Along most of the bigger rivers of Australia as well as in the bays of the sea coast the use of rafts was known to the natives. On the Shoalhaven River on the southeast coast of New South Wales the trunk of the cabbage tree palm, a light and strong wood, was used for building rafts. Usually two, sometimes three, dried beams of this wood 15 to 20 feet in length, selected straight, symmetrical and of the same size, were tied together with ropes from stringybark fibres or with tough vines and thus had the ability to carry two or three people over rivers, small bays, and the like. The raft was moved by a paddle or rod, which the boatman, standing on the vessel, plunged into the water on both sides. In shallow waters he drove his raft forward by setting the rod against the bottom of the river.

Occasionally I have seen young boys using one dry plank on which they were sitting with sprawled out legs, feet in the water, and paddling with their hands or a piece of bark. On the Lachlan River, New South Wales, where big reeds grow amass, these were dried and used for building rafts. Bundles of these reeds were tied together with cords, and then three, four or more such reed bundles were treated like the above-mentioned planks by attaching them together with stronger ropes. From weeds or green grass covered with moist soil a place was prepared on which a small fire could be kept. Moving forward was done as with the wooden raft.

The rafts of the natives are frequently in their general principle of construction the same in all parts of Australia and Tasmania where they were observed and described, and likewise the mode of moving forward. The use of rafts is known amongst various primitive peoples across the whole world, and many of these rafts do not differ significantly from those of the Australians.

Although the canoe is used for the same purposes as the raft, the latter has the advantage that it is not so exposed to damage during an accident. To hit a sharp rock or a simple obstacle may damage a plank or bundle, without seriously impeding the raft’s ability to float. With a canoe such an accident can, however, cause damage, which cannot be repaired and can even lead to its sinking. Perhaps this is the reason why rafts are so widely in use.

The catamaran and dug-out used by the natives of the Cape York Peninsula, Port Darwin and other northern parts of Australia are not mentioned here, as I do not regard them of pure Australian origin, but as Malayan and Papuan imports. I refer in this regard to works about the Malayan Archipelago and New Guinea.