Probably the first weapon used by the blacks was the Worra-worra or Nulla-nulla. A young tree was pulled up and rudely fashioned into a club, the root forming the knob. The end was sharpened, and it could be used as well for striking an enemy as for digging up roots, and for making holes so as to enable the native to catch animals that burrow. It would be used also as a missile, and the kangaroo, the opossum, and the native dog and birds would be killed with the instrument. By-and-by other forms grew out of this very simple weapon. With the axe and the cutting tools made of teeth or chips of basalt they carved clubs out of solid wood, nearly always selecting, however, a tree or a branch that was somewhat like in form to the weapon that was desired.
The Kud-jee-run, the ordinary club or waddy of the natives of the Yarra, the Koom-bah-mallee and Moonoe of the Murray tribes, and the Mattina and the Meero of the north-east coast, are all weapons of the same kind; they are clubs, however much they differ in form and in the way in which they are ornamented. They are sharpened at the lower end, and each can be used as a missile. The double pointed Nulla-nulla of the north-east coast is employed, however, most commonly in the same way as the Kon-nung of the Victorian natives. It is either thrown at the enemy or used to pierce him in close combat. The Kon-nung is not a club, but a fighting-stick. It is sharpened at both ends, and, whether used as a missile or a dagger, is a dangerous weapon.
The Kul-luk of the Gippsland natives, the Bittergan of the north-east coast, and the large sword made by the people of Rockingham Bay, were no doubt in their earlier forms like clubs, but they are to be classed rather with the Li-lil and the Quirriang-an-wun than with the Kud-jee-run. The Li-lil is not so often used as a missile as to strike at and cut the enemy, and may indeed be properly called a wooden sword. It is made of very hard wood, and it has a fine sharp edge. It is a better instrument than any of the wooden swords made by the natives of the north. This, like all the rest, was sometimes used as a missile, and also in defence to guard blows aimed by the enemy.
Many of the clubs of the Australian natives are neatly made, and curiously ornamented, and as specimens of art are scarcely inferior to those of the Fijians. The Fijians usually ornament that part which is grasped by the hand. The heads generally are smooth—though some, those belonging to the chiefs, are elaborately carved. The head of one in my collection, of a globular form, is spiked, and the spikes curiously arranged in lines, reminding one of the flower of the dahlia.
Though the woods used by the natives for their clubs are heavy and hard, their weapons are smaller and lighter than those of the Fijians. The larger Fijian clubs in my collection vary in length from thirty-six to forty inches, and they weigh from eighty-four to one hundred and eighty ounces. The larger Australian clubs weigh no more than forty ounces, and some less than twelve. But the large wooden club or sword used at Port Darwin weighs seventy-two ounces.
The natives of the south and west of Australia use generally lighter weapons than the men of the north.
