The shield (tar-ram) is made out of the bark or wood of the gum-tree, and varies in shape and device, the ordinary shield is about two or two and a half feet long, from eight to eighteen inches across, and tapering from the middle towards the extremities, two holes are made near the centre, through which a piece of wood is bent for a handle; shields are always carved and painted in time of war.

The implements made use of by the natives are not very numerous, and their general characteristics are nearly the same all over the continent.  The native hatchet is made of a very hard greenish-looking stone, rubbed to an edge on either side; it is fixed in the cleft of a stick, or a branch is doubled round it, and either tied or gummed to prevent its slipping.  The throwing sticks have generally a sharp piece of quartz or flint gummed on at the lower end, which is used as a knife or chisel; flints or muscle shells are used for skinning animals, dissecting food, cutting hair, etc.

The ngak-ko, a strong chisel-pointed stick, from three to four feet long, is used for dissecting the larger animals and fish, for digging grubs out of the trees, for making holes to get out opossums, etc., for stripping bark, ascending trees, for cutting bark canoes, and a variety of other useful purposes.  The rod for noosing ducks, (tat-tat-ko) and other wild fowl, is about sixteen feet long, and consists, in its lower part, for the first ten feet, of hard wood, tapering like an ordinary spear, to this is cemented with resin, a joint of tolerably strong reed about sixteen inches long, at the upper end of this is inserted and cemented with wax, a tapering rod of hard wood, three feet long and very similar to the top joint of a fly-fishing rod, to this is spliced a fine springy and strong top, of about eighteen inches in length, at the end of which is bound a piece of fine strong cord, which works with a running noose upon the tapering end of the instrument.  Needles are made from the fibula of the emu or kangaroo, and are pointed at one end by being rubbed on a stone, they are used in sewing as we use a shoemaker’s awl, the hole is bored and the thread put through with the hand; the thread is made of the sinews of the emu and kangaroo.  The netting needle is a little round bit of stick or reed, about the size of a lead pencil, round which the string is wound, no mesh is used, the eye and hand enabling the native to net with the utmost regularity, speed, and neatness.

The nets for hunting, for carrying their effects or food, for making belts for the waist, or bandages for the head, are all made from the tendons or fur of animals, or from the fibres of plants.  In the former, the sinews of the kangaroo or emu, and the fur of opossums and other similar animals, are used; in the latter, a species of rush, the fibres of the root of the mallow, the fibres of the root of the broad flag-reed, etc. and in some parts of the continent, the fibrous bark of trees.  The materials are prepared for use by being soaked in water and carded with the teeth and hands, or by being chewed or rubbed.