This item was donated to the museum by Joseph Dallimore. Dallimore was brought up at Lake Gillear, and as a young man he left Australia to travel overseas both to help his parent's business in the wool trade and for pleasure. He wrote many letters to his parents keeping them updated with the prices he received from selling wool and on his travels. Later in life Dallimore enlisted in the Australian Army and went on to have a distinguished career during the Boer War. He would have collected this piano whilst on service in South Africa.

South African thumb piano from the Zulu culture. It is a wooden panel board with 15 iron finger keys in it. They are stuck onto the wood at one end with some sort of glue and also held in place by an iron rod passing over the top of them. At the bottom of the board is a metal panel and attached to that is a small circular cymbal. There is a string tying the metal panel to the wooden board.

There are no original markings on this although the original museum label is still stuck to the bottom which says, ' Native piano ( Mashona)' on it in script.

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It is unknown how this specific item made its way into the Warrnambool Museum. However, many South African artefacts came to the museum through men who served in the army during the Boer Wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902.

A beaded rope necklace. The rope is made from cloth and plant fibre with glass beads. It has a brass fastening. There are five colours: white, green, black and red with a pink band at the top. In the Zulu culture beads and jewellery were used as a means of communication. Generally they were used to convey messages about whether someone was married, engaged or single. The colours had different meanings but when placed next to white, the meaning would always be positive. white: purity and love black: marriage and rebirth red: also love green: contentment pink: denoted high status Beadwork was almost solely the work of women but men would also wear the jewellery.

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This mat was donated to the Museum by the Rev. Andrew Rule Osborn. Reverend Osborn donated several artefacts including Aboriginal artefacts, Zulu and Pacific Islander objects. The Reverend came over from Tasmania to serve here in Warrnambool. His wife Annie was a fantastic author and wrote children's literature which was serialised in the newspapers. She was a supporter of women's suffrage and also the first woman editor of The Age.

A flat circular mat made from native Australian grasses. Indigenous Australians would use this as a baby-carrier on the back. One band would be placed around the lower back and mat and two higher up. The child would be placed between the back and the mat. It was also sometimes used as a sun shade or something to sit on. It is a spiral form with grasses woven around to bind it together.

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Knobkerrie are clubs used as weapons mainly in South and East Africa. The club end can be used to throw at an animal or to club an enemy's head in. Usually these would be carved from a protruding tree branch. The name is Afrikaans and comes from 'Knop', meaning knot or ball and 'Kierie', meaning cane.

Accessioned into the museum collection in 1913 and donated by a Mrs Newcome, there is not much other information on its provenance. However, the museum collection holds several artefacts from this region of South Africa and much of it was collected during the Boer Wars of 1880-1881 and 1899-1902.

A wooden club type object. It has a narrow cylindrical handle with a large wooden sphere at the top. The wood is shiny and smooth with a polished effect. The handle is 31.5cm long with a 2cm diameter and the head or knob has a height of 9.5cm and a circumference of 27cm.

This would have been hand carved from a protruding tree branch. Towards the end of the handle is a 13.9cm section of zig-zag patterning. Further down towards the 'knob' there looks to be carved into the wood 'Jud'.

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