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Bark canoe
1850s
This is the only remaining 19th-century Aboriginal canoe from the Melbourne region. Scottish immigrant John Buchan collected the canoe in the 1850s from local Aborigines camping near his home overlooking the Yarra River at Studley Park.
The river flats and lagoons of the Yarra River provided a plentiful supply of food for the Wurundjeri people. Canoes were an easy means of travelling through the lagoons and into reed beds.
© Museum Victoria Australia