Kalkadoon Weapons
The Kalkadoon people lived on and around what is known as the Cloncurry belt and it is now regarded by scientists as one of the most remarkable tracts of country on the earth's surface as the Cloncurry belt of ranges represents one of the very rare surfaces of the earth that has never been inundated by the sea, not since the world began. The earth’s history was put back an extra 50 million years once “the Cloncurry series” of rocks was shown to an international conference, parts of kalkadoon country were once an island in a large freshwater sea. The ranges of today after millions of years of erosion are merely stumps in comparison to the sky reaching mountains that once were.
The Kalkadoon people were one of a few if any that had such a wide variety of granite and rock to work with. There were at least nine different forms of rocks one of which is now called the Kalkadoon and because of this variety Kalkadoon weapons were sought after by many tribes.
The Kalkadoon people had many different stone weapons which included varying sized knives and stone spearheads, stone axes, scrapers, chisels and choppers. They made many different boomerangs from the gidyea tree which included hunting and fighting boomerangs, the ornate and fluted boomerang and the hooked and plain boomerang. They manufactured nulla nulla’s or throwing sticks again from the gidyea tree and these were either used as a club or for throwing short distances. Fighting poles were also manufactured from the gidyea, mulga and box tree and were four to four and a half feet in length and sharpened on both ends which were used for close quarter fighting. Another weapon that was unusual even in its concept was a two- handed sword that was blackened with charcoal and made from the gidyea tree.
The kalkadoon people also made a variety of utensils which included coolamons, fish nets, emu nets, dilly bags, sharpening stones, waterbags, baking ovens, firesticks, yam sticks and even cementing substances. All of these technologies suggest that the Kalkadoon people did have a diverse education in the crafting of many materials at their disposal.
To the Kalkadoon people fighting for their precious and sacred land was a way of life one that had been passed down from generation to generation.
