(a) Yam sticks This utensil, used solely by women, was made from a small hard tree and was about four or five feet in length and about one or two inches in diameter. The thick end was cut to a wide, sharp, cutting edge hardened in fire; the thinner end terminated as a point. The main function of the thing was to dig out yams and other roots, or to rummage out small animals that dwell in the ground. With the help of their yam sticks the women provide the vegetable food of the camp. During domestic scenes in the camp the yam stick was a terrible weapon.

(b) Stone knives The production of the knives is essentially the same as that of axes, only the stone need not be as hard, and smaller pieces can be used. When they had been beaten into the right shape a sharp edge was produced by grinding. Smaller knives simply consisted of pieces that had broken off during the production of the cutting edge by beating. Handles were not attached, but one held the stone tight between the thumb and the other fingers. These knives were used for skinning and eviscerating animals, for scraping and marking wooden utensils, for cutting scars on the human body and for any other purpose.^[23]

(c) Chisels The chisel was produced by attaching onto the end of a short stick with string or gum a sharp flint, a quartz splinter or a piece of hard stone sharpened to a cutting edge. It was of great use for sharpening spearheads, for cutting grooves into shields and clubs, for the making of wooden water containers and for various other tasks. Sometimes the whole chisel was made from a long bone of the leg of a kangaroo, which was sharpened at one end to a cutting edge. A double bladed chisel is used on the Victoria River in the Northern Territory. This tool is made from a piece of hard wood, one end of which is equipped with a small cutting stone while at the other end a stone with a wide blade is attached. Both then serve different tasks.

(d) Containers Bark containers to take in water, honey, food or other things are obtained in the following way. The native seeks a small tree with a natural bend and from the convex side a piece of bark about 18 inches long and nine inches wide is peeled off. This is done in such a way that the bark is severed with an axe around the edge of the selected piece of bark and is then lifted off by sliding a pointed stick between bark and wood. The stripping of the bark can only be undertaken at the season when the saps are circulating in the trees. When no suitable tree with a natural bend could be found a piece of thin bark was cut from a straight tree and tied together on both ends in the same way as the canoes were made.

Wooden containers are often also made in the following way. When a tree or branch is found which is hollow and has a well-marked bend, a container is hewn out from the convex side with an axe. Rotting or disintegrating wood that might be sticking to the inside is cut out and the whole is smoothed through scraping and rubbing. The outside is usually decorated with carved parallel lines going around the container.

(e) Berl-ye A small wooden utensil called a berl-ye, about the size of a pencil, and similarly pointed, is used for combing hair and to eradicate vermin on the head.

(f) Awls Awls, used for pricking or drilling, were generally made from the fibula of the kangaroo or emu, which was ground to a fine point.

(g) Bags Bags, neatly woven from strings, twisted bark fibres, tough grass and vines, were used to carry small animals, roots, small utensils and odds and ends of all kinds. Nets with different patterns for catching fish were made of similar materials. Two or three kinds of stitches are employed for weaving bags or nets.

(h) Calabashes Calabashes cut from wood as already described serve for storing and carrying water. Cleaned human skulls, the seams of which are clogged with gum, are used for this by some tribes. Sacks for transporting water over greater distances are made from the skin of the kangaroo, wallaby or similar animals, with the fleshy side of the skin turned inwards. With some coastal tribes of New South Wales and Queensland water sacks are also produced from leaves of the bangalow tree or from palm leaves sewn together with animal sinews.

Bigger bags or satchels consisted of a rough net made from fibres of bulrushes or from bark of certain trees and were hung over the shoulder or carried on a breast band diagonally across the chest. In these diagonal sacks heavy utensils, such as stones for grinding seeds, stone scrapers or knives, tools, and such like were carried.

(i) Fishing hooks In the coastal districts of New South Wales, from Sydney southwards, the natives formerly fished with fishhooks they made themselves. It is reported by Collins that at the time of first occupation of the area by Governor Phillip the natives in the vicinity of Sydney used lines from the bark of small trees and hooks from the shell of oysters, which they rubbed on a stone until they obtained the desired shape.

Presently, the steel hooks of the whites are used by all natives, but I have spoken to old men and women in native camps who still knew how the hooks were made and occasionally manufactured them when the hooks of the whites were not available. They took the shell of the dhūlla (turbo stamineus) [heavy turban shell] and struck the outer part off until only the firm spiral part remained, which was formed as a rough hook. By rubbing on a stone it was ground until it obtained the right thickness. It was simply pointed without barbs. The hook was usually swallowed by the fish together with the bait, and was then hauled in.