Huts and stone arrangements at Hilary Creek, western Queensland: Recent fieldwork at an Australian Aboriginal site complex

Abstract

This paper reports on an Aboriginal site complex, incorporating hut structures, ceremonial stone arrangements, an extensive surface artefact assemblage of lithics and mussel shell, and a silcrete quarry, located along Hilary Creek, a tributary of the Georgina River in western Queensland, Australia. At least two phases of occupation are indicated. The most recent huts have their collapsed organic superstructure still present, while those of a presumably earlier phase are distinguished as bare, circular patches of earth which are conspicuous amongst the ubiquitous gibber, with or without stone bases, and lacking any collapsed superstructure. Immediately adjacent to the huts and also a few hundred metres away are clusters of small stone arrangements, and about 2 km to the southwest, along the same creekline, is another series of larger, more substantial stone arrangements; these features speak to the importance of the general Hilary Creek area for ceremonial purposes. Radiocarbon dating reveals use of the Hilary Creek complex dates to at least 300 years ago; the absence of any European materials suggests it was likely not used, or only used very sporadically, after the 1870s when pastoralists arrived in the area, and when traditional lifeways were devastated by colonial violence.

Dating stone arrangements using optically stimulated luminescence and fallout radionuclides

“…116–131) and the long barrows of Scandinavia (Paulsson, 2010) to domestic farmsteads, such as the Knap of Howar in northern Scotland (Ritchie et al, 1983; Sheridan & Higham, 2006). In Australia, stone arrangements have been described in a number of rocky landscapes; many are recognised as architectural structures of prehistoric Aboriginal societies (Lane, 2008; McDonald & Berry, 2017; McNiven et al, 2017; O'Connor, 1987; Wallis et al, 2017, 2021; Wesson, 1981; Williams, 1988). Most of the evidence of stone architecture has been destroyed, either by recycling of stone by European pastoralists, damage by cattle or sheep or because Aboriginal customs required the demolition of residences following the death of the occupant (Memmott, 2007, p. 193).…”