Historic boomerang sells for Aus$11,000

The National Museum of Australia has paid Aus$11,000 for a decorative boomerang that was used to entertain the crowds when an Aboriginal cricket team toured England in 1868. The weapon was the property of a fast bowler known as Twopenny, who was reputedly the fastest bowler in the world at that time, and took 25 wickets in the three matches of the tour.

"It's a gem that we're very excited about having in the national collection," Jo Duke, the senior curator of the National Museum, told The Sydney Morning Herald. The boomerang sports the signatures of some of the bowlers who faced Twopenny, while the museum also paid Aus$14,000 for an original composite photo of the team.

"It's rare to get two such very early pieces that talk ... about contact between cultures," added Ms Duke. "It's such an English game, but the indigenous people still had their cultural activity," she said, noting they held their weaponry in the photograph." The artefacts were picked up over the weekend at a Lawson Menzies auction.