Description (CMS Description)
Spear-thrower with cross-hatching.Long, thin wooden spear-thrower made from a single piece of wood. A small conical piece of wood is attached to the smaller end of the spear-thrower by gum/?resin. The complete object is covered in pigment. The main body is red, with sections of cross-hatching at each end, and each end has a yellow background with white dots.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
(Bio) (Collector) 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 three spear throwers collected during this period. Two have been accessioned into the CUMAA collections, and one was bequested to the Handling Collection by Richard Bateman.
Event Date
Author: maa