Description (Physical description)
Axe-like throwing stick with stone blade. Short, thick, wooden stick, mainly red ochre in colour, painted with bands of black, white and yellow. A black stone blade is fixed to the stick with (possibly) gum or resin and then bound to the handle with twisted fibre string. There are also bands of red and white pigment around the base of the stone.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Other owners)
Fredrick John Afford Bateman was a doctor in Alice Springs periodically between 1955 -1959, where he worked both in the hospital there and as a flying medic.Richard Bateman, the collector’s son, in correspondence with CUMAA adds: ‘It was a practice that all weapons, shields, knives were left outside the ward [at the Alice Spring Hospital] and were often unclaimed after the patients left the hospital.’This object is one of a collection of four throwing sticks made during this period. Three have been given to the museum, of which two have been accessioned into the collections. Richard Bateman bequested one more to the CUMAA Handling Collection.
Event Date
Author: maa