Rare Aboriginal Wooden Shovel from 19th Century NSW

A rare wooden shovel, New South Wales (nineteenth century), carved hardwood, 77 cm high. For an extensive discussion and illustrations of related examples in the collections of national and state museums see Massola, A., The Wooden Shovels of the Aborigines of South- Eastern Australia, Anthropological Society of New South Wales, Sydney, 1959, pp.289-296, illustrated. In this article, Mr H. O'Sullivan White, a surveyor with the lands Department of New South Wales, observed in the year 1849 while camped on the banks of the Macquarie River: 'where the town of Dubbo now stands...when an old black fellow belonging to a tribe camped nearby, happened to die. He was buried on a sand-hill about a mile from the river. After burial 'They (the natives) then described a circle around the grave, taking the grave for a centre, about sixteen feet in diameter, and then, with small wooden spades made from myall wood (used by them for grub hunting to dig along the roots of the gum trees, exposing the hole of the grub, etc.) carefully removing the earth from within the circle, and formed with it a dome shape mound over the grave...this tomb was carefully raised.' (ibid.). Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom. Private Collection, Melbourne