Metal Detecting Old Aboriginal Bush Homesite in Dumbleyung Western Australia
A few years ago when I first took up the “worlds best hobby” of metal detecting I decided to head out to an old native reserve area just out of town to go and test my new metal detector.
Well, I must say that I was pretty bloody happy that I started to find loads and loads of old pre-decimal Australian Pennys, Half Pennys, Six Pence Coins, Florins, Shillings and much more.
This old place was loaded with lost coins.
Whenever I visit this place I always come home with old coins, found with my minelab e-trac, the place never lets me down, although I must say now, the amount of coins I find now, usually are only 2 or 3, but when I fist went out there, I’d be bringing home 10 – 20 coins.
I hope you enjoy the video I made on my last recent visit to the Aboriginal Reserve, it is a beautiful place, very peaceful and full of wildlife, plus heaps of bloody mosquitos!
Old Aboriginal Campsite Found – Many Stone Tools
Ancient / Old Aboriginal Campsite - Dumbleyung
I love to go walking in the bush, and one of my favourite spots in Dumbleyung is a place East of the town. I go out there often, because the area is a Nature Reserve, and it is peaceful and alot of wildlife live in the area, such as Echidna’s (similar to Porcupines), Kangaroos, Geckos and Lizards and my favourite, Frogs and Tadpoles and much more.
Unfortunately the area is also being invaded by a awful weed which kills native plants, it is called Bridal Creeper
This Nature Reserve has many granite type rocks, and a beautiful natural spring which was used by Aboriginals as a source for water for probably over a millenia.. who knows.
Anyhow I was walking in an open rocky area of this reserve, looking for old bottles, and then I saw something that really stood out, a wide variety of small rocks which looked as though they were placed there… and I instantly knew that this would have been likely used by Aboriginals as a camp site, meeting spot, corroboree site or trading site.
This is the first ever Ancient / Old Aboriginal Campsite I have ever found, I have found plenty of Aboriginal Rocks . Stone Tools in the past, but never a place which has actually been used as a campsite.
Aboriginal Grinding Stone - For Grinding Native Grains into Flour etc
I found a variety of tools, grinding stones, axe heads, stone knifes and flints.
Honesty I don’t think it is that old, but I might be wrong.
I feel it could only be around 100 years old, because the location is close to an old stone farmhouse, which was built in the early 1900’s . So there is a chance that this campsite was used by Aboriginals in the early 1900’s who may have camped close to the homestead and worked for the farmer, cutting down trees, sandlewood cutters. Sandlewood is a beautiful scented wood used in Perfumes. Sandlewood Oil today sells for $1000 per kilogam.
There area still quite a few sandlewood trees in this area, and other areas surrounding Dumbleyung.
Anyhow if that Aboriginal Campsite is from around the 1900’s, there could be a chance of finding some coins, relics with my metal detector, so soon I’ll be going back to the campsite to do some detecting.
A good tip for finding Aboriginal Stone Tools, is most of the time, the stone can be identified as a stone which is not native to the area where you have found it. It could have been traded with another aboriginal from a 1000kms away, and that is the onloy spot where that stone type exists.
These stone tools, knives, axe heads, spear tips could have been passed down from one generation to the next for hundreds of years.
There is one thing I’d love to find on my treks out bush and that is an Aboriginal Spear Tip, My best mate Symo actually excavates ancient aboriginal sites for a living in the Eastern side of Australia, and he tells me he finds them all the time.
In anycase, it is a great discovery, and I’ll be going back there in the very near future to have a closer look at the campsite, I may even find a spear tip!
Aboriginal Stone Flint Knife
Aboriginal Stone Tools
See my other Ancient Aboriginal Tools that I”ve found.
Aboriginal Stone Tool Identified
Aboriginal dimpled grindstone
The other day I wrote about finding an unusual Aboriginal Stone Tool.
I wrote an email to the Western Australian Museum in Perth, seeking information about it and here is the reply I got.
Dear Bill
Thanks for the email enquiry about the stone tool you found around Dumbleyung on the weekend.
The cylindrical stone is a dimpled grindstone and is typically found throughout the southwest. Their shapes range between the circular one you found to almost square. They were multi-purpose tools used for grinding, cracking seeds and nuts, crushing pigments, or as an anvil for flaking and sharpening stone tools. Constant use over time creates ‘dimples’ or percussion pits on the surface.
I’m hoping that you merely photographed the stone and did not remove it from the site where you found it. But if you did take it away I should point out that removing artefacts from Aboriginal sites is an offence under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (see http://www.dia.wa.gov.au/Heritage–Culture/Heritage-management/Site-disturbance/).
Regards,
Ross Chadwick
Curator, Anthropology & Archaeology Department
Very Unusual Aboriginal Fire Making Stone Found
Very Unusal Aboriginal Fire Making Stone
Traditional Aboriginal Fire Lighting Stone
The Aboriginal Fire Lighting Stone picture above was not found by me, but this type of Aboriginal Fire Lighting Stone is similar in shape and rock type to what is usually found in the South West of Western Australia.
Anyhow, Aboriginals carried these stones with them always, just like we do when we go camping, we carry matches or a lighter.
After many times of rubbing the stick on the stone, eventually a small hole or indent will wear away in the stone, such as the photo of the stone I found below.
Assorted Aborigal Stones I Found Yesterday - Fire Lighting - Stone Axe - Knife etc
The most unusual thing about this Aboriginal Fire Lighting Stone that I found is that the stone is in a cylindrical shape, the colour of the stone is white and on both sides it has a small indent on the stone from where a fire lighting stick has been rubbed on it tens of thousands of times.
It is definitely my most favourite Aboriginal Artifact find. What a beautiful tool!
See some other Aboriginal Stones I have found.
Pennies and Cents
The days are getting shorter here, come around 5.30pm it is nearly dark, so I got in around two hours detecting today before the sun went down.
I went to an old house near town which no one lives in, with the aim of finding some coins to add to my current pre-decimal australian coin collection
There is not much else to find around here unfortunately, this town is not a gold town… the nearest gold from Dumbleyung is around 500 kilometres away, in the gold town of Kalgoorlie, so hopefully one day when I have all the proper gear, I may go out that way detecting.
But it is hard to find gold nuggets these days due to most of the surface gold nuggets having been found throughout Australia and I suppose it is just a matter of knowing where the secret spots are.
I often see quite a few gold nuggets for sale on Ebay, most of which seem to come from the Victora region. Gold seems to be a great investment at the moment due to the current global financial crisis.
So at the moment I am more interested in finding Coins, Jewellery, Relics and even Old Bottles and Jars.
Anyhow in a couple of hours today I found the following coins:
A couple months ago I wrote a post on how I found an ancient abroiginal stone knife well a few days ago I found some more Aboriginal Tools, one of which looks as though it could have been used as a cutting implement such as an axe head …. the reason I know that it is aboriginal is because the stone which I found do not exist in this area, and the stones have been “imported” into the area by aboriginal traders, hundreds if not thousands of years ago.
Aborignal Stone Axe Head or Cutting Stone
Aborignal Stone Axe Head or Cutting Stone
Aboriginal Stone Knife
The Aboriginal Knife
Around a week ago I went out the local bush to test out the Shermanator Sifter I just made, unfortunately I forgot to put in the battery for my detector so could not do any detecting…. always the way!
Anyhow I dug around a few spots where I had previously found some old coins and here is what I found.
No much, but at least the sifter works well and I was surprised to find a very old Australian Aboriginal Stone Knife, basically would have been used to skin Kangaroo’s, cut meat and so forth.
Not exactly a good specimen, but I know an Aboriginal Tool when I see one, a Stone not native to this area and probably bought in by local tribes, many years ago, hundreds, thousands who knows.
Also a few pics of The Shermanator in Action.
Shermanator in Action
A Shovel load of hidden treasure?Pieces of Glass, Metal, Nails, Small Stones etc
Old Buttons, Nails, Bottle Tops and the Aboriginal Knife!
