Description (Labels & Markings)
Marked in black ink: 'AUSTRALIA VICTORIA A.C.H. 1914'
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Description (Labels & Markings)
Marked in white chalk or ink: 'V'
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Related Documents)
Handwritten note referring to 1920.977[.1-6] and possibly some of the implements reaccessioned as Z 27300 A-K and M-R reads: 'Implements from "camp" at Salt Water River near Keilor, Co. Bourke, Victoria, Australia. A.C.H. 1914.'
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Related Documents)
Handwritten note referring to the implements originally accessioned as 1920.978 and now amongst those reaccessioned as Z 27300 A-K and M-R reads: 'Implements from a "camp" at Marribyrnong, Salt Water River near Essendon, Co. Bourke, Victoria, Australia. 19 Collected by A.C.H. 1914 and 2 others.'
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Balfour, H. (1914). Diary of Trip to Australia for BAAS Meetings, Notebook 1. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
(https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/australia-1914-baas-british-association-advancement-science-meeting-sydney-etc)
Event Date 1914
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Field collection)
Collected by Alfred Cort Haddon in 1914, either from 'a "camp"' site either at Marribyrnong or Keilor. Haddon was in Australia at the time for the 1914 British Association for the Advancement of Science. He and several others, including Henry Balfour, went on a collecting excursion on 17 August 1914 to both sites, as recorded in Balfour's diary: 'met Haddon, Marett, Layard, Mahony, A.G.Kenyon + Man, the latter having arranged an excursion with motor cars to visit several old aboriginal camping-sites. Motored first to Maribyrnong, hills over the Salt-Water River, near Essendon in the parish of Doutta-Galla, downlands with sandy soil overlying newer volcanic strata + having outcrops of quartzite exposed by denudation. The quartzite had been broken + used for implement-making by the natives + many flakes were around + some implements, also some of tachylite (glossy-basalt) brought from a distance... motored to Keilor, also Salt Water River, farm-land, where Mr J. Wallace gave us some good implements + we found others.' (Balfour 1914).
Event Date 17/8/1914
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Related Documents)
Handwritten note by Colonel Frederick James Hayter, dated 27 March 1938 and referring to what is now Z 27300 A-R, reads: 'Australia. Victoria. Attached slips seem to indicate that the stone implements marked A.C.h. 1914 were collected by Dr. A.C. Haddon, in Victoria during the year indicated. They have apparently not been registered so further details are not available.'
Event Date 27/3/1938
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card for Z 27300 A-R: '18 stone implements, fractured pebbles and flakes...'
Event Date 1978
Author: maa

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Context (Related Documents)
Unsigned typed note, dating to approximately October 1978, affixed to the catalogue cards for 1920.977 and 1920.978 reads: 'Dr Haddon's specimens from Maribyrnong and Keilor originally were accessioned under [1920.977 and 1920.978]. The objects themselves were found in several groups in October 1978, some unnumbered; hence the confusion and five accession numbers [1920.977, 1920.978, Z 1378, Z 27297 and Z 27300] where there should be two... Some original labels remain with the objects, others are in envelope attached to card.
To confuse matters further:
Keilor and Essendon (on Maribyrnong River) are both in Melbourne. "Saltwater River" doesn't seem to exist (David Moore former curator of Sidney Museum and working on Torres Straits Collection hasn't heard of it) Perhaps name has changed? Bourke is in NSW not Victoria.
1920.977 and 1920.978 make it clear there should be 'chips' from both sites, but small flakes have been found only from Maribyrnong and larger tools from only Keilor. So it is conceivable that those numbered Z 27297 and Z 273000, although found with loose labels stating provenance were somehow mixed up over the past 60 years.'
Event Date 1978
Author: maa

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Description (Physical description)
Accession Register for Z 27300 A-R: '18 stone implements, various.'
Event Date 19/10/1978
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Analysis)
Subsequent information provided by Joan Cunning in December 1978 added to the typed note (see above): 'Bourke an electoral district of Melbourne. Saltwater R[iver] (tidal) runs into Marib[yrnong] R[iver].'
Event Date 12/1978
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Amendments / updates)
As described in the typed note from October 1978, some of the 'stone implements and chips' from Keilor and Maribyrnong ('near Essendon'), originally accessioned as 1920.977 and 1920.978 respectively, were re-accessioned as Z 1378, Z 27297 and Z 27300 A-R, but that it was likely that Z 27297 and Z 27300 A-R, 'although found with loose labels stating provenance, were somehow mixed up over the past 50 years'. This does indeed seem to be the case. Z 1378 (22 'chips') and Z 27297 (14 'chips and flakes') were both catalogued as being from Maribyrnong, while Z 27300 A-R (18 'implements') were all catalogued as being from Keilor. The catalogue cards for 1920.977 and 1920.978 and the four original handwritten notes accompanying the Keilor and Maribyrnong collections make it clear, however, that there should be 'implements and chips' from both sites, not chips from one and implements from the other. It is highly likely that these handwritten notes were mixed up, resulting in confusion when Z number Z 27297 and Z 27300 A-R were assigned in 1978 and assigned the sites of Maribyrnong and Keilor respectively; for instance, Z 27297 (14 'chips and flakes'), which were found with a note about 19 'implements'. It appears instead that Z 1378 (all marked with a pencil 'E', presumably for 'Essendon') and four of Z 27297 (one with a paper label indicating that it is from 'Essenden' and three marked with a pencil 'E') are the 'chips' from Maribyrnong ('near Essendon', part of 1920.978), and the remainder of Z 27297 likely being the 'chips' from Keilor (part of 1920.977). Similarly, Z 27300 A-R are not all from Keilor. This is alluded to by a handwritten note by Col. F.J. Hayter from 1938 about what is now Z 27300 A-R; he commented that the 'attached slips seem to indicate that the stone implements marked A.C.H. 1914... were collected in Victoria'. By describing the 'implements' as being from the State of Victoria, rather than specifically Keilor (as Z 27300 A-R was later accessioned), it is likely that Hayter meant that what is now Z 27300 A-R were from both Keilor and Maribyrnong. It is also confirmed by the handwritten note (mistakenly stored with Z 27297) that there should be 19 implements from Maribyrnong; unfortunately the handwritten note about implements from Keilor does not give the number of objects. Z 27300 L has a label noting that it is from 'Keilor'; the rest of Z 27300 A-R are not marked with a location, and may therefore be from either Keilor (1920.978) or Maribyrnong (1920.977). To try to clarify this situation, the 'chips' from Maribyrnong that were assigned Z numbers (Z 1378 and Z 27297[.1-4]) have been assigned suffixes of 1920.978; the 'chips' from Keilor assigned a Z number (Z 27297[.5-14) have been assigned suffixes of 1920.977; and Z 27300 L, the only implement definitely from Keilor, has been assigned a suffix of 1920.977 (1920.977.6). As it is not currently known which site (and therefore which idno) the individual suffixes of Z 27300 A-K and M-R come from, they will retain their Z number and have both Keilor and Maribyrnong tentatively in the Place field; however, it is likely the majority of them are from Maribyrnong, which was supposed to have 19 implements, meaning others are still unidentified.
Event Date 10/12/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Amendments / updates)
The Cultural Group was previously blank, and has now been updated to 'Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung' after discussions with Jack Norris, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne working with Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elders and their Cultural Heritage Corporation. He identified it as a fragment of a grinding stone or anvil.
Event Date 10/12/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Description (Physical description)
Fragment of a grinding stone or anvil.
Event Date 10/12/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Amendments / updates)
'Palaeolithic' was removed from the Period field, pending consultation on terminology and dating.
Event Date 10/12/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)