BOOMERANG, PREHISTORIC GUIDED MISSILE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30094, 30 March 1963, Page 8

BOOMERANG, PREHISTORIC GUIDED MISSILE

Amazing Knowledge Of Aerodynamics

(Bv

GEORGE FARWELL.

lor the Australian News and

IZJU VJ Information Bureau]

’THE flight of the age-old returning boomerang of the Australian aborigines has been proven by modern scientists to display a knowledge of aerodynamics astonishing among people as primitive as these Stone Age men. Its origins are lost in mystery. Not even the aborigines themselves can say when or how it was first invented. Tliis curved, expertly-fashioned wooden weapon that spins and soars so strangely through the air and returns unerringly to the thrower has become famous throughout the world, even though few white men know how to handle it.

Actually there are two; types of boomerang—the

‘ come-back” and the non | returning boomerang, or; throwing stick. The returning type is not found in all parts' of Australia seldom used, today, it was once common in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. But tribes in Central and Northern Australia used—and still use—only non-returning types. Some of these had ceremonial purposes and were decorated with elaborate carving and with ochre paints, some provided a drumstick rhythm for corroboree dances by being clashed together, but mostly they were hurled at kangeroos, emus, or human adversaries.

One vicious type, used in Western Queensland and the Northern Territory, had a hooked end said to have been designed to catch the edge at a man's wooden shield so that the blade swung round and severed his head. On the other hand, it may well have been used as a club. Some tribes used a heavy boomerang and shield in single combat, using the boomerang as a broadsword would be used. Now that the aborigines have mostly been brought within the orbit of the white man's civilisation, the use of the returning boomerang is restricted mainly to the remote Kimberley district in north-western Australia. Throwing is an art that is dying rapidly. Steel knives and axes have replaced the Stone Age adze and flints, rifles have outmoded the boomerang. Yet its controlled and spectacular flight made greater demands upon the marksman’s skill than handling a rifle. Amazing Feats The aborigine could make the boomerang do nearly everything but talk. He •truck fear into small animals and birds, tricked them into his traps, performed amazing feats of flight with it. This is how Sir George Grey, explorer and Governor of South Australia a century ago, described its use. “Perhaps as fine a sight as ean be seen in the whole circle of native sports is the killing of cockatoos with the kiley or boomerang. A native perceivs a large flight of cockatoos in a forest which encircles a lagoon. In the leafy summits of the trees •it a countless number of cockatoos, screaming and flying from tree to tree. The native throws aside his cloak, so that he may not even have this covering to impede his motions, draws his kiley from his belt and, with a noiseless, elastic step, approaches the lagoon, creeping from bush to bush. The sentinels. however. take alarm. “At last the pursuer almost reaches the water, and the scared cockatoos .with wild |k cries spring into the air. At ■L the same moment the native B raises his right hand over his y shoulder and. as he bounds F forward a few paces to give impetus to his blow, the kiley quits his hand as if it would strike the water. But when it has almost touched the unruffled surface, it spins upward with an almost inconceivable velocity and the strangest contortions. In vain the terrified cockatoos strive to avoid it. It sweeps wildly and uncertainly through the air and, so eccentric are its motions, it requires but a slight stretch of the imagination to fancy it endowed with life. With fell swoops it is in rapid pursuit of the birds—some of whom are almost certain to be brought screaming to earth." Another Method Those who have seen boomerangs thrown in this fasbiou declare that as many as a dozen birds might be felled in a single throw. Sometimes a tribe used a different method. Instead of aiming to kill, they would make the boomerang fly above the heeds of wild duck, havering in the manner of a hawk, so that the terrified birds flew low to escape and were cautfst in cunningly placed nets. To complete the

illusion, the aborigines would! imitate the cry of a hawk, I The returning boomerang j was seldom employed against) ground life because it was too light a weapon and too, prone to rise high in the, air. To strike down game, the heavier non-returning boomerang was used. This, too, was curved to make it rotate in flight, giving it extra momentum. It is crescent-shaped, from two feet to three feet long, weighs up to Ijlb. and has a curve shallow in relation to its length. It is a hunting and fighting weapon used for killing kangaroos, wallabies and other mammals, birds, reptiles and even fish. It causes serious injury in warfare and duels when thrown, or used as a hand-club. It is thrown direct into the air, so that one end hits the ground and the weapon ricochets into the air, or so that it bounces along the ground from one end to the other towards its quarry. However, the term boomerang should be applied only to the “come-back” type. It has sometimes been suggested that the Australian aborigines were not the first to use such weapons. Some writers, like Pit-Rivers, have claimed that boomerangs existed in ancient Egypt, India, in North America; Abyssinia, and! the Spain of upper paleolithic times (about 20,000 8.C.). On the evidence of one or two relics and cave paintings, pre-historic man did possess throwing sticks, some of them curved, but there is no proof whatever that any had returning properties. To the primitive Australian aborigines alone must credit be given for their invention. Problem Of Its Evolution Perhaps the real problem is to decide at just what point the throwing stick became a boomerang proper. Its evolution seems clear enough. First, a throwing stick with straight, but rounded, surface: next a curved stick with two flattened sides; finally, the highly specialised form that has become famous. Laboriously carved from the limb of a tree, freqently from a well-chosen fork, this boomerang ranges from about 18in to 2ft in length. Though it is invariably curved, it has usually two straight arms, the angle varying between 70 degrees and 120 degrees, the most common angle being about 90 degrees. One arm is always slightly longer than the other. While the under sides of these arms are flat, the upper have a slight camber, a factor which provides lift For the same reason there is always a twist from the horizontal at the outer end of each arm, one upward, the other down; perhaps no more than two degrees in all There are good aerodynamic reasons for these features. It may seem unreal to discuss a prehistoric weapon in terms of aerodynamics. But therein lies the remarkable achievement of the aborigine. He knew nothing of science as we know it, but his practical mind and acute observation anticipated certain ideas of 20th century aircraft designers. The boomerang, in fact has contributed far more than has yet been recognised. Mathematicians have shown that slight alterations in the shaping of the returning boomerang—in its ratio of twist, size, weight and rounding—will cause corresponding changes in its flight, which can be demonstrated in equations.

served today in the Pioneers’ Club, Sydney. Early in the present century, G. T. Walker, of Cambrige University, spent no less than 10 years of research into the boomerang’s properties, evolving certain theories on gyroscopic and flight action. At least one writer on aerodynamics found it worth while to discuss in technical terms the boomerang’s peculiar ability to fly, soar, and describe parabolas. Indirectly, the Stone age weapon may well have influenced the design of air screws, aeroplanes and helicopters. Two theories exist as to how the aborigine could have invented a weapon so far in advance of the knowledge of his times. One is that the boomerang was evolved purely by accident from a curved throwing stick, which had been warped by damp grass and sun. The other is that he observed how leaves, curled in the hot sun, fell slowly spinning from the eucalyptus trees. In support of this theory is the fact that aboriginal boys had al- ! ways amused hemselves by i throwing gum leaves into the j smoke of a camp Are, and i watching them soar into the air.

Whatever the secret, the practical effect of the finished boomerang was to enable the tribal nomad to kill game at a considerable distance. Again, should he fail to score a hit, the weapon flew back to his feet instead of being lost in bushes or long grass. After all, a boomerang took a long time to make; it was precious, the individual work of a craftsman.

It is surely a remarkable fact that the primitive aborigine should have anticipated modern aerodynamic theories of “angles of attack." and “lift and drag.” The aborigine himself, of course, was blithely indifferent to such things. He felt his way into an understanding of his weapon’s power, learnt to control it as if by instinct, and make it perform complex “flight paths" with uncanny skill and accuracy. Length Of Throw A skilful aborigine could throw his boomerang remarkable distances, much farther than a javelin or cricket ball. Actual lengths, of course, are difficult to measure, since it may soar 150 ft in the air and then return. However, distances of as much as 150yds have been claimed. One observer in New South Wales 50 years ago recorded: “I saw a native of slight frame throw a war boomerang 210yds., and much further if ri chochet was permitted. With the return boomerang he made casts truly surprising to witness. The weapon, after breast-high, nearly out of sight, suddenly rose high in the air. and returning with amazing velocity to its owner, buried itself 6in deep in the turf within a few yards of his feet.”

The record throw is actually claimed by a white man, Krank Donnellan. who is a Sydney printer. Claiming to have been taught at the age of seven by an old aborigine, he once threw a boomerang 140yds., round a tree and back again in Sydney’s Centennial Park. Donnellan is also proud of having made, thrown, and caught such a weapon on its return inside eight minutes. He has given public exhibitions with boomerangs of his own manufacture, thrown them blindfolded. made them bounce off the ground and even succeeded, after the fashion of William Tell, in making one knock an apple off a man’s head. He made a dangerous precedent, . for the man’s head concerned was his own. Perhaps it is unfair to describe Donnellan as a printer, for he has been in his time boxer, gymnast, acrobat, and professional thrower of boomerangs on the vaudeville stage, terrifying audiences by skimming the weapons into the auditorium over the heads of the members of the orchestra. Donneian has now designed a plastic boomerang, which he declares will fly better than those of the aborigines, since it glides back head-high instead of falling to earth. Genuine boomerangs have become extremely rare today. But they have earned an important place in the hisorty of man’s inventiveness. The very name boomerang has entered the English language .with connotations that cannot be otherwise expressed. It has also won wide recognition as a symbol of Australian life, and is as much a part of Australia’s heritage as the emu or kangaroo.