A woomera is an Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device used for when there is a greater distance to be overcome. It is highly efficient and made of wood. Similar to an atlatl, it enables a spear to travel much further than by arm strength alone. It is very much like an extension of the arm, enabling the spear to travel at a greater speed and force than would normally be attainable unaided. The town of Woomera in South Australia, founded in 1947 as the home of the Anglo-Australian Long Range Weapons Establishment, is named after the spear thrower.
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The woomera is roughly two to three feet in length.[1] One end is three inches in width while the other is more pointed and has a hook. The woomera was traditionally decorated with incised or painted designs which gave a good indication of the owner's tribal or clan group, giving one their sense of identity or "being".
Records show that the implement began to be used from about 5000 years ago.[2] It is still used today in some remote areas of Australia. As with spears and boomerangs, woomeras were traditionally only used by men. Some woomeras, especially those used in the Central and Western Australian deserts, were multi-purpose tools. Often shaped like long narrow bowls, they could be used for carrying water-soaked vegetable matter (which could later be sucked for its moisture, but wouldn't spill) as well as small food items such as little lizards or seeds. Many woomeras had a sharp stone cutting edge attached to the end of the handle with black gum from the triodia plant. This sharp tool had many uses and was commonly used for cutting up game or other food and cutting wood.
The woomera could be used as a shield for protection against spears and boomerangs. Some boomerangs were deliberately made with a hook at one end designed to catch onto the edge of a woomera or shield, which then caused the boomerang to swivel around and hit the enemy.
According to Eric Willmot, a leading Aboriginal scholar, a woomera and spear were the fastest weapons in the world until the invention of the self-loading rifle.[3] The extra energy gained from the woomera's use has been calculated as four times as much as from a compound bow.[2]
