Volume 03 Item 03: Walter Edmund Roth Bulletin No. 13 Fighting Weapons, 1904-1906 - Page 39

                                                                         20a

(d) Tilpal, Torilla etor Anterior surface similar to the Yeppoon patteern, and the posterior somewhat a development of the Marlborough type (Fig. 45). A specimen with distinctly convex back measured 27½ x 10½ x 3 in.
(e)  Miriam Vale.  Smaller, more truly oval and much more flattened than any of the preceding (Figs. 46, 47). Anterior surface coloured blackened. Used for protection in the case of weapons thrown from a distance. The measurements of one example were 20 x 10¾ x 1½ in. Another type here is heavier (Figs. 48, 49) comparatively square rectangular, and differing from all the others in having almost equally convex anterior and posterior surfaces: it is employed at close quarters for fighting with the heavier varieties of nulla. The measurements of an example were 22 x 9 x 3½ in.
Nothing definite was Known concerning the about shields on the Keppel Islands.

25.  At Brisbane*, the shield or Kuntan** was made from "cork-wood" (Erythrine, sp.) by splitting, each split half being rounded top and bottom trimmed into the ultimate shape required.*** It was then put aside for a few weeks, until quite dry, because, while damp, the wood could not be charred. The handle was next made as follows:- the two holes were outlined in charcoal, the lines then cut in with a flint or celt, the intervening parts picked and dug out with a point hardened point stick, then hot coals cinders put on and blown onto, more picking, and finally joining the two holes below beneath. The whole surface was next covered with warm bees' wax, producing a dark brown colour. There were two kinds of shield, but both called by  the same name - a thin broader one for warding off spears in the big fights, and a thick narrower one for receiving blows from waddies in single-hand combat. The former, after the beeswax had dried was painted with pipe-clay according to pattern (Fig. 50) on the upper surface and uniformly covered with it on the under: the thick narrower shield had nothing on them beyond bees' wax.