iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

I recently acquired this boomerang a little while back and I have no clue just what it is exactly. After a tiny bit of research I am leaning towards it being an Australian Aboriginal boomerang, but then again it could just be some sort of reproduction or something all together entirely different. It is 30 inches long and the wood has ridges. I do not even know what year or era it is from. If any of you have an idea of what this is, please let me know. Here are a few pictures of it:

Nice piece! The boomerang is an authentic hand-made boomerang from central Australia (northern South Australia or southern Northern Territory or the Western Desert area), definitely not a factory produced one which most modern pieces are and made for the tourist market.

I'd say your boomerang is several decades old but it is difficult to determine a more precise age without handling it. I would say it is pre-1980s. The older the piece, the smoother the fluting (those ridges that run along the length of the boomerang)... handling over many years literally wears the wooden ridges away. Also, the older the piece the more likely the piece would have been made entirely without metal tools.

Value I would put at a couple of hundred dollars (ca. US$150-350), the nice thing about your boomerang is that it has been decorated with pigment, they are more typically undecorated or plainly decorated with just a wash of red ochre.

This sort of boomerang is of the non-returning type. That is, when you throw it, it doesn't fly back to you. Instead, it is used for hunting, for bringing down small game. It is also used in fighting and also ceremonially where a pair of them is used percussively much like how clapsticks are used in the Top End of Australia.

Hope the info helps, let me know if you have other questions.

Cheers,

Guan

Guan, thanks for all of the information. I acquired this one at a small local estate auction, I believe it was an estate piece at least, and when they presented it they didn't say anything other than pretty much "here is a boomerang". They didn't know anything else to say about it, and because of that no one bid on it and I was able to get it for just $5. I had a feeling that this was "something", although I had no clue just what it was exactly. But certainly worth the $5, and likely a lot more.

$5 is a good buy, I'd give you $100 for it right now without hesitation

Guan

lol, wow Guan!

I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do with it. It is a really cool piece and it would be awesome to display it somehow. Then again I may end up selling it, I'm not sure. It is great to know just what it is and that if I did decide to sell there is likely at least some sort of demand for it out there, people that it would likely mean a lot more to than myself.

The remnants of the paintwork make me think it could be from the Kimberley region. It greatly resembles body painting from that area.

Nice looking piece!

and it's made from a type of wattle tree called mulga, (Acacia aneura).