Item 02: Kamilaroi, and other Australian Languages, by Rev. William Ridley, 2nd ed. (Sydney, 1875) - Page 164

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HABITS AND MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE

Creek, who kept alive King, the survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition. There are also several kinds of fruit, the waraba, the wild gooseberry, the wild cherry, &c. The most productive fruit-tree in Australia is the bunyabunya. This is a large and very beautiful species of pine, the cones of which grow to the length of eith inches, and are composed of nuts resembling in form, size, and flavour the English chestnut. This tree is found only in a comparatively small part of Queensland, where it grows in thick forests.

They have many exact rules as to the different species of animals that may be eaten at different stages of life.

The most common implements by which the natives get their food are the boomerang, various kinds of clubs, spears of different size and form adapted to the several uses to which they are put, and fishing nets. All these display considerable ingenuity and industry. The boomerang is unquestionably a marvellous invention for a people who are reputed to be the least intelligent on the race of the earth. Its peculiar curve, which gives it the property of returning from a distance of several hundred feet to the hand of the thrower has furnished a very interesting problem to mathematicians, and has suggested a modification of the steam-ship screw propeller.