Who’s the painted cave man

Who lives in Arnhem Land

You’ll find it’s Fred McCarthy

Tying strings around his hand.

— Author unknown

These words were taken from the journal of Frederick McCarthy, an Australian Museum ethnographic researcher who pasted the typewritten words in his diary during a 1948 expedition to Arnhem Land.

McCarthy collected 196 Matjka-wuma or string figures from the Yolngu people at Yirrkala. Of the total, 193 form part of the Australian Museum collection.

This one depicts two dingoes and was made by Ngarrawu Mununggurr. As each figure was made, the story was being told and recorded by McCarthy for posterity.

It was and remains the largest known collection of its kind collected from one community at one time in the world.

Become a part of history as a member of the Treasures Circle through pledging your support for this treasure.

String figure of Wungan – Two Dingoes made by  Ngarrawu Mununggurr, 1948
Plant fibre on cardboard
Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
Collected by Fred McCarthy, 1948

E083684

Treasure supported by Carrawa Foundation

The Aardvark is an intriguing animal because it has no living animal relatives – it is the only representative of its taxonomical order. 

Its name comes from Afrikaans, and means ‘earth pig’. It is so called because of its long, pig-like snout, and ability to dig extremely quickly with its flat, shovel-like front claws. 

The Aardvark is nocturnal, and feeds on ants and termites, as well as a kind of cucumber – known as the aardvark cucumber – with which it has an almost-symbiotic relationship.

This specimen comes from South Africa, but died in captivity in the London Zoo. It was acquired by the Museum in 1884 – and so is a very old specimen indeed. It is making a return to the Long Gallery, as it was displayed here about 100 years ago! 

Aardvark Orycteropus afer
Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Registered in Australian Museum collection 1884

B3517

Treasure supported by Dr Janice Hirshorn & Dr George Jacobs

Baining people from New Britain create large barkcloth masks to represent spirits of leaves, trees, animals and insects. The masks are traditionally worn during harvest time in ceremonial dances lasting all day and night. This style of mendaska mask, made by the Uramot people, is worn during daytime ceremonies associated with female fertility, mourning and important community events.                          

The mask is made from the bark of the breadfruit tree, soaked in water and beaten and dried into a cloth, and then painted with a facial expression design, using red paint made from sap and black paint from tree resin.

Usually, once a mendaska mask has served its ritual purpose, it is destroyed or left to decay back into the bush it came from.

Mendaska mask
Barkcloth, red sap, black resin, natural dyes
Uramot people, Baining area, northern New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Acquired 1978

E075755

Treasure supported by Sienna Belle and Warwick Evans 

This beautiful and strange object, known as a 'stick chart', represents ocean swell patterns in and around the Marshall Islands and is used as a navigational map by Marshallese sailors. The chart is made from the flexible midribs of coconut fronds, with individual islands represented by the lashed junction of the fronds.

Stick charts are an incredible form of cartography because they represent a system of mapping ocean swells – the prevailing ocean wave crests and directions – a feat which was never before accomplished by Western cartographers. 

The charts were studied and memorised prior to a voyage, rather than being consulted during the trip, and were so varied in form and interpretation that the individual navigator who made the chart was often the only person who could fully interpret it.

The use of stick charts ended after World War Two, when new electronic technologies were introduced to the Marshall Islands. Very few people today understand these charts, although many people know how to make them.

Navigation chart
Bamboo fibre
Marshall Islands
Collected by PG Black, 1906

E015861

Treasure supported by Penelope Seidler AM

The Morning Star Pole is used in important Dhüwra ceremonies – for circumcision, death and burial. In Dhüwra mythology, the morning star – called Banumbirr – came to Elcho Island from the east and created the lands and animals as she crossed the shoreline.

The top feathers represent the morning star itself, with the different bands painted to resemble different facets of its light. The long arms are the rays of the star, which gather up and return the souls of the deceased to their final resting place on the morning star. The short arms represent the cradle from which the spirits overlook the earth.

Morning star pole
Terry Dhurritjini Yumbulul (Warramiri people) 
Wood, ochre, string, feathers
Elcho Island, Northern Territory
Purchased from the artist, 1983

E078903

Treasure supported by Mr & Mrs Chris and Belinda Knierim

These rainforest shields were collected by Dr Walter Edmund Roth, the First Protector of Aboriginals for the Northern District of Queensland. During his six-year appointment, Roth collected over 2000 artefacts from a vast area of northern Queensland.

There are many shields in the collection. One, from Atherton, is made from wood hewn from the buttress of a fig tree. By 1898, this kind of shield was rarely in use and was made, if at all, only by very old men. There are several cuts and spear-point holes in the shield, evidence that it may have been used by its owner in defence of his life. 

Rainforest shields collected by Dr Walter Edmund Roth.
Tinaroo, Cape York, Queensland

Purchased 1905 (collected 1900)

E013442

Wooroora, Cape York, Queensland

Purchased 1905 (collected 1900)
E013443

Koko-Yellani people of Bloomfield River, Cape York, Queensland

Purchased 1905 (collected 1898)
E013432    

Treasure supported by Macquarie Group Foundation

Malagan are funerary effigies used in New Ireland to honour the dead and assist their souls to pass into the spirit world. The soul of the deceased merges with the carved image of a Malagan and the effigy becomes gradually animated during the production process. The figure is attended as though it is the living person and then allowed to die, thus allowing the person's soul to become immortal.

These two male and female Malagan figures represent n'gass spirits and are rare among the normally static Malagan figure sculptures. 

Malagan carvings are made by specific carvers and come in a range of forms, including figures, posts and masks. Traditionally, the carvings were not designed to last and were left to rot at the conclusion of the ceremonies – so these specimens are rare treasures in the Australian Museum’s collection.

Malagan figures

Wood, Turbo petholatus shell, lime, ochre, natural pigment,  pith, hardwood spikes, modelling resin

Tabar Island, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea

Collected by Captain Farrell, late 1880s

E000582, E000583

Treasure supported by Peter and Judy Gregg

This elaborate and intricate Roro headdress was collected from the Central Province of Papua New Guinea by the photographer and journalist Frank Hurley. They are traditionally worn by men of high status at special ceremonies with the number of bird feathers incorporated into the headdress signifying the owner’s achievements and status. This type of headdress is still worn today by Roro speakers, high ranking men from the Kairuku-Hiri District of Central Province, for special ceremonies. It is said a beautiful headdress, like this one, attracts local females who wish to become the wife of the wearer.   

Hurley had previously travelled to the area, sending back colourful, adventure-style stories to Sydney newspapers as well as some of the first documentary film from the region. In 1923, Hurley returned to Papua New Guinea with the Australian Museum scientist Allan McCulloch – and a permit to collect artefacts and specimens. The almost 700 objects collected by the men were displayed in an exhibition that opened at the Museum in 1924 – and remained on show for the next 50 years.

Headdress
Port Moresby, Central Province, PNG
Collected by A. McCulloch and F. Hurley, 1923

E027490

Treasure supported by Albert Y Wong AM and Sophie Wong

In the late 1830s, in the northern Sydney beachside suburb of Manly, an Aboriginal man presented a hafted axe to a six-year-old girl. Mistaken as a relic of the Stone Age by ethnologists in the 19th century, this style of axe was known as a mogo by Sydney’s original inhabitants. For at least 4500 years the  mogo was used as a tool to make nawi or bark canoes as well as cut wood, hunt or build shelters. The Manly mogo is one of only two complete examples of pre-European hafted axes from the Sydney region to have survived. It remained in the girl’s family for nearly 160 years before it was donated to the Australian Museum in 1995.

Edge-ground stone axe
Stone, wood, resin, plant fibre
Sydney, New South Wales
Acquired 1996

E086449

These neck or nape ornaments, carved from dark wood and decorated with the gleaming feathers of frigate birds, were traditionally worn by the warriors of Manus province for protection and success in warfare. The ornaments were secured to the back of the neck with a length of cord, with the carved heads facing upwards and the long feathers fanning out horizontally under the base of the skull.

These specimens were collected by American anthropologist Margaret Mead who visited Manus more often than any other site in her fifty-year career. Mead’s work focused on rites of passage, sexuality and gender roles and temperament across the Pacific and was particularly interested in bodily decoration and displays of dominance – both of which are evident in these artefacts.

Neck charms
Wood, frigate bird feathers
Admiralty Islands, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea
Collected by Margaret Mead, 1928
Donated to Australian Museum by University of Sydney, 1989

E084408

Kiribati armour is the most sophisticated form of traditional body protection in the Pacific. Made from strands of coconut fibre, the vest was heavy and rigid but provided very effective protection against spears, shark’s teeth weapons and European knives and bayonets. The spike helmet is dried skin of porcupine fish.

Worn by warriors in Kiribati, it is not only exquisitely made but to the wearer possesses spiritual qualities to ensure fighting success. A full assemblage of body armour includes a cuirass, helmet of wicker or puffer fish, back plate, arm protectors and weapons with shark teeth, shark teeth or sawfish sword.

One of such weapons is the shark teeth lacerators or Tebute from Kiribati. The lacerators are fashioned using tiger sharks teeth some of them that were collected in the 1800’s also contain dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) and the spot-tail shark (Carcharhinus sorrah) that are no longer present in the waters of Kiribati.

The sharks teeth are lashed to the wooden coconut palm sword-like shaft of the object with coconut fibre.

Armour set
Wicker, coconut fibre, hair, seeds, shark teeth
Kiribati
Collected by JF Richards, late 1800s

E022271 helmet; E082007 sword; EE051287 gauntlet; E082007 shark teeth lacerator

This glass bottle, covered in a protective layer of sheet iron, was probably used to collect some of the first specimens of native plants and animals to be sent from Australia to England for scientific research. 

Used by botanists Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and Dr Daniel Solander (1733-1782), it was carried on board the HMS Endeavour between 1768 and 1771, on Captain James Cook’s first Pacific voyage. It was most likely put to use during the ship’s landing and botanical collecting at Botany Bay in 1770.

The bottle was specially designed and made for the Endeavour’s botanists, and one of only a very few surviving relics from the ship. It was presented to Dr Simon Pittard, Curator of the Australian Museum, by the Royal College of Surgeons in about 1860.

Glass collecting bottle covered with sheet iron
Said to be owned by Banks or Solander, about 1768-71
Presented to Simon Pittard, Australian Museum by Royal College of Surgeons, about 1860

Stephen Lamond donated a collection of almost 7,000 insect specimens to the Australian Museum in 1994. Stephen is an amateur collector based in northern Queensland, and assembled this collection over twenty years through personal collection and exchange of specimens. The cabinets were also constructed by the donor.

Stephen donated this collection under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, now called the Cultural Gifts Program, which enabled him to recoup the considerable value of the donated specimens through his taxation returns. Some of the specimens in this donation are extremely rare, and because of their quality and size, would be worth over $1,000 each on the open market.

Morpho butterflies from Brazil. Because of their size and metallic colouration morphos are one of the “cult” groups of butterflies, and are very popular with all sorts of collectors, even those who have no interest in other butterflies or insects. If you look carefully you can see that each abdomen has been removed and then glued back onto the specimen. If left in place the abdomen would leach fatty substances into the wings and discolour the specimen. The iridescent metallic colours on the upper side of the wings are generated by the interference effect caused by incident light being reflected back through successive overlaying laminations in the microscopic scales on the wings. The structure of these laminations has been used as a model for the development of dye-free colours in fabrics and paints, as well as anti-counterfeit technology in bank notes. The undersides of these butterflies are mostly brown.

Treasure supported by Memocorp Australia Pty Ltd

Imagine a wombat that’s about the size of a bull – this is roughly what a Diprotodon optatum, the largest of the Australian megafauna, would have resembled. 

The Diprotodon was the first Australian fossil mammal to be named, in 1838. There is evidence – including a skeleton owned by the Australian Museum which suggests a spear-hole in one rib – that they may have coexisted with Indigenous Australians for over 20,000 years.

These creatures had short tails but very large mouths, as this piece of partial jaw bone demonstrates. 

They are named for their two prominent lower incisors – ‘di’ meaning ‘twice’, ‘proto’ meaning ‘first’ and ‘odon’ meaning ‘tooth’ in Greek – which were used to root up and  shred the up to 150 kg of vegetation that made up its daily diet.

Diprotodon optatum lower jaw and molar teeth
Bingara, NSW

Treasure supported by The Paradice Family Foundation

The Koala – a treasured and quintessentially Australian species – is under threat from habitat loss, predator attack and disease. There are concerns that its genetic diversity is decreasing and its population health is, as a result, in danger.

Researchers at the Australian Museum are working with Koala specimens like this one to sequence the approximately 20 000 genes in the koala. Assembling the Koala genome will open up opportunities for medical treatments, provide knowledge about how Koalas evolved, and indicate how best to conserve the species. It will also allow scientists to look at disease resistance and susceptibility, and compare current genetic diversity to that of Koalas collected in the past.

Koala Phascolarctos cinereus (Goldfuss 1817)
Mount preparation
Collected Woodburn, Evans Head road, August 1993

M33805

Treasure supported by David and Megan Armstrong

This finely carved stone head is known as a Tindalo and represents an ancestor spirit. People in the Nggela Islands  believe a Tindalo retains the spirit of a dead man who, in his lifetime, possessed great mana or power.

Tindalos were owned by chiefs, warriors or sorcerers, and used to exercise powers in sickness, health, love, war, fishing and fighting. When a chief dies, his spirit becomes a Tindalo. They can take the form of another living creature such as a snake, a crocodile, shark or bird.

The production of Tindalos gradually disappeared with the arrival of Christianity.

Stone head or tindalo
Chalkstone
Nggela Island, Florida Island, Solomon Islands
Collected by Percy Black Early, 1900s

E019217

Treasure supported by Warwick Evans

This Egyptian mummy has been in the Museum’s collection since 1912. It was excavated from a tomb in Thebes (modern-day Luxor) and, until recently, was thought to have been the body of a middle-aged man, who died approximately 2500 years ago.

In 2004, Australian Museum staff conducted a computed tomography (CT) scan on the mummy at the Radiology Department of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The scan revealed that the mummy was actually the body of a woman, mummified 300 years earlier than previously thought.

The mummy is wrapped in several hundred metres of fragile linen and lies in a wooden coffin, decorated on the sides with painted devotional scenes.

Coffin with mummy
Wood, gesso, pigments, skeleton
Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 1070-712 BCE

Donated by Robert Lucas-Tooth in 1912

E019466

Treasure supported by Virginia Judge and daughters Cecily, Theresa, Rebecca and Dr Patrick Tooth

During the Middle Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt (2055–1650 BCE), wooden boats like this were placed in tombs to provide the dead a means of transportation to the underworld. 

The mummy of the deceased is depicted beneath the canopy of the barge, while Anubis, the dog-headed god of embalming and the afterlife, watches on from the top of the boat. The goddesses Isis and Nephthys, the chief mourners in Ancient Egypt, are also seated at the prow of the boat, accompanying the deceased on their final journey.

Egyptian tombs were fully stocked with physical and symbolic objects representing all of the items that the deceased person might need in the afterlife – including food, clothing, money, pets and livestock – which is why they were so highly prized by the early anthropologists and explorers who uncovered them.

The Australian Museum has a very significant Egyptian collection, much of which was collected by the passionate collector and Museum trustee Ernest Wunderlich in the early 20th century.

Funerary boat
Wood, gesso, pigments
Egypt, Middle Kingdom 2055-1650 BCE
Collected and donated by E Wunderlich

E060381

Treasure supported by Jennifer Crivelli

This striking crocodile mask was shaped by moulding strips of turtle shell over a hot stone, which were then sewn together and attached to a wooden frame with coconut fibre and resin. This mask is almost 90 cm long, and is decorated with white pigeon and cassowary feathers and painted with ochre. Shells and nuts hang from the crocodile’s jaw and make a rattling sound as its wearer dances.

The crocodile is an important totem in the Torres Strait, usually representing a line of ancestors. Crocodile masks are worn by men in important ceremonies, including funerary rites, initiations and fertility ceremonies.

Crocodile mask
Turtle shell, feathers, wood, bamboo, ochre, shells, nuts, plant fibre, resin
Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait
Acquired 1907, collected by C Hedley and A R McCulloch

E017339

Treasure supported by The John Spencer Dickinson Family

This beautiful specimen was collected by Albert Chapman, an amateur collector who first gathered crystal specimens as a 12-year-old boy on the shores of the Parramatta River. Albert grew up to become a very knowledgeable mineralogist and a shrewd mineral trader, and assembled an extensive private collection.

Chapman sold the collection to the New South Wales Government in 1988, who bought it with assistance from Conzinc Riotinto Australia, North Broken Hill and BHP. The collection was housed in the Geological and Mining ('Earth Exchange') Museum until its closure in 1995. Since that time it has been at the Australian Museum.

Crocoite is an extremely fragile mineral, and up to 60 per cent of crocoite specimens are damaged in the process of being collected. It is also a very rare mineral, because the elements that combine to form it – lead and chromium – are only found together when groundwater that has moved through chromium-rich rocks comes into contact with another groundwater that has moved through a lead-rich ore body.

This specimen comes from the Adelaide mine – which originally produced lead and silver –  in remote Western Tasmania, which is one of the finest sites for crocoite in the world. Chapman purchased it in 1972 from the man who mined it, Mr Frank Mihajlowits.

Crocoite on limonite

Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania

Registered 1996

D50681

Treasure supported by Lily and Tina Gao and the New Business China Association

This collection of 100 beautifully detailed scientific paintings of Australian butterflies and moths were created over a twenty-year period by sisters Harriet and Helena Scott on their home on Ash Island, in the Hunter River near Newcastle.

The two women collected and described butterfly and moth specimens and the plants they fed on and then captured them in vibrant and delicate paintings, remarkable for both technical detail and artistry. 

Each painting illustrates the complete lifecycle of the butterfly or moth, including details of its habitat, the foliage it feeds on, environmental character and historic setting. Some were included in their father AW Scott’s expensive and painstakingly produced book Australian Lepidoptera and Their Transformations, one of the first books to illustrate and document Australian butterflies and moths.

Harriet and Helena were elected honorary members of the Entomological Society of NSW in 1868 – a rare honour for women at the time.

Harriet and Helena Scott
Ash island, New South Wales, about 1850-1870
Scott family collection purchased 1884

Treasure supported by Diccon and Elizabeth Loxton

Eric the pliosaur was discovered in 1987 by opal miner Joe Vida, who was tunnelling through rock when he noticed bone fragments in the walls of his mine. 

Hundreds of sandstone blocks containing these fragments were sent to the Australian Museum in 1988, but because they had been excavated by a layman, and not a paleontologist, there was little information about the contextual relationships between the pieces of fossil and rock. 

Reconstructing Eric, then, was a difficult and painstaking task, which took PhD student Paul Willis over 450 hours to complete. 

Pliosaurs are short-necked plesiosaurs, aquatic carnivorous reptiles that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from about 200–66 million years ago. Australian opals also mostly formed during this time, and some of Eric’s bones – as well as the tiny fossilised bones of fish inside his stomach – were opalised as he was preserved.

When the private company that owned Eric went into liquidation in 1992, he was placed on sale, but a ‘Save Eric Appeal’ was created in a bid to keep him in Australia. Thousands of people made donations – and the company Akubra Hats made a generous contribution – ensuring that Eric was able to stay at home in the Australian Museum.

Opalised pliosaur Umoonasaurus demoscyllus Kear, Schroeder & Lee, 2006
Early Cretaceous
Zorba Extensions Opal Field, west Coober Pedy, South Australia
Found by Joe Vida 1987
Purchased by public appeal from Comrealty, 1993

F99374

Treasure supported by The Nelson Family

This skeleton, affectionately dubbed ‘The Bone Ranger’ by Museum staff and visitors alike, is a representation of the importance of horses and horsemanship to Australian history.

Horses were indispensable to farming, industry, and travel in Colonial Australia, and are important in many stories about our national identity – from horse-breakers and bushrangers to breeders and racers in sport.

The horse skeleton is of Sir Hercules, one of the great foundation stallions in the thoroughbred industry.

Sir Hercules was bred in 1843 at Clifton Stud on the Hawkesbury River in NSW. Although he never raced, he sired 18 big-race winners including The Barb, winner of the Melbourne Cup in 1866, and Yattendon, winner of the first Sydney Cup. His descendants include the top racehorses and stallions Chester, Grand Flaneur and Abercorn.

After dying in 1865 at a stud near Bathurst his remains were later exhumed, and the skeleton of the famous sire was presented to the AM in 1870. On display by 1873, he reared proudly in the AM’s Skeletons collection for more than 100 years, and now belongs in the Long Gallery.

Treasure supported by the Hartzer / Trevor-Jones Family

This collection of 132 watercolour paintings depicts some of the ‘principal objects of curiosity’ collected by James Cook on his second and third voyages of discovery in the Pacific. 

These items were collected by Sir Ashton Lever, alongside almost 7000 other curious and exotic cultural objects that he had displayed in his personal London museum, until his failing finances forced him to sell it in 1806 and auction the items off. 

Twenty years before these objects were sold and dispersed across the globe, the artist Sarah Stone sketched many of them in four bound sketchbooks of watercolours. 

Little is known about the artist, or how she came to meet Sir Ashton Lever. Neither were the drawings ever published, despite their proficiency, beauty and scientific importance. 

They were privately owned until they were generously donated to the Australian Museum by George Robertson (of Angus & Robertson Ltd) in 1928. 

Sarah Stone
132 watercolour drawings of objects from the Leverian Museum, London , 1770s.
Donated to Australian Museum by George Robertson

AM Archives

Treasure supported by Alasdair and Prue Macleod

This complete body of a Thylacine pup was sent to the Australian Museum in 1866 – 70 years before the last known Thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in 1936. The animal is beautifully preserved, and is a poignant reminder of the importance of collecting and conserving our natural history.

The Thylacine was once widespread across the Australian mainland. By the 1860s, it had died out everywhere except Tasmania, where populations continued to decrease under threats from dogs and human hunters.

Because this specimen was preserved in alcohol, rather than the usual formaldehyde, the Museum proposed an ambitious project to attempt to clone the Thylacine – in effect, bringing the species back from extinction – using the pup’s DNA. The genetic material, however, was found to be too degraded to ‘re-life’ the Thylacine.

Thylacine pup, Thylacinus cynocephalus
Wet specimen
Preserved by George Masters,Tasmania 1866

Treasure supported by The Paradice Family Foundation

Gerard Krefft was a brilliant but irascible scientist who was the Curator, or Director, of the Australian Museum from 1864 until his abrupt dismissal in 1874.

Originally from Germany, Krefft made significant contributions to science – publishing a great number of books and papers about Australian snakes, rocks, minerals and fossils. He was also an early exponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution in Australia.

Krefft’s dismissal stemmed from a dispute with the Museum’s Trustees, with whom he disagreed on a number of important matters.

When he was fired from his position he reacted to the news by barricading himself inside the museum. A Trustee, Edward Smith-Hall, hired two prizefighting boxers to break into Krefft’s living quarters and carry him out, still seated, magisterially, in this chair.

Victorian gentleman's armchair in Louis XIV style
Maker Unknown, Sydney, 1860s
Cedar and vinyl
MA00361

Treasure supported by Professor Jan Scott and her friends Jack, Sissi, Coquohalla and Otis

The river flats around Brungle station near Tumut were a stopping place for the Wiradjuri people of central New South Wales long before the mission was established in 1888. It was here, in 1914, that 57-year-old Edward (Ted) Collett drew a series of 50 remarkable pen and ink drawings in a school exercise book. 

Previously unknown as an indigenous artist, Collett’s work developed from a lineage of south eastern indigenous design and figurative drawing and reveal an acute eye for the intimate details of camp life, hunting, gathering, ritual and performance. His pen and ink drawings range from stylised shape repetitions to detailed scenes. They depict individual and group gestures, decoration, dance implements and material as well as the larger landscape of the Snowy Mountain foothills.

The drawings evoke memories of Brungle mission, its residents and their descendants, and illustrate the continuity of indigenous culture in the region.

Edward Collett
50 pen and ink drawings in a drawing book made at Brungle Station, near Tumut, NSW in 1914
Acquired from the Hubbard family, 1981

AM Archives

Treasure supported by The Calvert-Jones Foundation

This Cerussite specimen is considered by many to be the finest of its type in existence. Its bladed crystals, which form a striking lattice pattern, are up to 28.7 cm long – the longest of any specimen in the world.

Cerrusite is made of lead, carbon and oxygen, and its high lead content gives the crystals a brilliant sparkle, and a great density. This specimen is part of a collection assembled by the managers of a Broken Hill mine after its closure, and transported to Sydney by rail in wooden boxes. Despite the long journey, and the fragility of the crystals, none of the specimens were damaged during transit.

Cerussite (lead carbonate)
Proprietary Block 14 Mine, Broken Hill, NSW

D32152

Treasure supported by Robert Albert AO

This beautiful, soft rug is made from the skins of 72 platypuses – made in a time when the animal was far more abundant, and unprotected by conservation law.

It is possible that this rug was made by the famous Tost and Rohu taxidermists – a mother and daughter taxidermy team who operated what they termed ‘The Queerest Shop in Sydney’, selling stuffed and mounted animals, skins and furs, and ‘island curios.’

The platypus confounded European scientists, who, confronted with the first specimens in 1798, believed the animal to be a hoax, created by stitching a duck’s beak onto a beaver-like animal.

The species was extensively hunted for its fur until the practise was outlawed in 1905.

Rug made from 72 platypus skins, Ornithorhynchus anatinus
Possibly from Tost and Rohu taxidermists, 1883

M7310

Treasure supported by The Paradice Family Foundation

This beautiful, densely-patterned cloak is made from the feathers of the kereru, a species of wood pigeon endemic to New Zealand. The kereru has stunning, iridescent plumage, which gives this cloak its remarkable sheen, and colours which catch the light and almost glisten at certain angles.

Feathered cloaks like this were only worn by Maori elders on special occasions, and are a sign of prestige and honour. This cloak comes from Opotiki, a lush region on New Zealand’s North Island, also known as the Bay of Plenty.

Opotiki was first visited by Captain Cook in 1769, and was invaded by British forces in 1864. The area is now a thriving farming district, well known for its production of kiwifruit and mussels.

Feather cloak
Feathers of Kereru Hemiphapa noveseelandiae
Opotiki, Bay of Plenty NZ-Aotearoa, 1907
Acquired from T Buxton, 1907

E016408

Treasure supported by Jim Lennon in honour of Jean Lennon

The Paradise Parrot holds the dubious distinction of being the only Australian mainland bird to have become extinct since the arrival of Europeans to Australia. 

The last sighting of the bird was in 1927, in southern Queensland, although there have been extensive searches in the years since then. There are very few specimens of paradise parrots in museums around the world.

Paradise parrots were known for their extraordinarily beautiful plumage, a mixture of turquoise, scarlet, black and brown, and their unusually long tail. They spent most of their time at or near the ground, making their nests in hollowed-out termite mounds and living in small family groups.

It is speculated that overgrazing, land-clearing, the introduction of cats and dogs, and hunting by bird collectors led to the bird’s demise.

Paradise Parrot  Psephotus pulcherrimus
Donated from the estate of Sir Edward Hallstrom 1970

O43861

Treasure supported by The Carrawa Foundation

This Night Parrot specimen is one of only a very few that exist worldwide. Even before it was presumed to be extinct, the Night Parrot was known as Australia’s most enigmatic avian species, glimpsed only rarely by early explorers of arid Australia. 

Feathers were collected during the Horn Expedition of 1894, the first primarily scientific expedition to document the natural history of central Australia.

There were no known sightings of the Night Parrot between 1912 and 1990, when a dead specimen was discovered in western Queensland by a group of scientists. The group included Walter Boles, an ornithologist at the Australian Museum. 

More recently, a pair of Night Parrots was discovered in remote central Queensland, suggesting there may be more Night Parrots thriving somewhere in the wild.

‘We’re the kind of bird that gets poets going,
 Our cult status assured, we’re half-mythical’  
- B.R. Dionysius, ‘Night Parrot’

Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis

Treasure supported by Chris and Gina Grubb

This feathered cape or kipuka was given to Captain Cook on his third – and fatal – Pacific voyage, by King Kalani’opu’u, as an official welcome to Hawai’i in 1778. The kipuka was worn by Hawaiian rulers for important ceremonies and in battle.

This cape, one of six or seven given to Cook, is made from the feathers of various species of birds: the red-feathered I’iwi honeyeater, the yellow O’o Moho and Mamo, and a cockerel with black plumage. It was kept by Cook’s widow, Elizabeth, and sold to the Museum in 1894.

Kipuka
Olona, ‘I’iwi, (red feathers) O’o Moho and Mamo (yellow feathers), black cock feathers
Given to Captain James Cook by King Kalani’opu’u in 1778
Acquired 1894

H000104

Treasure supported by Alasdair and Prue Macleod

As a raw material pounamu or green stone is revered by Maori for its strength and beauty. The finest grades can be seen in our collection sourced from the Arahura river in the south Island of New Zealand, fashioned into Mere, a shorthanded weapon of high value and great prestige; these treasures became a trade item in high demand.

Originally the provisions of chiefs, Mere are a symbol of status and rank amongst Ariki who cared for and protected their people with great diplomatic prowess. Whale bone is favoured across the pacific for its colour and association with powerful cetaceans capable of covering great distances. It also has a superior strength to wood and can be re-honed when used in weaponry. 

Hei-tiki are similar to a charm symbolising the first human in a foetal position in Maori culture. They are heirlooms handed down from generation to generation and worn during gatherings and special occasions. 

Two Hei-tiki amongst our collection have been associated via our collections register as once belonging to a famous chief by the name of Hiriti Te Paerata. He was the principle architect of the Pa (fort) at Orakau in the north Island of New Zealand during the New Zealand Wars. There a bloody battle was fought, in which over 120 people lost their lives and soldiers from Sydney’s 40th Regiment were heavily involved. Because of the association with this chief and this battle, the mana or prestige of these Hei Tiki is formidable.

Pounamu or greenstone
New Zealand
Sir William Dixson collection, 1951

Treasure supported by William Murray and Gretel Packer

These arrows, carved with human heads, probably originated in New Guinea and were brought to Mer – or Murray Island – in the Torres Strait by Meriam warriors in the early 19th century. The island does not have good stocks of timber and so many wooden objects – such as canoe hulls, masks, clubs and arrowheads – were obtained through complex trading networks.

In 1834, the Charles Eaton was shipwrecked in the Torres Strait waters. The crew and passengers were killed except for two children, teenager John Ireland and toddler William D’Oyly. They were 'acquired' by the Duppar family from Mer, with whom they lived in good care for two years.

In 1836, a rescue mission sailed to the Island on the colonial schooner Isabella and negotiated the return of the boys. As part of customary engagement the rescuers, including Philip Parker King (a Museum trustee) and Commander Morgan Lewis, traded with the Islanders and a set of arrows was acquired along with numerous other artefacts such as masks, carvings and costumes. The artefacts were then donated to the Australian Museum by Lewis and King. They form one of the earliest collections of anthropology materials acquired by the Museum, and King's expedition records are one of the first extensive English descriptions of Torres Strait Islanders and their culture.

For many years, it was believed the Mer arrows were destroyed in the Garden Palace fire of 1882, but they were rediscovered in 1999 and now form a treasured part of the Museum’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collections.

Arrow

Reed, wood, resin, bone, ochre

Arrows from Mer (Murray Island) Torres Strait

Collected by Philip Parker King and C M Lewis, Commander of the Government Schooner Isabella, during his expedition to the Torres Strait in 1836. Acquired by the Australian Museum in 1836.

E018419

Treasure supported by Jacqui and John Mullen

These improvised objects were created and used by Douglas Mawson and his team during their 1911 expedition to Antarctica. Because a magnetic compass does not function close to the North or South poles, early polar explorers relied on sightings from the stars and sun to navigate the harsh terrain, in unpredictable and often dangerous conditions.

The full circle sextant was used for basic navigation; with the wooden sun compass (pictured here) operating like a portable sundial, to determine bearings and location. Mawson also improvised a sledgemeter – similar to a wheeled ruler, fitted to the sledge – which assisted in calculating distance and progress.

Although Mawson’s expedition was fraught with difficulties – including missing the departure of the ship that was supposed to have taken them home – the team explored more than 3000 km of Antarctic coastline and collected valuable specimens and data about what remains today a distant, difficult terrain.

Treasure supported by Ben Barham and Gretel Packer

The colour, shape and form of a mahiole  - or helmet - represented the political status of chiefs or kings. Mahiole are usually covered with fine red, yellow and black feathers and are worn with a feathered cape or a cloak to offer physical and spiritual protection in battle or to signify the social and spiritual power of the wearer during ceremonial rites. A crested-shape helmet like this one was worn by the high chiefs and king, with other styles worn by warriors and lesser chiefs. This  example is unique, because it lacks any feathered work decoration. 

This unique example was presented to Captain Cook by King Kalani’opu’u during Cook’s last Pacific voyage in 1778.

Hawaii

Wicker, fibre
Collected during Cook’s third voyage 1778 

Acquired 1894

H000141

Treasure supported by Alasdair and Prue Macleod

This katana, or samurai sword, was presented by Lieutenant Nobu Shirase, the leader of the Japanese Antarctic expedition, to Tannatt William Edgeworth David in gratitude for his assistance to Shirase’s mission. 

Academic and Antarctic explorer, Edgeworth David had supported the Japanese crew while they were wintering in Sydney, despite public hostility towards the expedition, and helped them acquire the funding and supplies they needed to reach Antarctica in the following months.

The sword was made by Mutsu no Kami Kaneyasu, one of the highest-ranking and most-respected swordsmiths of the 17th century – who engraved his signature as a mirror-image on the base of the handle. This era is considered the pinnacle of katana sword-making in Japan. 

Shirase’s gift is incredibly valuable, as well as a strikingly fine example of katana, and a mark of the very high esteem Shirase held for Edgeworth David.

Shirase sword, Katana
Blade created by Mutsu no Kami Kaneyasu, Japan, 17th century
Donated by Mary David 1979

E076356

Treasure supported by Warwick and Ann Johnson

Reverend George Brown arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1875, intending to establish the first permanent Methodist mission in the East New Britain area, near Port Hunter.

As well as collecting this dazzling array of colourful, tropical birds from the region – including the fan-tailed, red-brown and yellow bird of paradise that now features on Papua New Guinea’s flag – Reverend Brown also took some of the first photographs of the region.

His images, of local chieftains, ceremonies and landscapes – are also held by the Australian Museum as fragile glass-plate negatives.

Cabinet of Papua New Guinea birds
Rev George Brown 1880s

Treasure supported by Belinda Gibson and Jim Murphy

Groote Eylandt is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It lies about 50 km from the eastern coast of the Northern Territory mainland and is the homeland of the Anindilyakwa people. The Australian Museum holds an important collection of traditional paintings, made on sheets of bark, created between 1948 and the 1960s. These paintings depict local animals – including kangaroos, jellyfish, crabs, fish, lizards and turtles – as well as symbolic landscapes and motifs.

Bark paintings are extremely fragile and Museum conservators have worked painstakingly with a natural adhesive to consolidate the original pigment in places where it has worked loose, to ensure the images are safeguarded for the future.

Bark paintings
Bark, pigment
Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory
Various dates 1948 to 1960s

Acquired 1948 to 2005

E053124, E053114, E059314, E059315, E093458, E093460

Treasure supported by The Patterson Pearce Foundation

Standing up to 2.1 m tall, and carrying antlers that spanned more than 3.5 m, the Irish Elk was one of the most impressive megafauna of the Pleistocene Era.

Despite its name, it is neither exclusively Irish – specimens have been found in northern Asia and Africa – nor an elk. It is unrelated to any living species, but it is suspected that the animal was the foundation for the folkloric aurochs of German mythology.

The Irish Elk, unlike many other megafauna, survived the Ice Age, and is suspected to have become extinct due to habitat loss, around 7700 years ago.

The bones of this specimen are dark in colour, rather than the usual white, because they were preserved in the peaty bogs of Ireland. They were acquired by the Museum in 1886 and recently restored to their full magnificence.

Irish Elk, Menacers giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799)
From an Irish bog
Registered 1886

Treasure supported by The Paradice Family Foundation

This King Penguin specimen was collected by Sir Douglas Mawson, as part of his historic Antarctic Expedition, which lasted from 1911 to 1914.

It was found on Macquarie Island, a sub-antarctic island located between Australia and Antarctica, and is one of over 700 specimens of birds and eggs that Mawson and his team collected during their research trip.

The King Penguin is the second-largest of all penguin species, standing between 70 to 100 cm tall and weighing up to 16 kg. It has an unusually long breeding cycle and lays one egg each year, which is incubated by both parents in shifts that last for several days.

King Penguin and egg  Aptenodytes patagonicus
Collected on Douglas Mawson's Antarctic Expedition 1911-14

O22034

Treasure supported by Lindblad  Expeditions

Tree-kangaroos are rare creatures that exist only in the rainforests of New Guinea and Australia. To this day, little is known about these animals, because they live in remote locations and lead secretive lives, making it difficult to collect information about their behaviour.

The Australian Museum has made important international contributions to the discovery, description and conservation of tree-kangaroos, with many great Australian scientists conducting research into their behaviour and biology.

Currently, Dr Mark Eldridge is using DNA sequencing data to establish a clear taxonomy for tree-kangaroos, which will underpin future conservation efforts for the species.

Tree-kangaroos Dendrolagus
There are 10 species in the genus in the Australian Museum Skins
Queensland and New Guinea

Treasure supported by Robert Purves AM

In one of the first expeditions of its kind anywhere in the world, the Australian Museum Trustees dispatched a team to Lord Howe Island (long-studied by Museum scientists) in 1921 to collect materials and information for three new dioramas. Opened to the public in 1923, only one of these dioramas now remains - now the oldest surviving natural history diorama in Australia and a masterpiece of its time. It still resides in its original position at the entrance of the Long Gallery.                                                                                          

Recent extensive conservation work has restored this gem. For many years to come, our visitors will be able to imagine themselves standing on a rocky outcrop, nesting birds at their feet, with the distant peaks of Lord Howe Island against the sky.

Become a part of history as a member of the Treasures Circle through pledging your support for this treasure.

Images: The Lord Howe Island nesting seabirds diorama, Long Gallery (Skeleton Gallery), taken in 1989 by photographer Anthony Farr; and Australian Museum staff Miss Phyllis Clarke and Mr Allan McCulloch painting the background of the Boatswain bird group in 1922 for the Lord Howe Island diorama.  

Treasure supported by The John and Frances Ingham Foundation

These shields were collected during the Anglo-Zulu War, a war of resistance between the Zulu people of what is now South Africa and colonialists of the British Empire.

The Zulu are, and were then, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, and assembled one of the most organised and disciplined indigenous armies in Africa, who engaged in famously bloody and brutal battles.

Sir Edward Strickland, who collected these shields alongside almost 100 other Zulu artefacts, was serving in the British army during this war and retired to Sydney in 1881.

These shields are lightweight and made from a single ox-hide supported by a wooden spine. Their distinctive patterns are symbolic of the Zulus’ close affinity with the valued nguni cattle, which have beautiful, multicoloured skin.

Shields
Cattle hide, wood, twine
Zulu nation, South Africa, about 1880

Purchased from Sir Edward Strickland and registered 1884

B004191, B004192

Treasure supported by Catherine Livingstone AO and Michael Satterthwaite

For many who grew up in Australia over the last century, the Gould name evokes a childhood nostalgia. Their first introduction to birds and wildlife was often through the organisation known as the 'Gould League' and more than one million Australians have joined the League since 1909. 

The League was set up to honour the work of John Gould (1804–1881) - a businessman, publisher and obsessive bird collector. Recognising the gap in knowledge about the birds and mammals of Australia, Gould left England in 1838 to embark on a 19 month field trip. While in Australia, Gould spent a number of weeks exploring the collections of the Australian Museum, familiarising himself with the native fauna before acquiring his own specimens in the field. Without the technology of binoculars or the telephoto lens, Gould had little choice but to shoot the animals he wished to describe and illustrate.  

After his return to London, the Australian Museum and its associates sent Gould more newly discovered species – a practice that continued for the next 40 years. These specimens were quickly sketched by Gould and then finished by one of his artists under close supervision. A number of these illustrated specimens remain in the Australian Museum collections, a tangible reminder, alongside these books, of Gould's link to the Museum.

Treasure supported by Francesca Packer Barham and Gretel Packer

Images: Major Mitchell Cockatoo and Norfolk Island Kaka in 1840–48 The Birds of Australia, 7 volumes, 36 parts; London.

This pestle stone was made in Papua New Guinea, around 3000 to 8000 years ago.

It is shaped in the form of a bird of paradise, now the national emblem of modern-day PNG, demonstrating the long cultural importance of the bird to New Guinean culture and mythology.

Hand-made mortars and pestles like this one were used to pound taro and nuts into ritual foods for ceremonial occasions.

Museum researchers have examined the microscopic residues remaining on these pestles, and the data collected has been used to trace the spread of cultivation throughout different regions of Papua New Guinea, as well as ancient trading and social networks across villages and islands.

Pestle stone
Wonia village, Western Province, Papua New Guinea
c 3000-8000 years old
Collected 1928
Purchased from CW Marshall  

E065762

Treasure supported by Claude and Maryanne Gauchat

In early 1971, Geoff Bardon took up the post of art teacher at Papunya, an Aboriginal settlement about 240 km north west of Alice Springs.

In a remarkably short time, he encouraged the traditional artists living there – from the Warlpiri, Pintubi, Anmatyerre, Arrente and Luritja people of central Australia – to develop the new and distinctive art form known as ‘Western Desert Art’, which is now recognised worldwide.

These paintings are attributed to Old Water Tjampitjinpa and Dinny Nolan Tjampitijinpa, and are painted in acrylics on masonite boards. The paintings represent several Rain and Water Dreamings of Central Australia, and mark out waterholes, layers of clouds and the paths of thunderstorms, as well as the old men who are the custodians of these dreamings.

The works date from the early days of the Papunya art movement, and are an important archive of its early development, as well as traditional Indigenous knowledge of the land.

‘Rain Dreaming’ c.1971-72

Old Walter Tjampitjinpa

Acrylic paint on masonite board

Papunya, Northern Territory

Purchased from Papunya Tula Artists

E079153

‘Water Dreaming at Kalipinya’ c.1971-72

Old Walter Tjampitjinpa (attributed)

Acrylic paint on masonite board

Papunya, Northern Territory

Purchased from Papunya Tula Artists

E079186

‘Rain Dreaming from Kalimpinpa’ c.1971-72

Old Walter Tjampitjinpa (attributed)

Acrylic paint on masonite board

Papunya, Northern Territory

Purchased from Papunya Tula Artists

E079188

‘Rain Dreaming north of Mt. Wedge’ c.1972

Dinny Nolan Tjampitijinpa (attributed)

Acrylic paint on masonite board

Papunya, Northern Territory

Purchased from Papunya Tula Artists

E079230

Treasure supported by The  Purcell Family Endowment Fund in honour of Mrs Lorna McClelland

Kulap are small sculptures made from chalk or limestone and were used in betrothal ceremonies and as memorial portraits in the northern inland part of southern New Ireland. 

During  certain initiations, boys and girls were shown kulap,  and each initiate was assigned a stone figure and received the name owned by the effigy. Other figures were said to be a portrait of important people so they could remember them.  The sculptures were kept in special places and people would pay to look at them.  

This specimen is very rare because it is doubled-headed, and is probably a portrait of a married couple – New Irelanders describe marriage as a state of ‘two minds, one body.’

Chalk figures or Kulap
Southern New Ireland, PNG

Probably collected by Rev G Brown, late 1870s

E063173

Treasure supported by Keith and Maureen Kerridge

The Superb Lyrebird is famous for its ability to mimic both natural and mechanical noises, with about 80 per cent of its song consisting of these copied sounds, strung together into a rousing medley.

Capable of imitating any sounds from its immediate environment – including car engines, dog barks, and the calls of other native birds – this species often combines its song with a spectacular display of dancing and tail-shaking during courtship rituals.

The Superb Lyrebird resembles a large pheasant, but the males have an ornate, lyre-shaped tail with long, curved feathers. They grow up to 1 m long and are descended from a prehistoric line of songbirds that lived about 16-23 million years ago – discovered, as fossils, by Australian Museum scientist Dr Walter Boles.

Superb Lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae 
Mount and egg

Treasure supported by Billie Rose and Warwick Evans

The official term for the branch of science that studies birds’ eggs is oology – a word that is derived from oion, Greek for ‘egg’.

Oology (and the collection of wild bird eggs in particular) was especially popular during the 1800s in Great Britain and the United States, although avid amateur oologists were also working in Australia at the time.

This collection is unusual because it contains only the eggs of Australian birds, including the kookaburra, magpie, Galah, Rainbow Lorikeet and Lyrebird. 

Australia has some of the world’s most unique bird species, and the varying sizes, colours and shapes of the eggs in this collection reflect this diversity.

Colour postcards of Australian birds accompany the eggs, which have been lovingly and skillfully arranged by this dedicated – but unknown – amateur scientist. 

Unknown
Amateur bird collector

Treasure supported by The Paradice Family Foundation

This small meteorite (originally one kilogram)has two claims to fame: it was the first discovered in Antarctica and is linked to the pioneering Australian geologist and explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, being found during his Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911–1914.  

The meteorite was found in 1912 by Francis Howard Bickerton, leader of a team mapping areas west of the party’s main base while Mawson was leading a separate eastern team. Although its dark colour contrasted with the white landscape, it was remarkable to find such a small object in the vast wilderness. The team reported it as ‘a highlight in an otherwise difficult outward journey’. 

The meteorite was later analysed and described, with the results published in the expedition scientific reports in 1923. The following year, it was donated to the Australian Museum.  It belongs to a group of stony meteorites called chondrites, which represent the outer layer of an asteroid. Because it was sliced for study, we can see its mottled interior, speckled with small bright flecks of nickel-iron metal. 

Adelie Land Meteorite 

Collected by Australian Antarctic Expedition, 20 miles from Cape Denison, Adelie Land, Antarctica, 1912 

Australian Museum Collection DR.7013