“Aboriginal and camp on Wimmera River”.

[Title from printed caption in image]. [Melbourne, Vic.? : s.n., c.1910]. Chromolithographic postcard, 87 x 137 mm; mailed from Flemington, Melbourne to the USA in December 1912; very light corner wear, otherwise fine condition.

A very scarce postcard documenting an Aboriginal fringe dweller’s camp in northwest Victoria in the early years of the twentieth century. Trove locates no example in Australian institutional collections.

The man posed with his boomerang – and also note his shield and club that are leaning against a bucket in the foreground – is almost certainly a Wergaia, Djab Wurrung or Jardwadjali speaker; but there is no precise location given, so the scene could be anywhere from Lake Hindmarsh in the northwest to the Ararat area near the Wimmera’s source.