Clay tobacco pipes from Aboriginal middens on Fraser Island, Queensland

Clay Tobacco Pipes from Aboriginal Middens on Fraser Island, QueenslandAuthor(s): Kris Courtney and Ian J. McNivenReviewed work(s):Source: Australian Archaeology, No. 47 (Dec., 1998), pp. 44-53Published by: Australian Archaeological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40287395 .Accessed: 08/06/2012 02:38

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Kris Courtney1 and Ian J. McNiven2

Clay tobacco pipes from Aboriginal middens on Fraser Island, Queensland

This paper examines the age, place of manufacture and cultural significance of clay tobacco pipes found on two Aboriginal shell middens at Corroborée Beach, Fraser Island, south-east Queensland (Fig. 1). Although clay pipes are often found in European archaeological sites in Australia, surpris- ingly few detailed analyses of these items have been published. As such, the meth- odological approach taken in this paper will be of interest to those analysing clay pipes in other archaeological contexts. Fur- thermore, the study represents the first detailed analysis of this class of European material culture from Aboriginal 'contact' sites in Queensland, and indeed one of very few for other parts of Australia (see Coutts et al. 1977:195). Following recent interest in the archaeology of nineteenth century Aboriginal-European interaction in Australia (e.g. Rhodes 1990, 1995; Birmingham 1992; Layton 1992:89-1 13), our paper reveals the potential of clay tobacco pipes to shed light on some of the economic and social dimensions of Aboriginal life on the colo- nial frontier.

Background In the mid-1970s, Peter Lauer from the

Anthropology Museum, University of Queens- land, discovered two clay tobacco pipes while recording Aboriginal archaeological sites on the east coast of Fraser Island. In a subse- quent publication of survey results, Lauer (1979:34) made brief mention of the pipes and provided a photograph without any indi- cation as to where on the east coast they were found. A few years later, Kelly (1982: 141) noted that 'two clay pipes' had been recovered from midden site 799/54 (Lauer's Site Number) which, according to Lauer (1979:36), is located within sand-dunes back- ing Corroborée Beach near Indian Head (Fig. 1). While Lauer implies that the pipes were used and discarded by Aboriginal people, no attempt was made to identify the age or origin of the pipes.

John Sinclair in his popular 1990 book Fraser Island and Cooloola supplied a detailed close-up photograph of the two Lauer pipes (Sinclair 1990:68). Sig- nificantly, Sinclair (1990:68) claimed that the pipes were 'of a type used exclusively by seventeenth century Dutch navigators to trade with Indigenous people'. This information

was seen to corroborate notions for European exploration of the east coast of Australia prior to Cook's 1770 voyage. Apart from entering local popular culture as fact (e.g. Sinclair and Corris 1994:52), the seventeenth century Dutch connection hypothesis has entered official government documents such

as the Australian Government's proposal to nominate the Great Sandy Region (Fraser Island and Cooloola) for inclu- sion on the World Heritage list (Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories 1991:7) and the Fraser Island World Heritage Area management plan (Queensland Government 1994:58).

In 1993/4, a re-survey of Aboriginal archaeological sites in the Corroborée Beach area was undertaken as part of a broader cultural heritage management assessment and archaeological research investigation of Fraser Island (McNiven 1993, 1994a, 1994b, 1998, in press). A third clay pipe was

Figure 1 Great Sandy Region study area.

1 School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology/Department of History, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia, k.courtney 1 @pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

2 School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia. [email protected]

44 Australian Archaeology, Number 47, 1998

Courtney and McNiven

found on another shell midden located a few kilometres from Lauer's clay pipe finds. It was noted that 'Although further detailed research will be required to ascertain the date of manufacture of the pipe, preliminary examinations suggest a 19th century antiquity1 (McNiven 1993:31). Follow- ing examination of photographs of the Lauer pipes, it was suggested that 'no data are available at present to support inferences that any of the pipes represent Dutch trade items' (McNiven 1993:31). However, the view that the pipes were used and discarded by Aboriginal people is assured given their recovery from Aboriginal sites and the known absence of European settlement of the area (Williams 1982; McNiven 1993).

The pipes To shed further light on the clay pipe problem, one of

us (KC) made a detailed description of all three clay pipes and documented their likely age and place of manufacture. The study was based on examination of the pipe found by McNiven and limited to examination of the Sinclair photograph of the two Lauer pipes. Unfortunately, searches at The University of Queensland's Anthropology Museum and the Queensland Museum failed to locate the Lauer pipes and their present location is unknown to the authors. The pipes will be referred to as: Pipes A and B (Lauer pipes) and Pipe C (McNiven pipe).

Pipe A Pipe A (Fig. 2) is a cutty-style pipe (as defined below)

with a bowl which is roughly perpendicular to the broken stem and no evidence of a spur on the base of the bowl. The bowl appears to be plain apart from prominent raised sections along both mould-seams which continue a short distance down the stem. These raised sections are what are referred to by some as 'raised ribs' (Flood 1976:17) and by others as 'linguaform seams' (Graham Wilson pers. comm. 1997). The pipe exhibits staining and other signs of fairly heavy smoking use.

Date of manufacture Evidence indicates that Pipe A was most likely manu-

factured sometime during the second half of the nineteenth century. It definitely was not manufactured in the seventeenth century (when moulded clay pipe manufacture begins - Walker 1975:166) or eighteenth century where typologies of Dutch and English pipes are undisputed and well- documented (e.g. Oswald 1960:51; Atkinson and Oswald 1969:178, 180; Atkinson and Oswald 1972:178; Oswald 1975:117; Walker 1977:1529-33, 1733-45) (Figs 3 and 4). Although no typologies have been published for nineteenth century pipes, enough work has been done to establish beyond doubt that pipes of that century differ considerably and unmistakably from those of the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries (e.g. Oswald 1975; Walker 1977). In this connection, a post- 1860 catalogue of the Glasgow pipe manufacturer Thomas Davidson Jnr and Co. (Gallagher and Price 1987) has a pipe (numbered 1 1 in the catalogue) which is very similar, if not identical, to Pipe A (Fig. 5). It is possibly called a SMALL ALMA pipe based on comparisons with Davidson's ca. 1900 price list (reproduced in Gallagher 1987). This pipe was most probably named for the Battle of Alma in 1854 (Jack 1986) and so it would have been first produced sometime after this date.

Bowl. The angle between the bowl and stem is the single most diagnostic feature in the process of distinguishing nineteenth century pipes from those of the eighteenth or seventeenth centuries. Dutch pipe bowls of the seventeenth century were set at an obtuse angle such that the angle between the stem and the upright bowl axis was considerably greater than 90° from the stem (e.g. Fig. 3). Pipe A, like Pipes B and C, has an upright bowl - i.e. the vertical axis of the bowls, like most nineteenth century pipes, is roughly perpendicular to the stem (Fig. 5). The obtuse bowl angle and other features of seventeenth century pipes are well-documented in typologies (Fig. 3) as well as being illustrated frequently in paintings and drawings of the period (e.g. Corti 1931; Ehwa 1974).

Figure 2 Two clay pipes from an Aboriginal shell midden at Corroborée Beach recorded by Lauer (1979:34). Pipe A (left) and Pipe B (right) (photo courtesy Anthropology Museum, The University of Queensland). (NB. scale not available for this photo).

Australian Archaeology, Number 47, 1998 45


Figure 3 Selected seventeenth century Dutch clay pipe bowls. (Sources: top row and lower row left - after Atkinson and Oswald 1972:176; lower row centre and right - after Oswald (1955:247). Note the broad, flattened spurs, the milling around the rim, the elongated-shape of the bowls, and the obtuse bowl angle (i.e. the vertical axis of the bowl slopes away from the stem at an angle of about 135°. (NB. accurate scales not available for these illustrations).

Milling around the rim of pipe bowls is a feature which is typical of pipes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Fresco-Corbu 1964; Atkinson and Oswald 1969:177; Atkin- son and Oswald 1972; Flood 1976:18) (Fig. 4). The absence of milling on Pipe A is significant as milling continued to be a feature (usually the sole decorative feature) of most Dutch pipes well into the nineteenth century (Walker 1977:197, 184). As such, it is extremely unlikely that Pipe A either dates to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries or is Dutch in origin.

Stem. Pipe A clearly fits the description of the general category of cutty pipe which was first introduced around the period 1780 to 1820 (Flood 1976:18). The cutty is charac- terised by a short stem, an upright bowl (except for 'Dutch style1 imitations - Fig. 5) and sometimes by a narrow, pointed spur (Walker 1975:180; Flood 1976:18). It was the typical pipe of the Victorian era, and while detailed typologies have not been compiled, documentary evidence such as an illustrated catalogue of a nineteenth century pipemaking firm (Gallagher and Price 1987) and a multitude of popular drawings and engravings of the time (e.g. the works of Victorian goldfield artist Samuel Gill - Dutton 1981), attest to the prevalence of this style of pipe in the nineteenth century. The cutty was known also as a Dhudeen to the Irish who, along with Scottish and Aboriginal workers, were particularly fond of this style of pipe last century, apparently because the short stem enabled one to work and smoke at the same time (Wilson and Kelly 1987:28). The short stem was known also to have conferred the added advantage of keeping the nose warm when working outdoors in cold weather (Ayto 1987:10).

PipeB Pipe B (Fig. 2) is a plain rounded bowl with a broken

stem and is best described as a 'crop' pipe (defined below) rather than a cutty pipe (e.g. Gallagher 1987). The stem curves up at an acute angle to the bowl - i.e. the vertical axis of the bowl is at an angle somewhat less than 90° to the stem, a significant feature which is discussed below. As with Pipe A, Pipe B exhibits staining and other signs of fairly heavy use. In addition, Pipe B seems to be fairly weathered, although not to the extent of Pipe C.

Date of manufacture Examination of typologies of seventeenth and eight-

eenth century Dutch and English pipes reveals that Pipe B was definitely not manufactured during this time. The pipe is similar, possibly identical, to pipe number 83 in David- son's catalogue (Fig. 5); a pipe which is called LARGE CROP on the ca. 1900 list. Crop was a famous London firm who first began manufacturing in 1856 (Oswald 1975: 108; Walker 1977:164-5) so the pipe must post-date this time. Plagiarism was rife among clay tobacco pipe manufacturers and any popular style of pipe was likely to be copied shamelessly by rival manufacturers, as was probably the case with the pipe in this catalogue, which is a Scottish copy of the London firm's pipe. Indeed, Crop's pipes were copied to such an extent by Scottish manufacturers that the term CROP, originally a brand name, eventually came to be a generic term for any pipe with a short, curved stem and the concomitant acute angle between the bowl's vertical axis and the stem. First-hand examination of the pipe



Figure 4 Selected eighteenth century Dutch clay pipe bowls (after Atkinson and Oswald 1972:175). (NB. accurate scales not available for these illustrations).

would be necessary to determine if the pipe is a copy rather than an original Crop pipe. However, judging by the photograph, Pipe B does appear to be a copy, a finding which would be consistent with the emerging pattern that Scottish pipes are by far the most numerous found in Australian sites of the mid- to late-nineteenth century (e.g. Dane and Morrison 1979; Jack 1986:127; Wilson and Kelly 1987:29; Courtney 1998).

Bowl. Again, the acute bowl angle of this pipe is characteristic of the nineteenth century; a similar example was found in a securely-dated deposit from the Victoria Hotel site (Auckland) which dates from 1841 to 1865 (Brassey and Macready 1994:Fig. 41, pipe 93). Furthermore, the absence of milling makes it extremely unlikely that it is either Dutch or from the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries.

Stem. Pipe B features a stem which curves up at a sharp angle to the bowl. This feature is characteristic of mid- nineteenth century pipes and appears to be an imitation of Briar (wooden) pipes (Courtney 1998). Briar pipes were first introduced in about 1856 (Walker 1977:71) and the clay imitations of them were probably first made by the above mentioned London firm of Crop (Courtney 1998) in the same year (Walker 1977:164-5). Therefore, Pipe B almost certainly post-dates 1856.

PipeC Pipe C is a white ball-clay cutty with a stem length of

7.1 cm (Fig. 6). The stem appears to be broken and exhibits

no markings or writing. If it is a nineteenth century Scottish pipe the manufacturer's name and location would have probably been impressed along the length of the stem (Walker 1983:18). However, the bowl and stem are both abraded by weathering, possibly sandblasting, so it is most likely that all traces of any such marks, if present and only lightly impressed, have been eroded off. The stem bore diameter is 2.2 mm (measured with callipers sensitive to 0.05 mm). The stem itself is distinctly oval in cross-section, measuring 6 mm (horizontal axis) by 4.2 mm (vertical axis) in diameter. The pipe has a small upright bowl (diameter of 17 mm and wall width of 1 mm) with a fluted pattern around the entire upper section and a series of small raised lines around the lower part. The bowl has three or four small chips out of the top near the rim and a sandblasted hole near the base of the bowl. Sandblasting has left only remnants of a small, narrow, pointed spur on the base of the bowl.

The pipe shows no signs of teeth marks or of the tobacco staining and discolouration typical of used pipes. It is noted, however, that the bleaching effect of wind, sand, water and even burial underground for long periods can totally remove such stains, while sandblasting could obliterate subtle teeth marks. Pipe C smells distinctly of tobacco, a feature common in pipes which have been used for the purpose of smoking, and one which can be discernible even after a century or so underground (Courtney 1998). The tobacco smell suggests that the visible features of wear were once present but have since weathered off.



Figure 5 Selected nineteenth century Scottish clay pipes. (Tracings taken from a late nineteenth century illustrated clay pipe catalogue of the firm Thomas Davidson Jnr and Co., Glasgow - reprinted in Gallagher and Price [1987:123, 125]. Name designations are only inferred by comparison with Davidson's ca. 1900 price wages document [reproduced in Gallagher 1987]. Note with these pipes that the bowl is usually upright [i.e. at approximately 90° to the stem] and the stems are short. The exception is the DUTCH CUTTY, which is a Scottish pipe made in imitation of the classic Dutch style, and as such has the bowl axis at an 135° angle to the horizontal. [NB. no scales associated with original catalogue illustrations]).

Bowl. The spur on the base of the bowl is typically nineteenth centuiy. Seventeenth century spurs were either flat and broad (Atkin- son and Oswald 1969:177; Flood 1976:18) or sometimes cylindrical in shape with a flat base (Atkin- son and Oswald 1972:Fig. 78; Flood 1976:18) (Pig. 3). While eighteenth century pipe spurs tended to be somewhat smaller than their seventeenth century counterparts, they continued to be cylindrical in shape with a flat, circular base (Atkinson and Os- wald 1972:Fig. 79) (Fig. 4). Gen- erally, eighteenth century spurs are larger, broader, and flatter- based than those of the nineteenth century, which tend to be smaller, pointed and narrow (At- kinson and Oswald 1972; Walker 1975:180; Flood 1976:18). Spurs did not become narrow and pointed like that found on Pipe C until about 1780-1820 (Flood 1976:18).

The fluting evident on the out- side of the bowl is not a feature of pipes made prior to about 1770 (Walker 1977:21). After this date, the fluted pipe gradually becomes more common so that by the late- nineteenth century it is one of the most popular pipe forms made (Courtney 1998), with many manufacturers making them in a multitude of designs (e.g. Gallagher and Price 1987). A pipe with an identical fluted pattern to Pipe C has been recovered from Port Arthur (dated 1 830 to 1 877 - Dane and Morrison 1979) while pipes of similar bowl shape and size, including one with a similar but not identical style of fluting, were excavated recently from the post- 1830s Viewbank Homestead site

Date of manufacture Typologically, Pipe C falls within the mid- to late-

nineteenth century despite its unusually small and delicate form (especially compared to thick-walled 'Irish' pipes - see Gojak 1995). However, pipes of this form have been excavated from the Viewbank Homestead site (dated post- 1830). The other pipes similar to Pipe C from Viewbank were all manufactured by William Murray of Glasgow (Courtney in prep.), a pipemaker whose firm operated from 1830 to 1861 (Oswald 1975:205), and whose pipes are found commonly in Australian sites (Courtney 1998). Furthermore, the pipe is made of common ball clay with the indifferent finish typical of Scottish pipes of the nineteenth century. In contrast, Dutch pipes can be readily distinguished by their superior quality of clay and highly polished finish (Walker 1975: 166; Duco 1986:101).

in Melbourne (Courtney in prep.). The nineteenth century designation is consistent also with the absence of milling around the bowl rim and upright bowl form (see above).

Stem. Pipe C is an example of a cutty pipe which was first introduced around the period 1780 to 1820 (see above). The most strikingly unusual feature of the pipe is the stem bore diameter, which at 2.2 mm is considerably larger than is usually found on cutty pipes of the nineteenth century. Harrington's (1978) system for measuring seventeenth century English stem bore diameters uses drill bits inserted into the pipe stem bore as a simple measuring device (Walker 1975:189-91; Harrington 1978). Therefore, Pipe C was tested by this method and easily took a drill bit of 5/64 of an inch. It should be made clear, however, that this wide bore, although so far unusual in nineteenth century pipe assemblages, in

48 Australian Archaeology, Number 47, 1 998


no way indicates anything other than a nineteenth century manufacture date for this pipe. (The stem-bore dating method is not viable on a sample of less than a few hundred pipe stems so it is of no use in dating this pipe. The drill bit was used in this instance merely to test the unusually large size of the stem bore).

seventeenth and later centuries were extremely popular with traders and smokers of all nationalities as they were of good quality and low price (Walker 1975:166). In fact, because of these characteristics, their import into Britain was forbidden in order to protect local manufacturers (Donnan 1931 cited in Walker 1975:184). However, such restrictions did not

Figure 6 Clay pipe from an Aboriginal shell midden at Corroborée Beach (from McNiven 1998).

prevent English, French, and other ships from regularly calling at Dutch ports and buying pipes for export to other countries (Walker 1975:184). Further, Dutch pipes 'were also major exports ... [to] ... other European countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Brandenburg, all of which countries were active in ... [overseas] ... trade1 (Walker 1975:184). Thus, Dutch pipes were widely distributed around the globe by people other than the Dutch, so even if the Corroborée Beach pipes were Dutch in origin, their arrival on Fraser Island could have been via the trade vessels of any number of countries.

Clay pipe smoking and nineteenth century culture contact on Fraser Island

How does the dating of the three clay pipes to the mid-to late-nineteenth century fit with the known nineteenth century history of Aboriginal-European contact on Fraser Island? Between 1770 and the 1850s, Fraser Island was observed and visited by a series of European navigators, castaways and escaped convicts. James Cook sailed past Indian Head in 1770 and made only visual contact with Aboriginal people (Wharton 1893). Matthew Flinders landed at Sandy Cape on the northern end of the Island in 1802 and made the first recorded European contact with Islanders. He notes 'presenting' a party of Aboriginal people 'with hatchets and other testimonials of our satisfaction' (Flinders 1814). In 1836 the most famous European encounter with Fraser Island Aboriginal people took place with the castaways of the Stirling Castle (Curtis

Another unusual feature of the pipe is that the entire stem is oval in shape (i.e. in cross-section). While not a particularly common feature in nineteenth century pipes, a few pipes with this characteristic have been found at Port Arthur, a site dating from 1830 to 1877 (Dane and Morrison 1979:1 1, 41, 49, Plate 9; Jack 1986:127) and similar examples were excavated from the early Melbourne site of 'Little Lon' (Courtney 1998) from contexts dated fairly tightly to between 1848 and the 1890s (McCarthy 1987). So whereas most nineteenth century stems are rounded in cross-section, there are a few documented instances of oval stems in nineteenth century pipes. The reasons for the differences have not as yet been examined in enough detail to use them as indicators of particular manufacturers or to assign their occurrence to specific time periods.

Discussion

Dutch pipes - interpretative problems Our research indicates clearly that the Corroborée Beach

pipes have a mid- to late-nineteenth century origin and therefore discredits previous notions that two of the pipes are seventeenth century Dutch trade items. However, even if the pipes were of seventeenth century Dutch origin, such data would not constitute evidence of a Dutch presence on Fraser Island as such pipes were common trade items and could have arrived there by a number of routes which need not involve Dutch vessels or personnel. Dutch pipes in the

1838; Alexander 1971; McNiven et al. 1998). Again, exchange of items took place soon after arrival on the Island's east coast to the point that Second Mate John Baxter described it as a 'regular system of barter' (Curtis 1838:43-4). Few details are available on the European exchange items except that it was noted that each of the male castaways

carried a bag containing utensils, and trifling arti- cles of clothing, and that these were the first things the savages took from them into the bush for safety and concealment from other tribes. (Curtis 1838:52)

While not stated, it is possible that Fraser Island Abori- ginal people obtained clay pipes from either Flinders, the Stirling Castle castaways or other unrecorded castaways from the numerous shipwrecks of the south Barrier Reef region. Indeed, Breaksea Spit off Sandy Cape on the northern tip of Fraser Island was for shipping 'the greatest danger on the eastern coast of Australia' prior to the completion of the Sandy Cape Lighthouse in 1870 (Davenport 1986:95).

In 1842, Andrew Pétrie and his survey team from Moreton Bay sailed around the south-west coast of Fraser Island. Although they camped and met Aboriginal people on the Island, no mention of exchange in items was made (Pétrie 1980). However, Henry Stuart Russell, who was on the expedition, recorded that Pétrie had written a note to escaped convict David Bracewell informing him that if his Aborigi- nal friends brought him forward they would be rewarded with 'bacca and blankets' (Russell 1888:254). Although the



interchange took place near Noosa some 60 km south of Fraser Island, it suggests that the immediate neighbours of the Fraser Islanders may have known about European tobacco through contact with the Moreton Bay settlement which was established in the 1820s. As such, Fraser Island Aboriginal people may have had access to European items, including clay pipes, indirectly through trade with other Aboriginal groups in south-east Queensland any time after ca. 1820. It is doubtful pipes were obtained from escaped convicts as most would have 'gone bush' taking little more than the prison clothes they wore at the time of absconding.

Of equal significance was Russell's meeting of Aboriginal people, including Fraser Islanders, at Inskip Point opposite the southern end of Fraser Island. Russell (1888:264) notes that after meeting one particular man, 'I had to make a heavy deduction from my daily allowance of smoking, in order to supply his quickly acquired taste for the pipe'. In this instance, Russell provides solid evidence that Aboriginal people of the Fraser Island region were introduced to European tobacco pipe smoking at least by 1842.

With the establishment of Maryborough township on the banks of the Mary River opposite Fraser Island in the late 1840s (Anon 1976), the potential for Fraser Island Abori- ginal people to access European pipes increased dramatically. In 1847, George Furber set up a small trade store and the following year trade vessels stopped regularly at the fledg- ling settlement (Walker 1987). Through the 1850s Mary- borough increased dramatically in size and population and it is clear that Fraser Islanders, whose 'tribal' lands included the adjacent mainland, would have established regular con- tacts, both amicable and aggressive, with European colonisers at this time. Indeed, it was noted that many Aboriginal people would retire to Fraser Island for security after assaults on European property and personnel (Evans and Walker 1977: 56). It is doubtful that Aboriginal people would have had many opportunities to obtain pipes during the brutal repri- sals led by Maryborough police on Fraser Island (Williams 1982:55).

The 1860s saw the beginnings of European settlement of Fraser Island. Through this decade the logging industry became well-established across the middle sections of the Island and it is clear that Aboriginal people became increas- ingly involved in the industry as a cheap source of labour (Evans and Walker 1977; Williams 1982).

The pace and diversity of European activity on the Island picked up in the 1870s. Apart from involvement in logging, Aboriginal people helped build the Sandy Cape Lighthouse (Anon 1869:2) and helped the lighthouse keepers for which they received 'a supply of flour, tobacco and pipes each May, with the Government's annual blanket distribution' (Evans and Walker 1977:62, emphasis added). That pipe smoking had become a regular part of daily life for at least some Fraser Islanders by the early 1870s is revealed by Rev. Edward Fuller who ran a small mission on the Island's west coast:

Although the aborigines (sic) were not in the habit of smoking before the arrival of the White man, yet now, since tobacco has been introduced among them, they are great smokers - men, women, and children. A little girl or boy about two or three years old may be seen with a pipe in its mouth smoking tobacco; yet they assure me that sometimes the mother will even take the breast out of the child's mouth and put the pipe in. We do not

supply them with tobacco, but they manage to get it at the townships and from the vessels passing. The pipe is scarce ever out of their mouths when they are awake. (Fuller 1872 cited in Curr 1887:146)

In terms of passing boats, Fuller (1872 cited in Curr 1887:145) adds:

If a schooner is passing the Mission about sunset, the natives will sometimes throw sand up into the air, and blow with their mouths towards the sun, in order to make the sun go under quickly, and thus compel the schooner to come to an anchor for the night in the channel, near the Mission, and enable them to get on board [for] tobacco, biscuits, &c, which the captains generally supply them with.

Fuller's testimony would suggest that by the 1870s numerous clay pipes were circulating amongst the 300 or so Abori- ginal people he estimated were living on the Island at that time (Fuller 1872).

In the 1890s, the role of the clay pipe in local Aboriginal society took a sinister turn with the introduction of opium (Evans and Walker 1977:72). By 1901, Protector of Abori- gines Archibald Meston noted that at Bogimbah Mission (est. 1897) on the Island's west coast:

The change in some of the men is truly deplor- able. They show great physical deterioration, and have the glazed and lustreless eye characteristic of the opium smoker and eater ... They do very little fishing ... and have drifted into a pathetic condition mournful to contemplate, (cited in Evans and Walker 1977:89)

Despite problems of opium abuse at Bogimbah, it is clear that many Aboriginal people at the mission enjoyed tobacco smoking and it is likely that most smoking was undertaken using clay pipes. Indeed, it is possible that such items were supplied by mission authorities, given that part of the rigid daily timetable for Aboriginal 'inmates' included 'tobacco serving' at 8.30am (Williams 1982:77).

The closure of Bogimbah Mission in 1904 represents the end of an era in the Aboriginal-European relations in the Fraser Island region. While many Mission 'inmates' were transferred to Yarrabah near Cairns, many Fraser Island Abor- iginal people stayed on in the region, including some on the Island itself, and slowly consolidated their cultural, social and economic place in the region (e.g. Devitt 1979; Foley 1994; McNiven 1994a). Significantly, clay pipe use continued well into this century. In the 1940s, an 'old But- chulla [Fraser Island] woman' from the inland Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg was observed smoking a 'white clay pipe' on the beach at Urangan opposite Fraser Island (But- chulla elder Olga Miller 1996 pers. comm.).

Significance of Corroborée Beach pipes It is quite clear from the above historical sketch of

Aboriginal-European interactions on Fraser Island that Abor- iginal people had access to European items, including pipes, throughout the nineteenth century. However, the dating of the three Corroborée Beach pipes to the mid- to late-nineteenth century reflects for the most part the period after which Europeans began settling the region in the 1850s. The significance of this pattern is threefold. First, although the present sample is small, the three pipes suggest that Aboriginal use of European pipes mirrored the degree of interaction with



Europeans - peaceful or otherwise. That is, despite direct European contact since the early-nineteenth century, clay pipes only become visible in the archaeological record of Fraser Island when European presence of the region in- creases dramatically after 1850. This view accords with the recent identification of flaked tools made from late- nineteenth century Dutch gin bottle glass in some shell middens on Fraser Island (McNiven 1998).

Second, of the 193 midden/stone artefact scatters recorded along the east coast of Fraser Island (McNiven 1994b, 1998), ten exhibit bottle glass and only three sites have revealed clay pipes (Pipes A, B and C, and a stem fragment at another site near the southern end of the Island). The low number of pipe finds coupled with their intact state suggests that the Corroborée Beach pipes were treasured items given that the usual hallmark of a pipe smoking population is a very high ratio of pipe stem fragments to bowls (Oswald 1975: 126). However, the apparent rarity of east coast pipes does not match the number of Aboriginal pipe smokers suggested by Rev. Fuller and the ready availability of pipes following European settlement of the region. Numerous reasons could account for this situation including 1. poor preservation; 2. removal of archaeological specimens by collectors; 3. limited exposure of historic archaeological remains; 4. limited use of the east coast after 1 850; 5. use of pipes for restricted, special reasons on the east

coast compared to more open use on the west coast. Of these options, the first two are the least likely as clay pipes are known to be highly resistant to mechanical and chemical decay (Gojak and Stewart in press) while souvenir- ing by collectors is unlikely to affect small stem fragments. Furthermore, while options three and four may affect overall pipe numbers, they are unlikely to affect the ratio of bowls to stem fragments. We suggest that the last option needs further exploration given that traditional pipe smoking among Aboriginal groups of northern Australia was often restricted to ceremonial occasions (Thompson 1939). In this connection, archaeological and historical information suggests that the west coast of Fraser Island was a core habitation zone for resident Fraser Islanders while the east coast was used for large-scale, inter-group gatherings involving local and non-local peoples (Devitt 1979; McNiven in press; Miller 1998). Following the pattern of inter-group gatherings across many parts of Australia (Lourandos 1988), the Fraser Island gatherings would have involved a range of economic, poli- tical, social and ceremonial activities. Clay pipes may have played a special role at these gatherings.

The third significant implication of the pipes relates to Aboriginal land-use patterns after European contact. The Corroborée Beach pipes were recovered from an area where abundant shell midden and stone tool remains attest to long- term Aboriginal usage, possibly back to ca. 4000 years (McNiven 1998). Indeed, Lauer obtained a radiocarbon date of ca. 800 years for some of the shells at the midden site where he col- lected the two pipes (McNiven 1998). These data indicate that at least some Fraser Islanders continued to use 'traditional' camp sites and undertake 'traditional' foraging activities during the period of intensive European settlement of their lands.

Conclusion It is clear that Aboriginal people in many parts of Aust-

ralia consumed tobacco-like substances (e.g. pituri, Duboisia

hopwoodii - Watson 1983) and used wooden, bone and shell smoking pipes in the case of far northern Australia, well before European colonisation (Thompson 1939). Torres Strait Islanders cultivated a form of tobacco that was smoked in bamboo pipes (Haddon 1935:303) while some northern Abori- ginal groups were known to have had access to early Euro- pean clay pipes via Macassan trepangers (Mulvaney 1975: 38-9; MacKnight 1976:82). As Thompson (1939) notes, in this context, use of European tobacco products may not have been altogether novel for many Aboriginal groups, repre- senting simply an extension of a 'traditional' practice. At this stage, too few historical records are available to indicate to what extent clay pipe use among Fraser Island Aboriginal people during the nineteenth century represented an extension of 'traditional' activities. What is more clear is that future investigation of clay pipes from other 'contact' archaeological sites on Fraser Island will shed new light on the largely unknown Aboriginal history of Fraser Island during the nineteenth century.

Acknowledgements Thanks to Justin McCarthy (Austral Archaeology) and

Robert Brassey (Auckland Conservancy) for helpful discussion and references. Thanks also to Antonio Sagona and Claudia Sagona (University of Melbourne), Gary Presland (Museum Victoria), Cathy Webb (Heritage Branch, Abori- ginal Affairs Victoria) and Paul Taçon (Division of Anthro- pology, Australian Museum) for information regarding Abori- ginal pipe smoking. Wayne Johnson and Graham Wilson (Sydney Cove Authority), Lynn Collins (Hyde Paric Barracks), and Elizabeth Willis and Melanie Raberts (Museum Victoria) generously provided advice and access to pipe collections. Help on locating the Lauer pipes was provided by Leonn Satterthwait (University of Queensland Anthropology Mu- seum), Richard Robins (Queensland Museum), Peter Lauer and John Sinclair. Permission to reproduce Figure 2 was provided by The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum. Olga Miller provided advice on recent Butchulla clay pipe smoking. Helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper were kindly provided by Graham Connah, Denis Gojak and Scott Mitchell.

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