AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY MARCH 15, 1967 Registered at the General Post Office, Sydnoy, [or transmissoon by po;t as a periodical VoL. 15, No. 9 PRICE, THIRTY CENTS CONTENTS PAGE THE STORY OF THE ROTH ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION-Karh/een Pope and David R. Moore 273 THE SHORE REEFS OF DARWIN-Eii:::abeth C. Pope 278 REVIEW 284 WATER-A D OuR THIRSTY EARTH-R. J. Griffin 285 YE oMous SEA URCHI IN SYD EY HARBOUR-Eii:::aberh C. Pope 289 AUSTRALIA SEALS-B. J. Marlo1r 290 RING-TAILED POSSUMS-Michae/ Marsh 294 LARGE ALP! E STONEFLY 298 AUTHOR'S COMMENT 0 BOOK REVIEW 298 WEBWORM. ( SECT PEST OF THE WHEATLANDS-L. £. Koch 299 THE TASMANIA �MUSEUM-W. Bryden 303 e FRONT COVER: Aboriginal ceremonial regalia on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, near Mapoon Mission. The carved heads represent crocodiles. There is obvious inHuence from Torres Strait in this type of mask. The photo was taken by W. E. Roth, who was Protector of Aboriginals in orthern Queensland in the late 1890's and the early years of this century. An article on his work and his remarkable collection of Aboriginal artefacts from northern Queensland appears on the opposite page. VoL. 15, o. 9 MARCH 15, 1967 AUS IAN NATUR ISTORY Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum College Street, Sydney Editor: F. H. Talbot, M.Sc., Ph.D. Annual Subscription, Posted, $1 .40 VoL. 15, o. 9 MARCH 15, 1967 THE STORY OF THE ROTH ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION By KATHLEE POPE, Museum Assistant, and DAVID R. MOORE, Curator of Anthropology, Australian Museum 1906 the Australian Museum acquired South Australian School of Mines and I one of the most complete and well lndu trie , and assistant master at Sydney documented collections of ethnographic Grammar S:hool. In 1890 he returned to material ever assembled from a particular England to further his study of medicine. region. This was the Roth collection of Roth came back to Australia in 1894 with Aboriginal artefacts from north Queensland. the qualifications M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. The tory of how this remarkable collection and wa appointed surgeon to Boulia, wa gathered and how it came to the Cloncurry. and ormanton ho pitals in Australian Museum is a fascinating one and Queen land. During the four years he held it brings to life vividly the unhappy situation the e appointment he developed a very real of the Aborigines in north Queensland at and intense interest in the Aborigines of the the turn of the century. region. and this resulted in the publication in 1897 of his Ethnological Studies Among Dr Roth and the north Queensland Aborigine the North- West Central Queensland Waiter Edmund Roth was the youngest Aborigines. This remarkably detailed and of six sons of an English surgeon, and two of well illustrated monograph established him hi elder brothers, Henry Ling and Reuter as an ethnographer of note and resulted in Emerich, who preceded him to Australia, his appointment in the fo llowing year a were re pectively an ethnologist and a Protector of Aboriginals in orthern Queen - phy ician. Having graduated from Oxford land. with an honours degree in biology, In explaining the duties of this new W. E. Roth first came to Australia in 1884 appointment, the Queensland Commissioner and was successively an assistant master at of Police (under whose jurisdiction Roth Brisbane Grammar School, Director of the then came) wrote: March, 1967 Page 273 Directly you have proper and sufficient equipment you should proceed to Cookto" n, make all possible inquiry conce rning local aboriginals, numbers, disease, present condition, measuremen!s, phot o­ gr aphs. etc. Collect all information re their "walkabouts" and trade routes so as to learn the boundaries of their territories, gather all particu lars concerning fr iendly and hostile neighbours, making from time to timt" such local collection of ethno­ logical and anthropological interest as is possible ... He also mentioned that the appointrr.ent was "largely owing to the fa ct that tl:e enthusiastic intere t in the welfare of the blacks you have di played, gives great promise of the proper performance of the humanitarian work implied ..." Roth immediately moved to Cooktown and began to travel by pack-hor e over the vast area of hi responsibility, which took in the whole of Cape York Peninsula a fa r as the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria and included the channel country on the west ; on the ea t coast it extended a fa r south as Rockhampton. (See map.) He was horrified at the callous exploitation of Aboriginal labour which he found to be the norm almost everywhere. Among other The main centre in W. E. Roth's huge area of early recommendations, he advi ed the responsibility as Prot ector of Aboriginals in Commissioner of Police that no permits ort hern Queensland. [Map by Kathleen Pope should be issued to publicans for the employ­ and Elvie Brown.] ment of Aborigine , because they were paid in liquor and their women were kept a Museum. These collections include not prostitutes to decoy men being paid-off only every po sible type of Aboriginal from boats. In the beche-de-mer trade he weapon, tool, plaitwork, basketry, and found that Aborigine were being atrociously suchlike, but at o specimens at various exploited and windled out of their wage . stages of manufacture. together with full He was also appalled at the trade in opium accounts of how the objects were made; and cheap liquor with the Aboriginal people also included are extensive skeletal material of the coast. and documentation on food . language, aturally Roth quickly made bitter sign language, ceremonies, legend , posture, enemies among the exploiters. Early in his physique, di ea e , and even uch esoteric term of office he wrote of the Aborigines matters as attitudes towards birth, marriage, around Cook town : "At present none of death and so on. them will come near me, some malicious The firstthr ee of Roth's North Queensland reports having been circulated that I have Ethnography Bulletins were publi heel by come here to drive them from their homes the Queensland Government in 1901 and the .. and destroy them. However, he was a big succeeding five between 1902 and 1906. man, in both phy ique and temperament, Roth's relationship with the Aborigines and was not ea ily intimidated. During (one that wa virtually unique at that time) the following ix years he covered an is well shown in a letter written to him in enonnous area in great detail and made their own language by a group of young close personal friends of hundred of Aboriginal girl at Cape Bedford (later Aboriginal people. Yarrabah Mis ion), near Cairns. in May, It was in this way that he was able to 1898: gather the huge collections of more than Dauun antanun Mr Roth, 2,000 specimen , with elaborate docu­ Antan nila nanu kapan balkal. Antan mentation, now held by the Au tralian karbunmanuti nu ndu antanungal kataigu gura Australian Na111ral History Three little Aboriginal girls at Yarrabah Mission, near Cairns. These may well have been the children who taught Or Roth string games and wrote the letter to him which is included in this article. The photo was taken by Or Roth himself. nundu antanun dauun tjir natctchi. Gura ditchullchir ninggai gura kokodir ngangoigo antanun dawangati. Oauunbutongo nundu antanun ninggal. Namongu antan dirlen nanu gari milka ngandaya gura nina milkan nama. Oiral nanu galmba gari milka ngandaya. Oauun antan nu nu merelil wangar yendu antan ) imidir natelmilgo dauunt jirbutongo kataiga gura nundu antanungal botur kundo barbiga, gur a nundu antanun ngutongu merelinga. Oirlcn galmba antan nanu kapan mangulbego merelin. amo nanu thanks gural. undu garko gurabuto katanu bera go namo ngaba nundu koko antanun nama. Oauun nanu, etc. A literal translation of this reads: Friend of us, Mr Roth, We now to you letter make. We glad were you us-amongst came and you us as friend looked at. You smiled and soon called on us to talk with you. Friend real you to us are. Therefore we in return do not forget and of you think. Wife yours also we do not forget. Friend of us, to you we say, White man another we similar to you do not knm•. Truly friendly you came and us-amongst nights (days) three stayed, and you to us games showed. In return also we to you ··eat's cradle"' on hands showed. Therefore to you thanks we say. You by -and-by again will come certainly. By that time perhap� you language-of-ours will speak. Your friends, etc. Hostility from employers The more the Aboriginal people loved and trusted Roth, the more the hard core of exploiters schemed to put a stop to this interloper who was putting stupid ideas about fa ir play and fair wages into the thick W. E. Roth with the tallest Aboriginal woman heads of the blacks. Matters reached a he ever met (over 6 feet). The photo was taken climax at a meeting held at Cooktown on near the Mitchell River Mission. March, 1967 Page 275 lOth July, 1905, which resulted in a pet1t1on I came to know from my conversations with the for Dr Roth's dismissal from office on the Police Magistrate, the Clerk of Petty Sessions, the following grounds: Subcollector of Customs, and others, that there is a strong element in Cooktown fav ourable to Or Roth The officewas unnece sary, and the cost of and his work, and that I had encountered the whole it hould be saved.