomfield and on the Batavia River the melon shell is also used on the fire for boiling purposes'[3]. Near Whitsunday Island enough of the belly is cut away to leave the columella as a handle; along the Gulf from the Batavia down to the Mitchell River the shell is pierced for a thumb-hole instead[3]. 'From the eastern sea-board it finds its way, by trade and barter, to considerable distances inland'[3].
Boiling. Roth's food bulletin: 'Boiling is done in a bark-trough (e.g., Curcuma australasica on the Bloomfield), or more usually in a large Melo shell. I have met with the process in the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay, and on the Pennefather, but certainly in the latter case not as applied to the cooking of food. From the evidence of one of the earliest pioneers (Messrs. Hislop), it is a certainty that the Bloomfield blacks practised boiling before any permanent European settlement ever took place there. On the other hand, Lieutenant Cook, in describing the Endeavour River natives, only 60 miles distant, says: "They do not appear to eat any animal food raw; but, having no vessel in which water can be boiled, they either broil it upon the coals or bake it in a hole by the help of hot stones." There is no such thing as boiling on the Tully River'[2]. Anderson's informants agreed: bark troughs 'sat directly on the fire', or red-hot rocks went into the water in them, but 'the most widespread method of boiling, though, was in the large Melo umbilicatus shell'[6]. On the Batavia the outer bark of the gum tree was 'boiled with stingaree-fat in a Melon shell' to make the cement for woomera pegs and spear joints[3].
Bailer and haft. Every canoe carried a shell bailer: 'in case of leakage, a shell-bailer', and the Bloomfield canoes used 'bailer shells ... to keep excess water out'[5][6]. On the Bloomfield, Endeavour and Cape Bedford ironwood woomera, the handle was 'either haftless or else hafted with two pieces of Melo shell fixed on with bees-wax, or else with a thin lath bent on itself'[4].
Spoons. 'Oval pieces of nautilus and melon shell are often used on the east-coast for spoons: indeed, on the Bloomfield and at Cape Bedford it is difficult to decide whether these should not rather be classed primarily as ornaments, they being fixed sometimes with wax, sometimes by means of a drilled hole, to a string hanging round the neck'[3]. Anderson: 'Spoons were made from a variety of materials. The most valued ones were those made with the scoop of nautilus or melo shells. Unmodified mussel shells were used as more temporary spoons or scoops. These shells, especially Geloina coaxans, were also used as scrapers (to remove ashes from cooked meat, for instance), or as a cutter. Only live shells were used to make these implements as dead ones cracked unevenly when worked.' The nautilus spoons 'were also very personal'[6].
Cutters and drills. 'The edge of the valve of the Cyrena jukesii may be used for cutting bark, etc., on both the Eastern and Gulf coasts'; it cut the bow of the bark canoe and split the woomera for its peg; a Donax, Cyrena or mussel valve 'may also be used as a scraper in its entirety'; a sharp chip of Cyrena fixed into a split pencil of wood made the Gulf shell-drill, and shell was pierced for necklaces with tooth and stone drills[3][5]. Shell hooks are on the hooks and lines page.
Trade. Cape Bedford 'send out or export ... nautilus-shell ... pearlshell chest ornaments and melo-shells'; the Bloomfield people took in 'shell-ornaments'; and the Endeavour and Bloomfield people who travelled up the Laura with red ochre, white clay and grass-tree spears were paid in melo shell, nautilus-shell necklaces, stingray spears and nets[5].
Telling the shells apart
- Baler (Melo): the big smooth egg-shaped volute, orange-brown, the only shell large enough for a pot; warkal[3][1].
- Trumpet or 'lamp' shell (Megalatractus): long-spired, also used as a carrier; cut for a thumb-hole on the Gulf[3].
- Nautilus: the chambered pearly shell, cut into spoons and necklace plates; milbar[3][1].
- Clams (munji, kajarrbi): heavy and white; a chipped piece was a pigment saucer on Mornington Island[1][3].
- Mussels, salt and fresh (mukirr; Geloina; the river Velesunio): the everyday scoop, scraper and cutter, used whole and alive[6][7][1].
- Cyrena: the thick estuary cockle whose edge cuts bark[3].
- Trochus, spider shell, periwinkle, urchin: food and ornament rather than tools[1].
Signs
- Middens of mussel and cockle on the river banks and the coast are camp sites; leave them[8].
- A baler basin far inland is a trade shell, carried up the Laura or along the coast[3][5].
- The chipped and ground rim, the soot of boiling, and the drilled hole or wax of a spoon-ornament are the marks of use[3].
- Live mussels show as slits in the sand of a pool; the dead shells on the bank 'cracked unevenly when worked'[6].
Where the shells are
The baler lives on the sand and mud flats of the reef coast; Roth's basin was 'on the whole eastern coast-line north of Bowen'[3]. The nautilus washes up on the beaches; the clams are on the reef; Cyrena and Geloina are mangrove and estuary cockles[3][6].
Inland, the shell is the freshwater mussel, the dictionary's mukirr, 'Found in fresh and brackish water'[1]. The sea shells reached inland only by trade[3]. See each place above.
The shell in the kitchen
The baler is the one vessel that goes on the fire, which is why Bloomfield cooking had a boiling stage that the Endeavour River, in Cook's account, and the Tully did not[2]. Boiling was part of the long processing of yams and the leached foods, and of rendering fat and cooking shellfish; by the 1970s 'empty metal flour drums were used for boiling the yams' in the same place in the sequence[6]. The shell spoon served the paste; the mussel scraped the ash off the meat from the earth oven; the Cyrena cut the bark for the trough and the canoe that carried the baler[6][3][5].
Seasons
Shellfish were gathered on the reef at low tide and in the mangroves in the dry season, and the trade in melo shell ran with the other barter, which on the Bloomfield was busiest 'during the laying-season at King's Lake country, i.e., whenever there happened to be a sufficient supply of food to attract them'[6][5]. A fresh shell is worked at once; a dead one is soaked for three or four days first[3]. See the year on country.
Uses
- Boiling pot on the fire, the Bloomfield 'billy'[2][1][6].
- Water carrier along the whole east coast[3].
- Canoe bailer[5][6].
- Woomera haft, two pieces fixed with beeswax[4].
- Spoons of nautilus and baler, worn as ornaments on a neck string[3][6].
- Mussel valves as scoops, ash-scrapers and cutters[6].
- Cyrena valve for cutting bark and splitting the woomera; shell chip drills[3][5].
- Boiling bark with stingray fat for cement (Batavia)[3].
- Trade: melo and nautilus from Cape Bedford; shell for ochre up the Laura[5].
Making a baler basin, and boiling in it
From Roth and Anderson[3][6][2]:
- Take the shell alive if you can; a dead shell must be soaked in water for three or four days or it cracks unevenly[3][6].
- Chip away the belly of the last whorl, the spire and the central column with a sharp piece of hard stone, tapping so that 'the line of fracture follows the tapping', until a deep basin is left[3].
- Grind the chipped edge smooth on a stone[3].
- For a carrier, leave the column as a handle (Whitsunday) or pierce the belly for a thumb (Gulf)[3].
- To boil, set the basin on the fire with water in it and cook as in a bark trough; or drop in hot stones[3][6].
- A spoon: an oval piece of nautilus or baler, drilled or waxed to a string so it hangs at the neck[3].
- A woomera haft: two pieces of baler shell set on the handle end with beeswax[4].
- A mussel tool: use the live valve as it is, for scooping, scraping ash from cooked meat, or cutting[6].
Safety
- Only live shells for tools; dead ones crack when worked[6].
- Shell dust and edges cut; work shell wet.
- Taking shellfish on the coast for traditional use is recognised in the Marine Park and under the Fisheries Act 1994, within its rules[9][10].
- Middens are cultural heritage; take live shells, not old ones[8].
- The dictionary warns that the mussel 'has to be cleaned from the black stuff that tastes like tobacco'[1].
On Country today
The dictionary's gloss, 'used in the old time for a billy', dates the baler pot: the flour drum and the billy took its job, and by the 1970s flour drums boiled the yams at Bloomfield[1][6]. Roth's Bloomfield shells are in the Australian Museum's Roth collection[11].
Language
warkal 'bailer shell used in the old time for a billy'; milbar 'shell; nautilus shell'; jurungurr 'spoon made in old time'; mukirr 'mussel'; dakaldakal 'trocus shell'; kajarrbi 'giant clam'; munji 'big clam shell'; marakal 'spider shell'; kunkun 'periwinkle'; jalan sea urchin; dumbul 'any hard covering'; kadan 'shell of turtle'; yijirr 'shell of egg'[1].
References
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from the Hislops. — Sect. 6 'Cooking'; plant list ('Castanospermum australe', 'Dioscorea sativa', 'Elettaria Scottiana', 'Nymphaea'); Sect. 6 boiling in the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay; 'Tacca pinnatifida' (Morehead and Musgrave rivers) archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1904). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 7: Domestic implements, arts, and manufactures. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 10 'Fire-tongs' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1909). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 13: Fighting weapons. Records of the Australian Museum 7(4). — Sects. 10–11 spear-throwers (middle Palmer; Cape Bedford, Endeavour and Bloomfield rivers, Butcher's Hill) archive.org/details/biostor-52873
- Roth, W. E. (1910). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 14: Transport and Trade. Records of the Australian Museum 8(1). — Sects. 14–15, dug-out canoes from the Flinders Group to Cape Grafton; Sect. II.2 'At Princess Charlotte Bay' (trade in melo shell) archive.org/details/biostor-52863
- Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Hunting (spears, spear-throwers, harpoons); fishing (stupefacients); manufacturing (gums and resins); post-contact bush component archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- Australian Museum specimen, Velesunio angasi, Mitchell River at about 16.65° S, 144.68° E, collected 1916. Atlas of Living Australia. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/5f751ec4-88f1-4b7f-be38-9d915a49c5ff
- Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld), sections 23–25 (cultural heritage duty of care; harming, excavating, relocating or taking away Aboriginal cultural heritage). www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2003-079
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Traditional use of the Marine Park; Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreements (web pages, accessed 5 October 2026). www2.gbrmpa.gov.au/learn/traditional-owners/traditional-use-marine-resources-agreements
- Fisheries Act 1994 (Qld), current as at 27 April 2026: s 14 (defence for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples). www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-1994-037
- Khan, K. (1993). Catalogue of the Roth Collection of Aboriginal artefacts from north Queensland. Volume 1: Items collected from Archer River, Atherton, Bathurst Head, Bloomfield River and Butcher's Hill, 1897–1901. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum 10: 1–205. — Bloomfield River: 'Woven bag' E.14833; 'Non-folding oval frame fishing net' E.14959 doi.org/10.3853/j.1031-8062.10.1993.69
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 20) (Thaypan determination) [2023] FCA 1315 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area and waters; prescribed body corporate (Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation); affidavit evidence on hunting www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records of Velesunio freshwater mussels (1 record, 2000) and Melo balers (none) in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann River, Laura and western Rinyirru (lat −15.6 to −14.8, long 143.5 to 144.3), queried 28 October 2026. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=genus:Velesunio&fq=decimalLatitude:%5B-15.6%20TO%20-14.8%5D&fq=decimalLongitude:%5B143.5%20TO%20144.3%5D
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
From the community
Know this one? Add the words you use for it, what it is for, how it is done, a correction, or a photo from country. It shows here straight away with your name on it. Please keep anything restricted or sacred off the site.
Loading…