Flake struck from the base of a glass bottle from the Boralga Native Police camp on the Laura River, north Queensland, ca. 1875-1894. Glass flakes were used as cutting tools.
The texture on the exterior surface of this green glass bottle suggests that it was made in a turn-mould. The flake was detached by a hard-hammer percussion blow to the inside edge of the bottle’s push-up. The flake propagated down the walls of the bottle, resulting in an unusual morphology. Refer to the annotations for details. Microflaking use-wear in one area suggests that the flake was used as a scraping tool.
The artefact is curated by the Queensland Museum, catalogue no. MIS-031579.
See the annotations for technological details about this stone tool.
The Native Mounted Police in Queensland was a government paramilitary force formed to eradicate Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion. The Native Mounted Police, under European leaders, committed many of the colonial frontier massacres of Aboriginal people in Australia in the 19th century. The force was staffed by Aboriginal people taken from one part of Australia to counter resistance in another. Traditional stone-flaking techniques were applied to glass by the troopers or their families in these camps.
