Did the Australian Aborigines really use boomerangs? Do they really come back to the thrower?

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Ally M

YES. they used it to hunt and gather food.. what did you think they were for? Decoration?!

Larry K

i just returned from a 2 month stay in australia. i lived with several aboriginal people. yes, they did use boomerangs. they were used to hunt and kill food. however, for hunting on the groung they mainly used another type of boomering. it's small on one end and gradually gets bigger. the boomerangs that returned to them (yes, they really do return) were used to kill food that is in the air.

i bought a couple of them...havent found enough space in the good ol' usa to try them out though.

The_Mouse

Some good answers here.
Just to emphasise - NOT all boomerang come back. There are several types made for different things.

starcloud.2007

Yes, they did and still do (at times).
The one which comes back if thrown correctly had been made for fun only. What sense would it make when hunting and the boomerang comes back? Either you hit the animal and kill it or it comes back. You can't have both.

@Dad: Alice Springs had been named after the first postmaster's wife, Alice. And as there still is a spring it had been finally called Alice Springs. The spring is next to the Old Telegraph Station. If you visit this telegraph station you can see it, looking like a pond.

Fred F

Yes they do.

If you throw them right they will make a large sweeping arc and return from the place they were thrown.

tentofield

A boomerang is a throwing stick usually made from a bent tree branch. Most boomerangs are large, heavy at one end and do not return, They were used for bringing down wallabies or koalas. Returning boomerangs were developed in some parts of Australia and used near rivers and marshes for bringing down waterfowl. If it missed the bird, the boomerang returned to the hunter so he could have another go without having to get his feet wet tramping through the marsh to retrieve it.

You can buy returning boomerangs anywhere in Australia these days as souvenirs just as you can buy didgeridoos but neither the returning boomerang nor the didgeridoo were universal and both were unknown to the people of central Australia before the tourists arrived.

waltzsingmatilda

No they don't.
Billy Thorp wrote a song. My boomerang wont come back,my boomerang wont come back I can throw it as much as I like but my boomerang wont come back.

Monica AT

YES! Didn't you listen in History Class

Dad

yes they do, though they are generally bigger than the tourist toys you see... In 1789 when Alice discovered the passage between the south and north part of Australia, the gap in the mountain chain that allowed wagons to pass, the Aboriginees there were using boomernags to hunt. Sory has it that he was standing there admiringthe scenery when several boomernags hizzed towards him on their way back, he nimbly jumped out of their way and escaped back to tell the tale... and this day the town is called Alice Springs.

BigKev 2 (level 5)

The boomerang was used by the Australian aborigines as a means of communication - like a telephone is used nowadays.

The 'boom' part represents the noise it made when it whirled through the air & the 'rang' is like the 'ring' (or past tense - rang) of the modern telephone.

So the early aborigines would mark a message on the boomerang & throw it to who they wished to pass the message to. The whirling would cause a boom, which rang to alert the recipient & he would catch it. If he was not home the boomerang would return to sender for delivery on another day.

true story!

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