.No. 150 February 2019..

NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETINGS commencing 7.15 for 7.30 p.m.

Mount Claremont Community Centre, 107 Montgomery Avenue

( don’t forget that we have a new venue )

Wednesday, 6 February 2019

Mike Donaldson & Andy Lemessurier

“Aerial landscapes & historic rock art:

a helicopter excursion to the north-west Kimberley”

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Joanna Sassoon (author of Agents of Empire)

“Imagining early 20th century Broome through the photographs of E.L. Mitchell”

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

David Hough (Robert Mitford Rowell’s biographer)

“Lead Kindly Light: MMA pilot, Harold Rowell's emergency landing at Fitzroy Crossing, Saturday 31 July 1971”

Members and visitors are invited to stay for supper after the meeting. The Society asks a $2.00 hospitality fee from non-members.

See page 9 for details of Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley

BOAB BULLETIN 2 February 2019

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Welcome to a new year, the Society’s 26th. While we are still compiling the speaker’s program for the year, it already looks like there will be something for everyone. And we think the new meeting venue at Mount Claremont Community Centre will provide an enhanced experience with a more appropriately-sized room, larger screen area, and better acoustics.

The Kimberley continues to be one of the world’s most sought-after travel destinations with more and more land and sea-based travel options being offered including everything from roughing it safari-style to super-luxury cruises with on-board helicopter. This has come a long way since the Society organised a boat trip from Broome to Port Warrender in 1996 (23 years ago!) when there were no commercial cruises along the Kimberley coast. This prompted me to retrieve some memorable photographs of that expedition; many of the pictured participants remain regular members of the Society, although a few are sadly no longer with us.

MV Sea Lion at Crocodile Creek Society members and crew at the Mermaid Tree

Some made it to Mt Lookover, Camden Harbour Most of the group at Sale River

As I made clear in the last newsletter, the Kimberley Society doesn’t have a promising future without an injection of new people to fill the important management and committee roles, so I hope some will come forward at or before the AGM in April. We have certainly not been overwhelmed by volunteers since my last plea, so I hope to hear from interested people before the AGM. The last page of this newsletter has information about the structure of the committee and how to submit a nomination.

Mike Donaldson

February 2019 3 BOAB BULLETIN

REST IN PEACE

Our popular and longstanding member Rosemary Jane McGlashan (née Esson) passed away on 5 December 2018. Rosemary was born in New Zealand and trained as a nurse before heading to the UK to see the world. While in Europe she met Hamish on a ski resort and a romance was kindled.

After returning to New Zealand to study midwifery, she decided to return to England. The ship on which she travelled, called into the port of Dar es Salaam. Hamish, by this time, was a District Medical Officer in Tanzania, and they met again. She abandoned her return voyage, and six weeks later they were married!

In 1973 the McGlashan family, by this time comprising Hamish, Rosemary, Kirstin, Magnus and Dugald, emigrated to Australia and found a home in Perth.

Not long after, in 1975, Hamish set up in private practice in Osborne Park with Rosemary as Practice Manager as well as her role in looking after the young family.

Rosemary’s very attractive and welcoming nature saw her involved in a wide range of activities and with a broad range of friends and associates. She was a very talented writer, a perceptive poet and a lover of fine music.

She had wide and compassionate interest in people, especially those less privileged than herself and was often out doing some kindness to assist someone in need. Many of us have been recipients of her generosity of spirit and tangible gifts and touched by the depth of her love.

She was deeply appreciative of all she had, and of the shared experiences she had in her very full life. She was environmentally conscious and was very committed and practical in pursuit of its aims.

In 1997 Hamish moved to Derby in the post of Regional Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with Rosemary of course by his side. They had been involved with the Kimberley since their first trip in 1983 and had grown to love the country and the people.

Rosemary soon adapted to living in Derby and became heavily involved with the community in many ways, from the arts to Rotary, to mentoring children at the school, to Meals on Wheels and many other ways.

Their strong links with the Kimberley were strengthened over the next five years and they developed many lasting friendships in the area.

Their links with the Kimberley Society were already strong, having begun with Hamish's founding membership in 1994. He and Rosemary were often seen at the Perth meetings before they moved to Derby, and, when Hamish served as President from 2007 to 2010, Rosemary always gave the committee a warm welcome and a delicious supper.

She was a true and loyal friend to many, a kind, graceful soul who brought life and light into the world around her.

She will be greatly missed by all, but especially Hamish, Kirstin, Magnus, Dugald and their extended family.

Peter Knight

NEW PRODUCTS FROM BOAB NUTS

On 7 January, an article in The West Australian told how Broome-based tourism operator Robert Dann has created a business called Bindam Mie, meaning bush foods, to make boab nut products. Boab powder (from the pulp) is used in food and beverages. Oils (from the seeds) are used in cosmetics and ointments. Ginger beer and boab beer are also expected to become available within a few months.

BOAB BULLETIN 4 February 2019

THE GERMAN ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPEDITION TO THE KIMBERLEY, NORTHWEST AUSTRALIA (1938/39)

In October 2018, when Martin Porr spoke to the Kimberley Society about a German ethnographic expedition to the Kimberley, he used the subtitle ‘A case study of critical research history and anthropological knowledge production’ for his talk. Martin is an Associate Professor at The University of Western Australia, working in both the Discipline of Archaeology and the Centre for Rock Art Research & Management. His impressive list of publications includes works undertaken in collaboration with Indigenous people and professional colleagues. Martin’s involvement with Kimberley archaeology dates from 2009 and he provided the following summary of his illustrated presentation.

The Frobenius expedition to the Kimberley in 1938

In 1937, the Institut für Kulturmorphologie succeeded in acquiring the permission from the Australian Government to conduct an ethnographic expedition to the Northwest Kimberley in Western Australia. Despite some earlier activities and publications (Elkin, 1930; 1945; Love, 1936), this expedition represents the first dedicated effort to conduct detailed and extensive ethnographic work in the region (Beinssen-Hesse, 1991). Helmut Petri was named as the director of this Frobenius-Expedition XXII.

The expedition to the Kimberley was named after the eccentric founder of the Institut für Kulturmorphologie Leo Frobenius (Figure 1). However, he did not participate himself in the expedition; in fact, he died in August 1938 when the members of the expedition were engaged in their main fieldwork in the Kimberley. It was the 22nd so-called Frobenius expedition and it was the first to Australia.

In Frobenius’ research paradigm, Indigenous art and rock art related to a universal human ability of fundamental understanding, which is non-discursive and irrational: ‘the symbolism of images knows no logic in a modern sense (die Bildersymbolik kennt keine Logik im modernen Sinne)’ (Streck, 2014, p. 35; 2016). It was particularly opposed to the modern influences of literary education and thought. Rock

art held a particular place within Frobenius’ worldview as an expression of the most foundational characteristics of human culture. His concept of human society and human engagement with their surrounds was certainly extremely idealistic and romantic. It also appears as naïve and analytically uncritical in today’s research arena as it did even then. Professional and academic contemporaries were very much aware of Frobenius’ particular “fanciful reality” and during his whole career he was heavily criticised. However, this did not diminish his broad public standing and the popularity of his work and, importantly, his ability to gain substantial (financial) support from influential business circles and individuals in Germany.

Figure 1 Leo Frobenius during fieldwork in Zimbabwe in 1933 (Frobenius-Institut, Frankfurt; reproduced with permission)

February 2019 5 BOAB BULLETIN

The expedition itself was consequently conducted in a fashion that was very like Frobenius’ earlier endeavours. As far as it can be estimated at this stage, the expedition was strategically planned and executed to achieve a certain outcome. It was done within a very clear time frame (May – December 1938) and was intended to be a very intense period of collecting and recording. In this sense, it was conducted in the spirit of salvage anthropology.

The expedition included two anthropologists (Helmut Petri, Andreas Lommel; Figures 2 and 4) and two illustrators/painters (Gerta Kleist and Agnes S. Schulz; (Figure 3). As well as two other participants, Douglas Fox and Patrick Pentony (MA UWA, 1938), who appear to have had supporting roles, with Fox being responsible for logistical aspects and also for copying a number of rock images. Because it was assumed that Love had already covered the ethnography of the Woddordda (Wororra) whilst at Kunmunya Mission (Love, 1936), it was decided that the expedition should concentrate on the Ngarinyin and Wunambal (Unambal) “tribes”. Lommel was to work on the latter and Petri was to work on the former. Petri subsequently mostly worked from the Government Station at Munja with the Ngarinyin, while Lommel concentrated his work further north, in an area that he named Wurewurí. Subsequently, a part of the group (Petri, Fox) travelled over land to the Catholic Mission of Pago (later Kalumburu) and continued their recording work during this time with members of these groups as well as local Kwini Aboriginal people. This research method was clearly based on a strategic division of labour between the participants to maximise the time and resources that were available.

The recording and interpretation of Aboriginal art and rock art

As in Frobenius’ earlier expeditions to Africa, the recording of rock art formed a centrepiece of this Kimberley expedition. In this respect, the Frobenius-Expedition XXII was unique in the early period of research into the Kimberley. The main task of

Figure 2 Helmut Petri near Munja in 1938 (Frobenius-Institut, Frankfurt; reproduced with permission)

BOAB BULLETIN 6 February 2019

the German team’s two artists/painters was to make large format copies of the rock art in the field on paper or canvas. Virtually all artists involved were women. In the case of the Kimberley expedition, Agnes Schulz and Gerta Kleist employed recording techniques that had a long tradition in the context of Frobenius’ earlier ethnographic expeditions. It was first used in the Atlas Mountains in 1913 and continued to be a part of the expeditions’ methodologies into the 1930s (Streck, 2014, p. 178). Agnes Schulz had already participated in other expeditions of the Frobenius Institute to various parts of Africa and India and she would later return to Australia to work for the Frobenius Institute as the main researcher in the Northern Territory and Arnhem Land (Beinssen-Hesse, 1991; Schulz, 1956, 1971).

Petri and Lommel, both published on the Kimberley and its rock art for their entire careers. However, they followed intellectual pathways that both converged and diverged at different times. ‘Helmut Petri considered himself a student of Pater Wilhelm Schmidt of the Vienna Kulturkreis School. He had only taken up the position

Figure 1 Andreas Lommel in the Munja Camp in 1938 (Frobenius-Institut, Frankfurt; reproduced with permission)

Figure 3 Getra Kleist (left) and Agnes S. Schulz in

the Munja Camp in 1938 (Frobenius-Institut,

Frankfurt; reproduced with permission)

February 2019 7 BOAB BULLETIN

at Frobenius’ Frankfurt Institute after graduation, meaning he himself was minimally influenced by Frobenius’ theories and methods’. Nevertheless, he shared Frobenius’ pessimistic view of the position of Indigenous cultures in the modern world. Frobenius even published a book entitled Das sterbende Afrika (‘Dying Africa’) (Frobenius, 1923), which is mirrored in Petri’s (1954) main work on the expedition to the Kimberley. Implied in Frobenius’ primitivism and romanticism are the idea that Indigenous people had virtually no agency whatsoever and remained passive carriers and executors of cultural and mythological roles and content. Even when Frobenius imagined the earlier stages of humanity and human culture to be the more energetic and creative ones, he nevertheless saw them locked into their supposedly primitive characteristics. For him, non-Western cultures were only of value as long as they remained pure. Petri moved away from this rather pessimistic thinking in his later contributions. However, Lommel (e.g. 1952; 1958a; 1958b) broadly preserved Frobenius’ overall orientation in content and style. The latter was severely criticised for his judgements and diffusionist views as well as for his uncritical comparisons between art and rock art from different parts of the world, which is all very reminiscent of Frobenius’ unconstrained arguments and associations (Beinssen-Hesse, 1991; see Porr & Doohan 2017 for further information and literature).

The German perspective today

During our visits to Germany last year, Leah Umbagai repeatedly stated that one of her main motivations of being interested and involved in the project is the ability to check the information that is available in Germany about the Wandjina Wunggurr community and their culture. She said that a lot of the information might be wrong or incomplete, because researchers were not able to engage with Aboriginal people properly and over a longer period of time. She is consequently concerned that the wrong stories are being told about her people and about the objects that are being kept in Germany (see also Porr & Doohan 2017).

These aspects demonstrate the potential that exists in working collaboratively with this collection, to arrive at a better critical understanding of it and to disentangle its layers of meaning and significance. The involvement of active Indigenous participation has already allowed new insights into the possible role of Indigenous agency during the fieldwork situation. Overall, it seems that the relationships between the German researchers and the Aboriginal people were quite amicable. This seems not only reflected in the available photographs. So far, we have not heard a single negative statement from any member of the relevant Aboriginal community about the expedition.

References

Beinssen-Hesse, S. (1991). The study of Australian Aboriginal culture by German anthropologists of the Frobenius Institute. In D. Walker & J. Tampke (Eds.), From Berlin to the Burdekin: The German Contribution to the Development of Australian Science, Exploration and the Arts (pp. 135-152). Kensington: New South Wales University Press.

Elkin, A. P. (1930). Rock paintings in North-west Australia. Oceania, 1(3), 257-279. Elkin, A. P. (1945). Aboriginal Men of High Degree. Initiation and Sorcery in the World's

Oldest Tradition. Sydney: Australasian Publishing. Frobenius, L. (1923). Das sterbende Afrika. München: O. C. Recht Verlag. Lommel, A. (1952). Die Unambal. Ein Stamm in Nordwest-Australien. Hamburg:

Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde. Lommel, A. (1958a). Australische Felsbilder und ihre ausseraustralischen Parallelen.

Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge, V, 267-283.

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Lommel, A. (1958b). Fünf neue Felsbildstellen in Nordwest-Australien. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 83(1), 1-33.

Love, J. R. B. (1936). Stone-Age Bushmen of To-Day; Life and Adventure among a Tribe of Savages in North-Western Australia. London: Blackie and Son Limited.

Petri, H. (1954). Sterbende Welt in Nordwest-Australien. Braunschweig: Albert Limbach. Porr, M., & Doohan, K. (2017). From Pessimism to Collaboration. The German Frobenius-

Expedition (1938-1939) to Australia and the representation of Kimberley art and rock art. Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 8(1), 88-99.

Schulz, A. S. (1956). North-West Australian Rock Paintings. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, 20, 7-57.

Schulz, A. S. (1971). Felsbilder in Nord-Australien. 15. Band der Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expedition nach Nord-Australien. Hamburg: Franz Steiner Verlag.

Streck, B. (2014). Leo Frobenius. Afrikaforscher, Ethnologe, Abenteurer. Frankfurt am Main: Societätsverlag.

Streck, B. (2016). Leo Frobenius und die Bilderrätsel der Welt. In K.-H. Kohl, R. Kuba, & H. Ivanoff (Eds.), Kunst der Vorzeitz. Felsbilder aus der Sammlung Leo Frobenius (pp. 102-115). München: Prestel.

HONOURS

Congratulations to Ms Susan Gai Bradley on receiving a Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division of the Australia Day 2019 Honours List. The recognition was ‘For service to the community of the Kimberley’. The biographical notes provided in support of Susan’s nomination give some insight into just how extensive that service has been:

Kimberley Foundation Australia — Founding Board Member, since 1998; and helped establish the Bush University (which became the Wandjina Foundation and subsequently the Kimberley Foundation in 2002), 1996.

Pastoral and Livestock — Manager, Doongan Station, Dunkeld Pastoral Company, since 2000; Northern Kimberley pastoralist, over 48 years; owned with husband Carton Hill and Ivanoe Stations and Ord River Farms in the East Kimberley; helped pioneer the Northern Territory and Western Australian live cattle trade with Indonesia; and Deputy Chair, Beef Team Strategy, for the Minister for Agriculture.

Kimberley Regional Development — Committee Member, Regional Development Australia Kimberley, since 2013; Former Board Member of Australian Maritime Safety Authority, and Horizon Power, and Western Australian Women's Advisory Council; Inaugural Chair, Kimberley Development Commission, 1994; Chair, Water Resources Development Strategy; Chair, Ord Development Council; WA Councillor, Northern Australian Development Council; Councillor, WA State Planning Commission; Chair, Kimberley Regional Planning Study; and Member, North Kimberley Land Conservation District Committee.

Community — Former National Councillor, Royal Flying Doctor Service; Member of the Study into Attracting and Retaining Doctors in Rural and Remote Western Australia; Member of the Children's Court, Prison Visitor; and Justice of the Peace, current.

Local Government — Councillor then President, Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley, 8 years; and Former President, Kimberley Zone, Country Shire Councils Association.

Congratulations are also due to Mrs Helen Frances Macarthur on receiving an OAM ‘For service to community health’. Her nursing has included Community Health Nurse Manager, Broome Community Health, 2005-2016; School Health Nurse, Broome, 1994-2005; Community Nurse, Gordon Downs, 1976-1980; Former Registered Nurse Midwife, Halls Creek Hospital, 1980-1982; and Former School Health Nurse, Halls Creek Community Health, 1983-1994. Helen has been a Broome Bird Observatory Volunteer since 1994, and was its Chairman for 8 years.

February 2019 9 BOAB BULLETIN

DESERT RIVER SEA: PORTRAITS OF THE KIMBERLEY

THE EXHIBITION EXPERIENCE at ART GALLERY WA

9 FEBRUARY - 27 MAY 2019 | FREE

Art Gallery WA describes this exhibition experience as the highly anticipated culmination of its six-year Kimberley visual arts project, supported by Rio Tinto, Desert River Sea: Kimberley Art Then and Now.

In showcasing the talent of Kimberley artists, the exhibition will open with a full day of cultural celebration as well as presenting: new works from six Kimberley art centres and three independent artists; a selection of legacy works from art centre collections; and works from AGWA’s collection.

The art centres and artists involved in the exhibition are:

• Daniel Walbidi (Bidyadanga)

• Darrell & Garry Sibosado (Lombadina)

• Kira Kiro Art Centre (Kalumburu)

• Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency (Fitzroy Crossing)

• Mowanjum Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre (Mowanjum)

• Waringarri Aboriginal Arts (Kununurra)

• Warlayirti Artists (Balgo)

• Warmun Art Centre (Warmun)

OPENING CELEBRATION PROGRAM — 9 FEBRUARY 2019

10 - 10.30am Book Signing by Kimberley Artists and Curators In association with UWA Press

AGWA Concourse

10.30am - 12pm

Art Centre Workshops Mowanjum Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre

Ochre Painting (limited to first 30 people)

Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Bush Dyeing Workshop (limited to first 30 people)

AGWA Terrace

11am - 12pm Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Boab Carving Demonstration

AGWA Terrace

11.30am - 1pm

Artist & Art Centre Talks Kira Kiro, Warlayirti, Garry and Darrell Sibosado,

Mowanjum

Desert River Sea Exhibition Space

12 - 4pm Artist Activation Family Workshop Esther McDowell/Yabini Kickett

Imagination Room

12 - 1pm Garry Sibosado Pearl Shell Engraving Demonstration

AGWA Terrace

1 - 1.30pm David Pigram Guitar Performance

AGWA Concourse

1 - 2pm Mervyn Street Hide Shaving with live cam to Perth Cultural Centre Screen

AGWA Concourse

1.30 - 3pm Artist & Art Centre Talks Mangkaja, Waringarri, Warmun, Daniel Walbidi

Desert River Sea Exhibition Space

3 - 3.30pm Project Curator Talks Carly Lane, Emilia Galatis and Legacy Curators

Desert River Sea Exhibition Space

Please note: activities, times and venues subject to change.

BOAB BULLETIN 10 February 2019

BOOK REVIEW

The Natural World of the Kimberley, compiled by Hamish McGlashan, Kevin Coate, Jeffrey Gresham and Roz Hart. Kimberley Society, Perth, 2018, 298 pages, illustrations (chiefly colour), maps, portraits, ISBN 9780646984421. RRP $55 (plus postage if bought through our website).

(Member price $40. Review originally published in The Weekend West, 15-16 September 2018. Reproduced courtesy of WA Newspapers.)

Wild Kimberley full of natural surprises

GEMMA NISBET finds a new publication explores rich diversity

Rugged and remote, the Kimberley occupies a special place in the Australian imagination: one of the world’s last great wilderness areas, its environment is encapsulated by red rocks, bulbous boabs and deadly saltwater crocodiles. And though interest in visiting the region only seems to be growing, it seems the Kimberley still has plenty of surprises in store.

You might know, for example, about the migratory shorebirds that spend the summer on the Kimberley coast before making the epic journey back to the high Arctic to breed, or about the huge tides that give rise to phenomena such as Horizontal Falls and Waterfall Reef. But it’s less likely that you’re familiar with the Kimberley’s scattered monsoon rainforests — home to remarkable biodiversity, despite their small size — or its seagrasses, which provide food for dugongs and sea turtles. Then there are its occasionally weird and wonderful fungi, such as the aptly named pretzel slime mould.

All feature in The Natural World of the Kimberley, the latest publication by the Kimberley Society, a non-profit organisation that aims to encourage research on and understanding of the region.

As Kimberley Society vice-president Hamish McGlashan writes in his introduction, the book provides scientists with a chance to share their knowledge beyond a specialist audience while supplying general readers with “a glimpse of the exciting and important research under way”.

Trapping: a different kind of migration

The crimson finch has deep-red plumage and a bright red face. It is frequently found north of the Fitzroy River and along the Kimberley coast near watercourses or swamps surrounded by pandanus trees and tall grass, where it nests amongst the spiked pandanus fronds and in tree hollows. The species also adapts well to human habitation by nesting under the eaves of houses and sheds, and has been recorded nesting in the cabs of farm tractors at Kingston Rest, 70km south of Kununurra, and on a day-tour boat on Lake Kununurra.” Kevin Coate from the chapter Trapping and trading: How Kimberley finches spread around the world.

Crimson finch

Picture: Kevin Coate

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Divided into sections covering the Kimberley’s land, plants and fungi, animals, sea and coast, and overall environment, the extensively illustrated book comprises chapters by researchers, scientists and land managers covering everything from the region’s ancient geology to its freshwater rock pools, described as “one of the world’s oldest and most persistent freshwater habitats”. Other chapters concern its islands — which offer “a near-pristine example of the coastal Kimberley’s major habitat types” — and its ants, which are likened to “a treasure trove of biodiversity”.

A good number aim to address gaps in current knowledge. Naturalist Kevin Coate, for example, shares his work with Lance Merritt on the history of commercial trapping and trading of the region’s distinctive and often colourful finches, a subject about which he says “there has been little meaningful research”.

It’s certainly a fascinating piece of history, encompassing trappers such as Walter Payne and Jack Wallace who, between 1901 and 1912, shipped Kimberley finches in lots of about 7000 birds, along with other animals, from Fremantle to the UK. “There was a demand for exotic fauna in Europe and it was fashionable at the time for more affluent people to have a tame kangaroo or two around the park or garden,” Coate writes. He estimates more than 1.2 million of the birds were captured over the 90 years the practice was allowed.

Other chapters give an insight into the methods that underlie scientific research in the Kimberley, not to mention the challenges and hazards of working in such a harsh, isolated environment.

Take seed scientist Emma Dalziell’s description of obtaining samples from waterlilies: “Once a flower has been pollinated (usually by a native, stingless bee of the family Apidae), it will close and the stalk will coil, bringing the old flower well below the water line where the seeds can develop to maturity. In turbid waters, the developing fruits may not be visible from the surface, so anyone collecting them must feel underwater using their hands or feet.

"The problem with this method, of course, is that crocodiles inhabit many of the freshwater wetlands in the Kimberley. In these areas, getting into the water is not an option; seed collection must be done from a boat using specialised collecting poles."

The book outlines some threats facing the environment. And whether they're cane toads or invasive plants, out-of-control bushfires or climate change, these challenges are — as Daryl Moncrieff and Carolyn Thomson-Dans describe in their chapter on establishing conservation parks — "as immense as the region itself".

The hope is, McGlashan writes, sharing this research and knowledge can "help us not only to understand the Kimberley's past but also to safeguard its future".

Editor’s note: Space limitations prevented the inclusion of all the text boxes and images that appeared in the original review. We hope to include all of them in our website version.

Kangaroo rock art, Mitchell River. Picture: Mike Donaldson.

Rock art trove of animals long gone

“The rock art of the Kimberley is not just about Wanjinas and Gwions — it includes many examples from the natural world., including paintings of animals, birds, fish and plants . . . Paintings of thylacines (Tasmanian tigers), which have been extinct on the Australian mainland for about 3500 years, have also been found. An art panel near the Mitchell River shows what appears to be a line of deer, which seems highly unlikely as deer have never lived in this country.” Mike Donaldson, from the chapter Records in rock art.

Image required

Kangaroo rock art, Mitchell River. Picture: Mike Donaldson.

BOAB BULLETIN 12 February 2019

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The 26th AGM of Kimberley Society (Inc) will be held at Mount Claremont Community Centre, 107 Montgomery Avenue, Mount Claremont, on Wednesday 3 April 2019, commencing at 7:30 pm. The Agenda will comprise the President’s Welcome, Apologies, Minutes of the previous AGM, Business arising from the Minutes, President’s Report, Treasurer’s Report and presentation of Accounts for approval, Election of Office Bearers and other Committee Members, and any Other Business. The AGM will be followed by the guest speaker and supper.

Mike Donaldson, Chairman

COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS FOR 2019-2020

The Constitution of Kimberley Society (Inc) requires that the Committee shall consist of a Chairperson, a Deputy Chairperson, a Secretary, a Membership Secretary, a Treasurer, and not less than 3 or more than 7 other persons, all of whom shall be Members of the Society. In the interest of conservation, nomination forms will be available at the February and March meetings, or by request from a current office bearer. Each nomination must be signed by the nominator, seconder, and by the nominee signifying willingness to stand for election, and must be received by the Secretary at least 21 days prior to the date of the AGM (i.e. 13 March 2018). If insufficient nominations are received to fill all vacancies, further nominations shall be received at the AGM. Should any positions remain vacant after the AGM, such vacancies will be deemed casual vacancies and may be dealt with by the Committee according to the Constitution.

COUNCIL 2018-2019

President: Mike Donaldson

Vice-Presidents: Hamish McGlashan

Secretary: Geoff Owen

Membership Secretary: Elizabeth Gresham

Treasurer: Jeffrey Gresham

Councillors: Michael Cusack, Tim Griffin, Jeff Murray, Sven Ouzman, Roger Passmore and Margaret Shugg

Kimberley Society Inc.

Dr Cathie Clement OAM edits this newsletter for the Kimberley Society, which was launched in 1993 with the principal objective of disseminating information about the Kimberley. The content is copyright but may be cited with acknowledgment. Correspondence, including requests to reproduce text or images, should be directed to The Editor, Kimberley Society, PO Box 8471, Perth Business Centre, Perth, WA 6849. Contact is also available by email or telephone (08) 9272 3308. DISCLAIMER: The opinions and the information presented in this newsletter are offered solely to inform members about matters that may interest them. The Council of the Kimberley Society accepts no responsibility for the newsletter’s content, and it advises readers to obtain appropriate advice before they either apply information from the newsletter to particular circumstances or use it as a basis for formulating decisions.