We found a cache of rare Aboriginal artefacts, telling a story of trade and ingenuity

By Yinika L. Perston, Research Fellow, Griffith University
Lorna Bogdanek, Indigenous Knowledge Holder, Indigenous Knowledge
Lynley Wallis, Professor, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University

About 170 years ago, a bundle of stone tools was deliberately buried, or “cached”, near a waterhole in far-west Queensland and never recovered. Why?

Our team’s investigation of this extremely rare site has revealed a long story of Indigenous trade and innovation in the Australian outback.

The bundle

We excavated the site in 2023. A handful of stones poking out of the soil turned out to be a pile of 60 large Aboriginal stone “tulas”, deliberately cached just north of Boulia in far…

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