Kalkadoon

Kalkadoon country in northwestern Queensland supported communities whose livelihood combined hunting, gathering, fishing and exchange. Stoneworking gave the region connections well beyond its immediate resources. Near what is now Lake Moondarra, basalt outcrops supplied dense stone suitable for axe heads. Quarrying, shaping blanks and preparing finished implements required skilled work as well as knowledge of the material.

Archaeological study identifies specialised production and increasing output associated with expanding exchange networks. Kalkadoon implements circulated among other Aboriginal communities across western Queensland, reaching as far south as Birdsville. The movement of tools therefore linked local labour to relationships over a broad inland area. This economy preceded the arrival of European explorers in the district during the nineteenth century. Its material record shows that craft specialisation and organised exchange were important within a society that did not depend on permanent agricultural towns. The quarries, work areas and traded axes preserve different parts of that connected landscape.