Returning Boomerang

The returning boomerang is as its name would suggest, when thrown it comes back to the thrower! This Boomerang is one clever tool with many uses and one of our people’s famous weapons of choice!

The returning boomerang was used to hunt birds in the air like ducks and small geese, the thrower would simply throw it in to a flock of birds and if hit some his family would eat that night, but if he didn’t, it would simply come back and he would catch it and throw it again.

You can see by the picture that when thrown it should follow along a path about 3-6m off the ground, going out in front of the thrower depending on the size a range of 10-40m.

This action gave the skilled hunter using this motion to benefit from this wonderful and powerful ally and work in conjunction other weapons such as the spear and killer Boomerangs to “herd” the animal even to change the way the animal would be running by penning them in to a small corridor where nets were hung to catch a number of birds or to be easily picked off by our skilled hunters.

Hunting Kangaroo

Imagine you’re sitting in the grass, in front of you is plain, open ground with a big, juicy, meaty kangaroo sitting in the middle. You’re hungry and the only things you have are the killer boomerang and the returning boomerang.

You know that if you move into the plain or out in the open the kangaroo will see you and hop away, but the kangaroo is too far away for you to hit with the killer boomerang.  So you think ‘mmm’, then you put the returning boomerang under your arm, you rub sweat and human stink all over your boomerang, ensuring that your scent is strong upon the timber.

You throw the returning boomerang hard and long. As it travels it makes a noise. Your returning boomerang goes behind the big kangaroo and as it travels the noise startles the kangaroo. The kangaroo looks behind him and sniffs the air looking for danger which he senses when he smells the returning Boomerang.

The Kangaroo smells the boomerang and hops away from the human smell that he can smell, not realising it’s from the stinky boomerang.  He thinks he is hopping away from danger, but as we know, he is moving straight to the hunter sitting in the grass waiting until the kangaroo bounces close enough to be hit.

Birds and a Net

By using the wide arch that the boomerang is famous for, hunting birds can be quite profitable using both the Returning Boomerang and a net!  Our people have always known what was around them and how the animals in the animal kingdom interacted with each other.  In Australia there are many waterholes or billabongs where ducks live.  The ducks had many enemies including dingos, sea eagles and hawks. 

First we would watch the waterhole for a few days, watching the ducks and where they would go, watching the direction they fly in when escaping from land and air predators. Many people in the tribe would help in watching the water.

 Once we knew where the best escape routes were, we would hang nets in that place!  We would then sneak down to the water where the ducks were. The hunter would wait, being as patient as possible, waiting until the ducks were in just the right place then throw the boomerang!

 The boomerang would act and sound like the hawk, flying and chasing them. The ducks would fly, fly as fast as they could away from the boomerang, following the same escape route for that part of the water, straight into the nets.  Other family members would be in strategic places around the area in case the ducks went another way, waving about and shouting so the ducks would go back where we want them to, allowing us to catch a large number of birds and share the catch between the hunters!