Oh hello everyone, I'm HG Nelson, Dr HG Nelson if you don't mind, and welcome to a film about
boomerangs. It's a terrific idea, it's a very simple idea, the boomerang, it's shaped like
that and it does all sorts of things. Now, in the next few minutes, we hope to introduce
you to a lot of ideas you might not have encountered before about the boomerang itself, like where
do they come from, who makes them, do they return if you throw them like that, simple
things like that. But we're going to begin this film, ladies and gentlemen, with the
earliest bit of footage of the boomerang in action from Lake Tires earlier this century.
Now, now I hear murmurs from the back of the room, it's the earliest bit of footage, not
in Australia, ladies and gentlemen, but in the world, from Lake Tires earlier this century.
Ladies and gentlemen, around this nation, wherever I travel, on the back of buses and
at Mewton traffic lights, people lean out, they punch me in the chest and ask me how
a simple stick like this can be made to return. Puzzling, isn't it?
How do people get started in the boomerang caper? How did they know that they could shape
lumps of wood and throw them in a direction and get them to return to the spot that they
stood on? The original inhabitants of this country were able to do that. And look, here
I am, I can barely build a paper aeroplane and get it to fly in two metres and yet these
people, thousands upon thousands of years ago, were able to throw hunks of wood in a
very specific direction. We have to go back and think about the origins of flight, boomerang
flight, and we can do that by looking at this footage.
Now, it's suggested that the original inhabitants of the country discovered that certain seeds
fell with an aerodynamic foil which gave them further mobility around the sky, i.e. from
the tree to the ground. Then it might have been discovered that kiddies playing with
fire thousands and thousands of years ago, bent these leaves into a specific shape which
enabled them to glide around and hence the idea of building in to a piece of wood. Aerodynamic
properties enabled the original inhabitants to see that flight was possible.
And so we've seen some leaves in flight from the centre of Australia and here some very
special leaves from our own personal collection of some four billion that I've collected from
all parts of Australia, leaves in flight. If you took these out you'd be able to see
them in flight. And of course I sent a few, only a couple of thousand, to my very good
friends in America. Now Americans of course, they'll have a go at anything. They'll think,
they'll put under the microscope anything you like. And let's have a look at a couple
of pillows in action tackling the biggest question of all, the boomerang.
What makes a boomerang fly and come back Eric?
It's basically just lift and spin.
Lift and spin?
Yep.
I always thought it had something to do with the shape, the classic V shape of a boomerang,
that's not true.
It's a very minor factor. I mean you look behind you, you can see quite a variety of
shapes.
What about these two up here? These look like they're made out of wood, look like they're
very old, have kangaroos on them, they must come from Australia, natural.
Well these are actually non-returning, these are hunting sticks.
They don't come back.
They don't come back. And returning types have been used for hunting but they're primarily
for sport. They're lighter and they're more fun. I mean it's not designed to be a weapon.
But they almost have something in common besides the ones that don't come back that allows
them to be boomerangs.
Right. What's that?
They're basically wings like an airplane with a flat bottom and a curved top.
This is like an airplane wing and it's also like a boomerang wing, it's the same basic
air flow.
Oh there it goes.
There it goes, starting to fly. Now this is Bernoulli's principle in action. Air going
at a higher speed creates less pressure. So the wind going along the bottom is going in
a straight line and the wind going over the top has to go over to a higher speed because
it's a longer distance and therefore there's less pressure on top, higher speed than on
the bottom so the wing wants to go up.
Classic Bernoulli's principle.
Exactly. The second thing we're looking at is the angle of attack which is the angle
of the wing in relation to the wind. And I can adjust that and you can very graphically
see. I'm flattening it out and it goes down and then I increase it.
Why do you have to bend it down here and there's more wind pushing it back up?
It's right on up.
Alright that explains why a boomerang flies but it doesn't explain why a boomerang comes
back.
This is gyroscopic motion. Not only are you throwing the boomerang forward but it's spinning
which gives it tremendous stability and wants it to keep going in that direction just like
a gyroscope.
That doesn't explain why it wants to come around and come back.
Ah but there's a lift involved.
A lift.
Yeah now each wing as it comes over the top here is generating more lift than when it's
going back on the bottom because of this forward motion. So the wind is going over at a higher
rate of speed. So you have the lift making it want to go like that but it can't go like
that because it has a gyroscopic stability keeping it going like that.
I see. So when you add the two together?
You get it turned.
They make a lot of interesting points don't they? But once you let one American set of
experts get in on the job, everyone wants to get in on their job. This next lot, gee
they're interesting. It's meets west, it's a potpourri, it's zen, it's everything. I
mean pick the seeds out of this.
Boomerangs have been around for thousands of years. They were originally used as weapons
by Australian Bushmen. Over those thousands of years people like Peter have refined and
improved them but never explained them. If you ask Peter why the boomerang returns, he'll
rattle off five complicated principles including relative wind, gyroscopic stability, Bernoulli's
law of inertia and Newton's law. But somehow none of these principles quite answers the
question.
And I'd say there's the sixth principle which is called magic.
These bikes are using boomerangs but they're not throwing them and obviously because they're
not throwing them they're not returning. So what's going on here? What are boomerangs
used for if they're not for throwing and not returning? Well there's a lot more to this
boomerang caper than meets the eye.
That film of the kids with the spinning leaves comes from Amaroo right here in the centre
of Australia. Now of course the boomerang was spread all over Australia. Relatively
spread. Now it was such a simple idea, why wasn't it found in other parts of the world?
Well it was. It was found in Africa, in India, in ancient Egypt where they even had a returning
consort and in 1987 they found a boomerang carved from a mammoth's tusk which scientists
now believe is the oldest boomerang in the world.
One of the puzzling things about boomerangs is that they're not found all over Australia.
It's curious isn't it? For instance up here in the top end, north of about the 14th parallel,
there are no boomerangs and down here in Tasmania, note the curious position of Tasmania on this
map incidentally, there were no boomerangs at all. Out in the central spot here there
were none either. And another odd thing is the returning boomerangs are mainly found
in this part of Australia over here in the south west and this part of Australia over
here in the south east. Interesting isn't it?
We areUn Ich et alamaיבllah interested in moving deeper into the
Here we are taleusee blankly approaching a revenue brock climbed Is moves along Operati
Every wall beaten by their
As you can see from those few film sequences,
not only is the boomerang very versatile, it is very useful and some have even described
it as utilitarian.
It's almost as good as a Swiss Army knife and in fact people have called the desert
boomerang the Swiss Army knife of Australia.
But please kiddies, don't go throwing the Swiss Army knife around the backyard in this
form.
Save that for the adults.
And now let's cook with a boomerang.
The boomerang has various other uses.
It is often used for scraping or clearing the ground.
Or as a digging tool.
For digging an earth oven.
Cutting the leg of a kangaroo before it is cooked.
Exposing and levering out the long tendons.
These often being used for binding purposes.
Scraping the burnt hair from the scorched carcass.
Taking out the hot embers and sand from the earth oven.
The sharpened end of the boomerang serves as a meat chopper.
The flat side of the implement may be used for detaching small flakes of stone in the
process of sharpening the stone tool mounted on the end of a wombara or spear thrower.
Now an entirely different use as a musical percussion instrument beating deep thudding
notes on the ground.
Two boomerangs are struck together to beat the rhythm of singing.
Boomerangs are often used for producing special effects during ceremonies.
And now let's go on and look at some weekend uses, some ceremonial and leisure time uses
of the boomerang.
Sumlongingts
You know, as soon as Europeans settled in Australia, you know,
they wanted to go out back and they wanted to see people throwing the boomerang.
And they began co-opting the idea of the boomerang in a lot of gear associated with tourism and
travel and getting out there.
So trains went there and back and you had your boomerang on your travel bag.
Well here we have some footage of a terrific event that took place in the 20s and just
look at these blokes, they're laden down and they're on the search of adventure.
It was sort of a trekking holiday in their day and they left various big capital cities
and journeyed across Australia looking for action, looking for boomerang action.
Now we move up to the late 40s and gee, nothing much has changed has it?
Everybody came kitted out entirely as though they were camping out in their own backyard,
tents, eggs for breakfast, they even bought a two-up game along.
That was about the only culture they had in those days.
And of course from two up, well throwing the coins in the air, it's not a long shot to
throwing a boomerang and they got some of the original inhabitants to show them how.
But the boomerang story has two sides to the story.
Here we see an original inhabitant of Australia making a boomerang which he is hoping to sell
to a tourist European.
We've seen so far how the boomerang has its origins in the middle of Australia and was
carted all over the world and so on, but it didn't take long for European society to start
putting it to a different use, i.e. incorporating it in what we've discovered as boomerangabilia
or what we're terming as boomerangabilia in this particular film and that is turning out
knickknacks, souvenirs and mementos of trips to Australia or in fact anywhere else in the
world in the shape of boomerangs.
I've got a few here, I'll take you through them.
The first is a terrific badge from Australia Day 1918, First World War.
You notice the Kookaburra sitting, yes you guessed it, on a boomerang.
And then it wasn't long before Australia was at war again and people used to send these
sort of beautiful mementos home, lucky Ruth in Sorrento got this from a boyfriend digger
called Bruce over there in the Middle East.
It's fantastic and get the idea, I will return, I will come back.
I'm throwing my love and best wishes out to you Ruth.
Congratulations Ruth, unfortunately Bruce and Ruth couldn't go on, they had a falling
of the ways but still that's another story.
And then in 1967 Australia changed its currency and what better way to celebrate that than
to press the old currency in between a couple of sheets of Perspex boomerang.
And so they encapsulated inside the boomerang a little bit of boomerang memorabilia in the
form of the coins of a previous era trapped forever and of course now these days absolutely
priceless.
Fantastic work there by the mint, hats off mint.
And then when you go into the kitchen you couldn't escape the boomerang there because
you got a beautiful two in one plate, beautiful colours and wouldn't it be great to be, say
in the previous ages, say around about 50s, late 50s, early 60s, to burst in through the
door from the kitchen into the dining room with the chops down in this half and the beautiful
avocado and green salad up the top here of course.
And of course that night you'd be on your way to a masked ball and so hey presto just
wipe it clean with a bit of Kleenex and then put it up to a string and then round the face
and there it is the mask there.
And of course no one, even though it does alter the way you speak, no one will recognise
who you were.
And the boomerang of course left the kitchen and flew into the bedroom.
And in the bedroom on the table there was a fantastic hairbrush in the shape of a boomerang.
Just a couple of gigs at this, feel those nylon bristles on the back, never mind the
depth, feel the quality.
And then of course when you get up to the hair, doesn't the hair come up an absolute
treat with a boomerang brush?
It feels a bit funny combing it with a boomerang brush but after about four years you get the
hang of it and you don't really notice that it's any different from an ordinary brush.
It's an absolutely terrific item and notice the extra little motifs of Australian there.
You know you might have bought this, say if you're on a holiday here from Austria.
When you got back to Austria wouldn't it be terrific in the cold to imagine the kangaroos
jumping through the spinifex on a hot day.
And then to cap it all off we have of course here the World Boomerang Throwing Trophy.
Perpetual trophy, always stays in Australia.
Cop of Geekers construction, you've got your three boomerangs down the bottom here, your
three blades holding up a beautiful salad bowl.
On the winning day, say the Swiss might have won it for instance, or the French team, very
very competitive the French and the boomerang throwing caper.
They fill it up with a golden circle fruit salad and in the middle of the salad stands
a bloke throwing a boomerang, having a good old heap.
I use that term bloke advisedly unfortunately because it's nearly as I can tell there's
not many women competitions or not many competitions for women going around the paddock at the
moment.
Maybe the organisers could address that next time out.
But then you'd be thrilled over the moon, dream come true, hats off dot dot dot, when
you actually took control and accepted this trophy on behalf of your team out here in
the next Boomerang Championship.
And of course apart from that there's endless amounts of little knick knacks which hold
matches up and there's a beautiful boomerang base there, absolutely first class.
There's a terrific thing over here, a letter holder with a kangaroo jumping around on a
boomerang, terrific there if you're in a cold climate.
Once again to be reminded of your fabulous holiday in Australia.
And last but not least ladies and gentlemen, your boomerang memorabilia table.
Now this is the sort of table that would be a beautiful ornament in any home, in any lounge
room ladies and gentlemen and just imagine this table with your boomerang knick knack
stacked on it.
Now I'm prepared to do something very special for you today ladies and gentlemen here at
the exhibition, I'm prepared to sell you this.
I want you to leave sealed bids with the curator on the way out, don't be shy ladies and gentlemen,
get the pen out now and the paper.
But don't waste my time ladies and gentlemen, be serious about it, don't be an idiot to
yourself, do yourself justice, make the bids high and I will honourably accept all of them.
Well if that was the boomerang-abilia of yesterday, have a look at what we've got for you today.
Here's a beautiful kangaroo with boomerang like wings.
Obviously the bugger doesn't want to go in this particular position but I might give
him a good swift boot up the date in a moment and get him really working like this which
is the way he's meant to work.
Now of course at the cutting edge, the cutting edge of boomerang-abilia lies this particular
gem.
Have a look and have a listen.
That's right ladies and gentlemen, a clothes brush that plays Walsing Matilda.
I know George Bush has got one of these, I know Boris Yeltsin's got one of these, I know
Elizabeth Taylor's got one of these and the question I am asking myself up the ladder
here today ladies and gentlemen is why haven't you got one of these?
Wherever you go in the world the boomerang causes talk.
This one for instance, this beautiful green and gold one with that fantastic inscription
there I sent with Big Dean Lucan to the Olympic Games in 1984.
I put it in Dino's bag, I said see if we can do something with that son and he did it.
He left a goal for Australia in the heavyweight class.
I went down the South Pole one year, I pulled one out of me hip pocket, I threw it round
in a big arc and it went through the 24 time zones.
You can do that if you can afford the fare down there and remember to pack your boomerang.
I was in big Berlin, I was thinking of East Berlin which we'll get to in a moment and
I took one, I stood there and I stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and I just went whack
like that.
It went through the Iron Curtain, clang and fell into East Berlin.
East meets West with a boomerang, it's a simple thing to do.
Of course when people come to Australia as they've done over the last millions of years,
the first thing they want to do is get into a bit of Ipah and spice and have a bit of
a hurl.
Have a look at these Mexicans in action.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, I'm glad you like that.
What a Tommy Hawk.
Did you throw these too?
Oh, no, you only found them for me.
Well, I can throw these.
Can you?
Come over here and I'll show you how.
Good.
Come on boys.
And Pedro showed his skill with his one-way weapons.
A hatchet man at work, Mexican style.
In 35, William Tell.
We're trying to change the image of a boomerang from a killer stick into it's a new wave
of sport.
It's like the frisbee.
It's aerodynamic, it's the space age, it goes out, it comes back.
You can catch it and it's easy to do tricks with it.
Few people are better equipped than Peter to lead the way to popularizing the boomerang.
Last year in Sydney, Australia, Peter set the world record for distance throwing.
The moment was witnessed by millions of television viewers on a Guinness Book of World Records
TV special.
124 yards, he's broken the record.
Baseball, like a baseball throw.
It's very easy, you can all do it.
Yes, yes, yes.
The knack with that last trick is to have a very, very soft apple on top of the head.
And that was taken from a Japanese TV show and hasn't the boomerang come a long way,
my very good friends.
Now, let's have a look at some footage from films, taken from films and spot the boomerangs
in these following clips.
The magic boomerang.
You should know it by its strange behavior.
This is the boomerang for which all time stands still.
Feel the boomerang.
Are you coming, dog?
What kind of dog is this?
That's something!
Not funny, you bloody bitch!
Time for a little tap dance!
Are you sure you're not Pintonjara tribe?
No, man. Harlem Warlords.
Out, Bataranga Batarope. Stand clear.
When you think Batman, with people in weird outfits, you think Batman.
When you think Batman, with people in weird outfits, like the four super cooks hanging around here, it's amazing someone hasn't already reported this place to the police.
Bataranga Batarope!
En Wah oko slight.
What's up?
Oh, I wish I could do that.
Well, so do I.
There's a lot of us who want to do it.
Now, the idea of the boomerang is to hold it and sit you away,
that you can impart and send out as much spin as possible.
That's very necessary, the spin.
Cry throw, cry the spin.
You all right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Give it a go.
Now then, what?
Now you'll see what can be done with it.
Yeah, well, it's better to work well when you have a good throw together.
A whole lot of us.
Come on.
I'll be in there in a minute.
One, two, three.
There was a great Frank D'Ellen, ladies and gentlemen,
and let me say this about Frank's work.
No one left one of Frank's classes in 52 without being able to do the William Tell.
Frank saw to that he wouldn't let them go.
They were there often till dark, ladies and gentlemen, hurling at unseen apples on top
of other kids' heads, but he made them do it.
Is that going on today, ladies and gentlemen, in 1992?
Are people in the backyards of Australia standing on the back porch throwing the boomerang at
the back fence, clocking the can and receiving the boomerang back into the hand to the applause
of their parents and younger brothers?
Somehow, ladies and gentlemen, I doubt it.
Of course, this skill still goes on in parts of Australia, in lots of parts of Australia,
unseen by the great populace, and our kiddies doing it, ladies and gentlemen.
Is anybody doing it?
Unfortunately, I had to survey my friends to get the results.
These results are disappointing, ladies and gentlemen, very, very disappointing, but I
hope you'll take some comfort from the fact that if you want to learn, there are people
out there who can teach you.
The Australian doesn't want to know about it.
My boomerang won't come back.
Your boomerang won't come back.
My boomerang won't come back.
It did have some tendencies to glide, didn't it?
When was the last time you threw a boomerang?
Do I say never?
No, no, no, no, never.
No?
No?
No, never throw one.
My boomerang won't come back.
boomerang won't come back.
a boomerang won't come back.
a boomerang won't come back.