PREHISTORIC AUSTRALIANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 13

PREHISTORIC AUSTRALIANS

RELICS OF ANCIENT RACE Stone implements, thousands of years old probably, formed a notable exhibit in the ethnological section at the Wild Flower Show, St. Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne, recently. These relics are regarded as evidence that a prehistoric. Australian race existed. They have not hitherto been shown publicly. Their scieu tific interest is great, and they link up as it -were with the ancient Puralka Flint, found a year or two ago in Victoria. With these prehistoric “pirries,” as the implements are called, are shown the only Moora stones that, so far, have been collected. These stones, it is thought, are symbols of the god of the Won-kong-urn tribe—Lake Eyre desert aborigines. The artifacts are of the cylindro-conical type. Mr. W. H. Gill, who owns all these unique specimens, found the pirries during his trip to Central Australia, and recognised at once that they were of ancient origin. . None of the aborigines to whom they were shown knew anything about the implements. They are of a type that went out of fashion perhaps before Tut-ankh-amen’s mummy was entombed.