# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 17

Nets and Fish-hooks.
The natives used hooks and nets as well as the spear in catching fish. William Buckley makes the following statement in his Life and Adventures:—"They used to take me out on calm evenings to teach me how to spear salmon, bream, &c. Their manner is to get some very dry sticks, cut them into lengths of ten or twelve feet, tie several of them together into a kind of faggot, and then light the thickest end; with this torch blazing in one hand and a spear in the other they go into the water, and the fish, seeing the flame, crowd round and are easily taken."
The Jardines saw, at Maramie Creek, "two parties of blacks fishing on the river. . . . . They used reed-spears, pointed with four jagged prongs, and also hooks and lines. Their hooks are made of wood, barbed with bone, and the lines of twisted Currejong bark." The same writers say that "considerable nicety is shown in the making of fishing lines and hooks. The former are made from the fibres of a species of climber, very neatly twisted. The fish-hooks are made of tortoise-shell, or nails procured from wreck-timber. They are without barbs, and our fish-hooks are eagerly sought for in place of them."
In catching eels, Buckley observed that though they spear them frequently, "they generally use lines—the bait being a large earth-worm. Having these worms ready, they get a piece of elastic bark and some long grass, on which they string them; this is tied to a rod, and as the eel, after biting, holds on tenaciously, he is thrown or rather jerked upon the bank."
At the mouths of some of the creeks in the western parts of Victoria, and in the channels through which the lakes overflow, the natives take eels in large quantities. They are so numerous as to embarrass them, and vast quantities are thrown aside and left to decay.
Whether using the spear, the net, or the hook, the native is almost always a more successful sportsman than the European. He knows the habits of the fish, the places where they are to be found, and the food which they prefer; and patient in waiting, quick in seizing an advantage, and with a perfect command of the implement he is using—spear, net, or hook—he is never, or very rarely, disappointed with the results of his labors.
​The Murray cod, the black-fish, and the herring were the food of the natives during certain seasons; and before the whites invaded the solitudes of the forests, through which flow in deep shade, even in the height of summer, strong streams, bubbling in sharp bends, rippling where the rocks come to the surface, and gliding smoothly where deep water occurs in long reaches, small parties put up rough sheelings (Miams) for protection against the winds of the night, and fished with net and line whenever the weather was propitious. Even now—enervated, and with no love for the sport, but with a desire merely to get money—the poor natives haunt the streams that once were their own, and bring away fish in well-filled baskets from places where many a sportsman would fail to induce the fish to bite.
How it happens that their fish-hooks are so well made, that their lines, if not always as neatly twisted, are as good as ours, and that their nets are not much different in form or texture from those used by fishermen in Europe, may induce new speculations in the minds of those who believe that the Australian is poor in invention—lower than the lowest amongst mankind, and scarcely fit to be classed with the Bosjesman of Africa or the Mincopie of the Bay of Bengal.
The nets, hooks, and lines used by the natives are of the following description:—
Fishing-net, Lake Tyers. — The Rev. Mr. Bulmer has sent me a fishing-net made by the blacks of kangaroo-grass (Anthistiria ciliata), called by the natives Karn, which is really excellent as a work of art. The knot is the same as that of nets of European manufacture. The size of the mesh is two inches from knot to knot. The natives do not use the ordinary mesh in netting, but regulate the size of the interstices with their fingers; and instead of a needle they use a piece of stick with the twine wound around it. For sinkers they use stones, and for floats the bark of the tea-tree. The name of the net is Ba-arang, and the floats are called Pliart. They do not set the net with stakes, as, being made of grass, it is too fragile for that; but two persons, each in a canoe, take hold of the ends, and draw it through the water, whilst others beat the water and frighten the fish into the net. The net which Mr. Bulmer has forwarded is remarkable for the evenness of the twine and the uniformity in the size of the meshes.
Hand-net.—The hand-net which the Rev. Mr. Bulmer has sent to me is closely woven, and is made also of the kangaroo-grass. The mesh is formed thus.—(Fig. 223.)
* FIG. 223.
The hand-net is used in procuring bait for fishing with the hook. It is stretched on a bow, is let down to the bed of the stream, and is drawn through ​the water by the women. This net is called Lowrn by the natives of Gippsland. Similar nets were used formerly in all parts of Victoria.
Wye-wye-a-nine informs me that the fishing-net provided with floats and sinkers is called by the natives of the Lower Murray Kul-kul-ook, and the landing-net Moom-gnil. A small square net—somewhat like Moom-gnil, as regards the meshes—is used to catch fish in small streams. It is named Mook-kurra.
Mr. John Green has obtained from the natives of the Yarra a specimen of their fishing-nets. It is made of the fibre of the stringybark, and is a coarse strong net. It is named Karrt-keerrt. The mesh is shown in Fig. 224.
* FIG. 224.
The mesh of a fishing-net from the River Burdekin, in North-Eastern Australia, is shown in Fig. 225. The net is round, and about seven feet in diameter. The size of the mesh is one inch. The twine is strong, but not very even. This net was in the possession of the Honorable Matthew Hervey, now deceased, to whom I was indebted for some rare and valuable specimens of native implements.
* FIG. 225.
Mr. John McDonnell, of Brisbane, has sent me a portion of a net used by the natives of Northern Queensland. The mesh is seven-tenths of an inch, and is even throughout. The twine is formed—as well as I can judge—of a fibre of some bark, but of what tree I know not. It is an excellent net. The knot is exactly the same as that of the net shown in Fig. 225.
​The Rev. Mr. Bulmer has been able to obtain an ancient fish-hook, formerly used by the natives of Gippsland. It is made of bone, and is thus shaped.—(Fig. 226.)
* FIG. 226.
As soon as the natives were able to get hooks of European manufacture, they ceased to make hooks of bone or wood, and the ancient fish-hooks are now very scarce in Victoria. The cord which is attached to the hook is made of the bark of the lightwood, called by the natives Yowan. The fibre is strong and flexible.
The women are expert anglers. They will sometimes secure as much as 60 lbs. weight of fish with the modern hook; but what was the measure of their success when they used the bone, wooden, or shell fish-hook is not known to me.
Mr. J. A. Panton says that the natives of the Geelong district used in former times, for catching bream, a piece of hard wood or bone sharpened at both ends and attached to the line by a hitch-knot.—(Fig. 227.)
* FIG. 227.
This cannot be called a hook. It was baited, however, and when seized by the fish and the line strained, the bone stuck in the jaws, and the prey was secured. This is a very simple but a very ingenious contrivance for taking fish.
A curious implement is found in Queensland, which it is believed is used for catching fish. It is formed of a piece of hard wood, sharpened at each end and barbed.—(Fig. 228.) The barbs are fastened to the wood with some vegetable fibre.
* FIG. 228.
* FIG. 229.
A fish-hook used by the natives of Rockingham Bay in Queensland, and presented to me by the late Mr. Matthew Hervey, is shown in Fig. 229. It is somewhat similar in form to the ancient fish-hook of the Gippsland people; but instead of being made of bone, the material used is a section of the shell of a species of haliotis. It is beautiful in shape, highly polished, and has a very sharp point. It is securely and neatly attached to the cord with twine made of the fibre of some plant. This is in all respects a most excellent hook; it is in good preservation, and might be used now, I have no doubt, with success, in taking large fish.
Another kind of fish-hook—made of tortoise-shell—is also in use at Rockingham Bay. In form it is exactly that no. 229. figured above. It is four inches in length, and about a quarter of an inch in width at the widest part. It is a very beautiful hook.
* FIG. 230.
Fig. 230 shows the form of fish-hook used by the natives of New Zealand. It was presented to the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves by the late Dr. Alexander Stewart (Assistant-Surgeon 19th Regt.), who received it from Ne Penuta, chief of the tribe of Wairau natives, in token of gratitude for relief from a dangerous illness which necessitated the performance of a delicate and difficult operation. It was used for catching a fish called Kaiwai, which appears to have some resemblance to the salmon. It was employed very much in the manner the sportsman uses the fly—the shell, when revolving, by its brightness attracting the fish and causing them to rise. The barbed point made of bone is firmly attached by twine (of vegetable fibre) to the shank. The front part of the shank—that part next the barb—is of shell (Dr. Stewart in his description calls the shell a species of mussel, but it is a section of a haliotis), and the back part is of Totara or ironwood. It is well and firmly fixed to the line; and the shell and wood are very carefully carved so as to make the work smooth and almost of one piece.
This hook is figured, in order that the reader may compare the work of the Australian with that of the New Zealander. Excellent as it is, it is not superior to the hook of the Rockingham Bay natives.
This kind of hook—formed of shell and wood—is common in the islands of the South Seas.
* ↑ Life and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 40.
* ↑ Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland. Camp 33. Lat. 16° 27′ 30″ S.; p. 26.
* ↑ The Ancient Egyptians used a net with wooden floats and sinkers similar to the Ba-arang above described; and a landing-net with a kind of bow somewhat resembling the Australian Lowrn.—See A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, p. 188, vol. II.