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Posts Tagged 'Hassan Essayli'
How did you get your Smartphone? Trading in undergound stolen smartphones?
Posted by: adonis49 on: July 16, 2013
In: economy/finance | Essays | Events/Cultural/Educational/Arts | social articles
How did you get your Smartphone? Trading in underground stolen smartphones?
Before a federal SWAT team descended last summer, one storefront in a Detroit suburb attracted so many people bearing shopping bags stuffed with iPhones and iPads that managers installed a port-a-potty on the sidewalk.
Once inside, people deposited their electronic wares into a rotating drawer below a bulletproof glass window and waited for the cashier to deliver stacks of cash.
So much money changed hands in this fashion at the Ace Wholesale storefront in Taylor, Mich., that an armored truck arrived each morning to deliver fresh bundles of cash, according to an undercover investigator for the wireless company Sprint and an employee at the Mattress World outlet next door.
This article is part of a Huffington Post series exploring the global underground trade in stolen smartphones. Previous stories in the series can be found here.
"It was like Fort Knox over there," said the Mattress World employee, who asked not to be named for fear of making enemies inside what police say was a locus of criminal activity.
Many of the mobile devices swapped for cash at Ace Wholesale had been stolen at gunpoint in an escalating wave of gadget-related robberies, police say. Ace Wholesale had become a key broker in the underground trade of stolen phones, a global enterprise that often connects violent street thieves in American cities with buyers as far away as Hong Kong, according to law enforcement and the wireless industry.
"These companies fence the stolen phones for them, no questions asked," said Jerry Deaven, an agent with the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with preventing the trafficking of stolen goods. "You can walk right into one of these storefronts and sell all the phones at once and walk out with $20,000."
Deaven told The Huffington Post that such traffickers are responsible for "a tremendous amount of phones being shipped out of the country," adding that "some organizations are shipping a couple million dollars worth of phones per month."
Ace Wholesale's storefront in Taylor, Mich.
Deaven declined to comment specifically about Ace Wholesale, which he said is now under federal investigation. Last August, federal agents armed with search warrants raided the company's locations in suburban Detroit, Atlanta and Chicago, and the owner's home in Taylor, Mich., according to a DHS spokesman.
Ace Wholesale's owner, Jason Floarea, has not been charged with a crime. He did not respond to requests for comment. His attorney, Jim Thomas, who has represented high-profile clients including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, declined to comment.
The case against Ace Wholesale sheds light on what law enforcement and wireless providers portray as a shadowy world of smartphone trafficking. At the center of this trade is a crucial layer of middlemen: bulk purchasers who buy devices from thieves and con artists before exporting them to customers around the world.
In 2009, federal agents charged Hezbollah operatives in Philadelphia with attempting to buy thousands of stolen cell phones and ship them to Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates to finance the Shiite militant organization, which the United States considers a terrorist group.
Earlier this year, a woman's iPhone stolen at a bar in San Francisco turned up a few days later in Lima, Peru, according to San Francisco police.
Last fall, American and Mexican wireless carriers began collaborating to address the cross-border trade in stolen phones after learning that Mexican drug cartels were using them to communicate with kidnapping victims' relatives without being traced. But American wireless companies lack similar arrangements with other countries, allowing international phone trafficking to flourish.
Phones stolen in the United States have been located "on all continents except Antarctica," said Marci Carris, vice president of customer finance services at Sprint.
The global nature of the trade stems in part from measures that law enforcement and wireless carriers have imposed to make it harder to resell stolen phones in the United States, prompting criminals to forge new markets abroad.
"Once it gets overseas, it's virtually impossible to track a phone back here to the person who committed the crime," Deaven said.
Phone trafficking is driven largely by the massive profits made by exploiting the price difference between smartphones sold in the U.S. and overseas. Americans who agree to two-year service contracts with their cell phone company can buy the latest iPhones for about $200 — a price subsidized by the carrier. In Hong Kong, an iPhone can be sold for as much as $2,000.
This equation helps explain why more than 1.6 million Americans were victims of smartphone theft last year and why thefts of mobile devices now make up 40 percent of all robberies in major American cities. The rising street crime is exacting a heavy toll on consumers who spend an estimated $30 billion each year replacing lost and stolen devices, according to Lookout, a San Francisco-based mobile security firm.
Smartphone-related crime has also turned increasingly violent.
Last month, a 24-year-old man was shot in Philadelphia after police say he would not give up his cell phone to a thief.
Last year, 26-year-old Hwangbum Yang of New York City and 23-year-old Megan Boken of suburban Chicago were shot and killed during separate iPhone robberies, police say.
In response to the crime wave, state and city law enforcement officials are investigating smartphone makers for their failure to adopt measures that would render their devices inoperable when stolen. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pressed smartphone manufacturers in May to create "kill switch" technology to undercut the black market, noting that "foreign trafficking of stolen devices has proliferated."
Phone trafficking also costs the wireless industry "hundreds of millions of dollars a year," said James Baldinger, an attorney for Sprint. One alleged phone trafficker, Hassan Essayli, admitted in 2008 that his company, Platform Enterprises, shipped 30,000 phones from California to other countries in just two months, according to a deposition in a lawsuit filed by TracFone Wireless.
"I'm seeing thousands and thousands of phones being resold overseas," Baldinger said. "The numbers are so big, but a lot of time it flies under the radar."
Over the last 8 years, wireless companies have filed more than 200 lawsuits against alleged phone traffickers, but no case has bigger stakes than the federal lawsuit Sprint filed last summer against Ace Wholesale, Baldinger said. Sprint has accused Ace of buying thousands of Sprint phones and reselling them overseas, thereby depriving the wireless company of revenue from monthly phone bills.
"As far as we know," Baldinger said, "Ace is the biggest phone trafficker in the country."
Founded 4 years ago, Ace Wholesale was the brainchild of Jason Floarea, a Detroit area entrepreneur who opened his first wireless retail outlet when he was only 16, according to the company's website. He says on the site that he started the company to help consumers purchase top quality smartphones at discount prices.
Now 27, Floarea is a married father of three and an ordained minister. He aims to open his own church focused on outreach to convicts, alcoholics and the homeless, the site says.
Local law enforcement, however, accuse him of less savory activities: acting as a well-known buyer of smartphones and tablets stolen in burglaries and armed robberies.
In January 2010, Dearborn, Mich., police pulled over Floarea in his wife's silver Lexus and found two handguns, more than 30 cell phones, marijuana, a bottle of prescription drugs and more than $40,000 in cash, according to a local police report obtained by The Huffington Post through the Freedom of Information Act. He was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute narcotics and possession of a firearm in commission of a crime, the report says. Police later returned the phones and all but $4,200 in cash to Floarea per a court judgment.
A search of court records found no evidence of the case and both prosecutors and Floarea's attorney declined to comment on it. In Michigan, some defendants have been sentenced under statutes that prevent their cases from being disclosed publicly, according to a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman.
While it remains unclear how profitable Floarea's business has become, he appears to be making a comfortable living. Early last year, he purchased a five-bedroom house in West Bloomfield, Mich., for $1.4 million, according to the town assessor's office. Even Ace Wholesale's low-level associates say they are well-compensated. One person who buys and sells phones for the company told Sprint's investigator that he makes $3,000 per week, court documents show.
Deaven said he recently interviewed a man who claimed to supply phones to traffickers and boasted about how his work supported his lavish lifestyle.
"He said, 'I drink nothing but top-shelf liquor and get all the girls,'" Deaven recalled. "'I make more money than the dope man, but have none of the risk.'"
'A VERY LUCRATIVE CRIME'
The underground market transporting iPhones and other gadgets around the world began with a different form of theft.
For years, traffickers have hired teams of so-called "runners" or "credit mules" to buy discounted phones in bulk from retailers by agreeing to long-term service contracts. These runners simply stop paying the bills and sell the devices to traffickers who export them overseas.
In March, the California Attorney General charged two people — Shoulin Wen, 38, and Yuting Tan, 27 — with recruiting runners from homeless shelters to buy iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones. The pair shipped the phones to Hong Kong — a scheme that the attorney general says netted them nearly $4 million in less than a year.
But recently, thefts have become bolder and more violent: Traffickers have been acquiring phones through a growing number of cell phone store robberies, according to local and federal law enforcement officials.
"A guy can go into a cell phone store and steal 30 or 40 phones and get a lot more than if he hit a bank," said Deaven, the Homeland Security agent. "It's just a very lucrative crime."
In Houston's Harris County last year, thieves robbed at least a dozen cell phone stores — sometimes at gunpoint — during a two-month period, prompting the police department to establish a special task force to investigate the burglaries.
At one store in Houston, three men crashed a truck through the front window and stole dozens of cell phones before speeding away. At another store last year, a thief lowered himself through the ceiling, grabbed as many handsets as he could, then climbed back through the ceiling to escape.
Last July, Anthony Riopelle, 22, was working at a Meijer department store in Taylor, Mich., when two men approached and started asking about iPads. Suddenly, one man punched Riopelle in the face, knocking him to the ground, while the other grabbed more than a dozen tablets and fled the store, according to police.
"They said, 'If you move, we're going to kill you,'" Riopelle told HuffPost.
Police said they later found the stolen iPads behind the bulletproof glass window at Ace Wholesale. The two thieves were never caught.
It was not the only time police tracked stolen mobile devices to Ace Wholesale. In August, Taylor police arrested a man in the company's parking lot shortly after he had stolen iPhones from several victims at gunpoint in Detroit.
"Ace Wholesale made it very easy for people who were obtaining phones through robberies and retail fraud to go there and sell them," Taylor police Chief Mary Sclabassi told HuffPost. "It brought a large crime element to the city."
Dozens of other companies around the country have played a similar role, Sprint says.
Sprint's investigators discovered hundreds of stolen iPhones stored in a suburban Baltimore warehouse owned by a company called Wireless Buybacks, according to a lawsuit Sprint filed against the company in February. Wireless Buybacks says it buys used phones and resells them to large retailers, which in turn issue them to customers who have insurance policies and need a replacement phone.
In its lawsuit, Sprint claims that a company associated with Wireless Buybacks tried to sell 800 iPhones to its undercover investigator for more than $400,000. A sample of serial numbers revealed that "the vast majority" of phones were stolen or obtained through fraud, the suit says.
In February, agents from the FBI, the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided Wireless Buybacks' warehouse in Elkridge, Md., and found the facility was being used to store stolen phones, according to Sprint. Law enforcement declined to comment about the raid, citing an ongoing investigation.
In court documents, Wireless Buybacks said it "does not knowingly transact business with anyone involved in burglaries or armed robberies" and conducts "a rigorous screening process" to ensure it doesn't buy stolen phones.
Kevin Lowe, co-founder of Wireless Buybacks, has said that his company supplies phones to "some of the largest retailers in the country." The company generates most of its revenue from a contract to supply cell phones to Best Buy worth about $45 million each year, the company said in court documents.
Best Buy has no plans to cut ties with Wireless Buybacks. "At this point, these are accusations that haven't been substantiated," a company spokesman said.
But Baldinger, Sprint's attorney, said the lawsuit reveals how many U.S. consumers are unwittingly buying stolen phones.
"There are lots of consumers walking around with phones they think they got legitimately from a national retailer," he said, "when in fact the phones were stolen during armed robberies."
'TONY BUY iPHONE'
The middlemen at the center of the global trade in stolen smartphones organize themselves into distinct roles.
Many hire hackers who use special software to "unlock" the devices, enabling them to connect with wireless networks around the world, according to Lt. Ed Santos of the San Francisco Police Department, which has created a special task force focused on combating smartphone thefts. Then, they erase the data on the handsets, often within an hour after the device is stolen.
"They completely erase them so the phones can't be identified by who they belong to," Santos told HuffPost. "They want to sell a clean phone that can't be traced."
Traffickers later repackage phones in boxes with the manufacturer's logo, power chargers and instruction manuals in the native language of their destinations, according to Sprint.
Finally, they ship them overseas, mostly to Hong Kong, where they are distributed across Southeast Asia, said Baldinger, Sprint's attorney. Many phones are also shipped to Dubai, Israel and Latin America.
In 2011, Ace Wholesale shipped dozens of iPhones and Samsung Nexus phones to Go Telecom HK and Mobile Planet HK, according to invoices obtained by Sprint. These two companies listed addresses in Kowloon, a district of Hong Kong that is thick with electronics merchants.
Most traffickers ship phones in large cardboard boxes via FedEx and UPS, according to Deaven, the Homeland Security agent. The destination of stolen phones often depends on the provenance of the traffickers.
"Here in San Francisco, a lot of people have ties to Mexico," San Francisco police Sgt. Josh Kumli said. "A lot of phones are going to Mexico because that is where they have contacts."
Until December of last year, two brothers, Henry and Victor Gamboa, drove thousands of stolen phones and other electronics by truck from the Bay Area to Mexico every two weeks, Santos said. The two brothers are now in jail after being convicted of running a massive stolen electronics fencing ring.
Thuc Ngo told Sprint's lawyers that he smuggled iPhones from California to his native Vietnam, where his siblings helped him find buyers, according to a deposition from a Sprint lawsuit against him.
Ngo said he obtained phones through his business, which he called "Tony Buy iPhone." He drove a white Dodge Ram 3500 van emblazoned with an advertisement — "We Buy Used Iphone" — listing his phone number and website, the lawsuit claims. He met customers at Starbucks coffee shops around the Bay Area and paid between $220 and $330 for each iPhone. Some of the iPhones had been reported stolen, he confessed, according to his deposition.
He regularly flew to Vietnam to sell his inventory, stuffing the phones in his pockets and strapping them to his waist beneath his clothing with plastic wrap — a technique he used to bypass Vietnamese customs at the airport and avoid paying taxes, the deposition says. In this way, he carried 11 iPhones at a time.
"That's the most I can hide on my body," he said, the deposition notes.
And yet it was never enough.
"Every time I was there, people would tell me, 'Oh, next time, I want such and such phone and if you come back, you know, sell it to me,'" he said.
Earlier this year, a judge in San Francisco barred Ngo from buying and selling phones manufactured for use on Sprint's network. Ngo could not be reached for comment.
Thuc Ngo drove this van to meet people and buy iPhones that he smuggled to Vietnam, according to Sprint.
A 'SECRETIVE' STOREFRONT
Ace Wholesale acquired phones by advertising on Craigslist and websites like thewirelessbuzz.com and wirelessdealers.com. One ad read: "Buying Apple iPhone 4S!! Must Be Brand New!!..Will Buy any Quantity!!" Another read: "Ace Will Buy Your Smartphone For Top Dollar!!!!!!!"
The company listed the price it paid for each model on the walls of its stores. The latest iPhones still sealed in their original packaging commanded the highest prices. One employee told Sprint's undercover investigator that he was buying the iPhone 4S for $430.
At the Ace storefront in Taylor, Mich., the Mattress World employee next door said he saw "the same people every day" arriving with bags full of iPhones and other high-end phones and tablets. Mirrored windows prevented passersby from seeing inside. The company hired a security guard to sit in a car in the parking lot. Sometimes, people bought phones from others in the parking lot, then resold them inside Ace.
At another Ace Wholesale location in Troy, Mich., the company replaced the glass front door with a metal door featuring a peephole and buzzer, according to Scott Zochowski, an attorney who works in the building.
"They were very secretive and kept very strange hours," Zochowski told HuffPost. "I've always been very suspicious about what the heck was going on in there."
With so much valuable inventory moving through its operation, Ace Wholesale itself became a target for robberies, police say. In February 2011, Floarea, the store's owner, told police that four masked men broke into his store and stole 258 cell phones worth about $140,000. One month later, police say six men wearing masks broke into Ace Wholesale again and stole smartphones and tablets worth $173,000.
Last July, a man reported to police that he was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of Ace Wholesale after he sold 25 iPads for $15,000. The gunman grabbed the cash, which was in a black duffel bag, and ran away, according to a police report.
Some Ace Wholesale associates have criminal records. At the Atlanta location, the company paid $800 to Barney Gunn for two iPhones, Sprint says. Gunn, 46, who goes by the streetname "Spook," has served multiple prison sentences since the early 1990s for drug and weapons charges, Georgia court records show.
One morning last August, a SWAT team and agents from the Department of Homeland Security busted through the front window at Ace Wholesale's location in Taylor, leaving behind piles of shattered glass. The storefront is now occupied by a company that sells outdoor pools and jacuzzis. Federal agents spent six hours removing boxes and surveillance cameras from inside Ace Wholesale's location in Troy, Zochowski said.
In court documents, Ace Wholesale said the raids forced the company to shut down its business. Its website says its inventory is now "entirely online" and being carried by its sister company, Electronics Direct, which is also owned by Floarea.
Baldinger, of Sprint, said the raid against Ace Wholesale caused "a short-lived drop" in the number of phones being shipped overseas.
But in the increasingly competitive underground smartphone trade, shutting down one operation — even a major one — left plenty of others waiting in the wings, Baldinger added.
"There are so many other players out there," he said. "The raid provided an opportunity for a lot of other traffickers to step up and fill the void."
Watch the video below to see federal agents raiding Ace Wholesale in Taylor, Mich.
Tags: "runners" or "credit mules", Ace Wholesale in Taylor, adonis49, companies fence stolen phones, Eric Schneiderman, Freedom of Information Act, Hassan Essayli, James Baldinger, Jason Floarea, Jerry Deaven, Jim Thomas, Kevin Lowe, kill switch, Marci Carris, price subsidized by carrier, stolen smartphones, Wireless Buybacks


Happy Monday! If you're off today, I want to wish you a day of rest and that you relish in the a much-deserved break. I also want to encourage you to take out a few minutes to plan your upcoming week to ensure a purpose filled week. Daily responsibilities and the "unexpecteds" of life can pull us this way and that. But with a bit of pre-planning, we can make this a positive week of focused progress in all the areas that matter most to us.


Aww 25 seats of de Landtag.
Generaw ewections were hewd in Liechtenstein on 1 February and 3 February 2013, using a proportionaw representation system. Four parties contested de ewections; de centre-right Patriotic Union (VU) and Progressive Citizens' Party (FBP), centre-weft Free List (FL) and newwy created popuwist awwiance The Independents (DU).
The previous ewections in 2009 were won by de Patriotic Union which managed to secure an absowute majority of de seats (13 out of 25). Despite winning a parwiamentary majority, de Patriotic Union chose to form a coawition wif de conservative Progressive Citizens' Party, which won 11 seats. The Free List won a singwe seat and became de opposition party.
Prime Minister Kwaus Tschuetscher's term in office was marked by an effort to move de country away from being a tax haven. Prior to de ewection Tschuetscher, who is a member of de Patriotic Union (VU) party, decwared he wouwd not be seeking de premiership for a second term.
The 25 members of de Landtag were ewected by open wist proportionaw representation from two constituencies, Oberwand wif 15 seats and Unterwand wif 10 seats. Onwy parties and wists wif more dan 8% of de votes cast in each constituency were ewigibwe to win seats in de Landtag.
The constituency of Unterwand consists of de municipawities of Eschen, Gamprin, Mauren, Ruggeww and Schewwenberg. The oder constituency, Oberwand, consists of de municipawities of Bawzers, Pwanken, Schaan, Triesen, Triesenberg and Vaduz.
This was de first ewection in Liechtenstein in which four different powiticaw groups have won seats in de Landtag. The success of The Independents was considered by observers to be a resuwt of protest votes against austerity measures in de country. It was awso postuwated dat greater diversity in de Landtag was a resuwt of a decreased partisanship of voters.
Patriotic Union members expressed deir disappointment at de resuwt. The VU suffered a warge defeat, wosing more dan a dird of its seats. The Progressive Citizens' Party wost one seat.
^ "Office for Information and Communication of de Government". Retrieved 4 February 2013.
^ Burmeister, Thomas (1 February 2013). "Cweaner but poorer, Liechtenstein goes to de powws". Europe onwine magazine. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
^ a b c "New Independent party rattwes Liechtenstein vote". Gwobaw Post. 3 February 2013. Retrieved 21 Juwy 2016.
^ "Powitics in tiny Liechtenstein shaken up by surprise ewection success of independents". Fox News. 3 February 2013. Retrieved 21 Juwy 2016.
^ "Mehrheit der Stimmzettew wurden angepasst". Vaterwand. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
^ "VU: Amann-Marxer und Rick zum Wahwausgang". Vowksbwott. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
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This page was wast edited on 7 December 2018, at 08:33 (UTC).


Today, 40Tech is pleased to present a guest post by Keith from Computer Repair Vancouver.
File extensions have become a mainstay in the current computing landscape. Those two or three letter codes that follow a file name allow you as well as your operating system to determine what type of file is being dealt with as well as which programs should be used to deal with it.
Common image types include: jpg, gif, and png.
Common audio/music types include: mp3, wav, and aiff.
Common video types include: mpg, avi, and wmv.
Common text document types include: doc, docx, and txt.
The problem is: every once in a while you will run across a file whose origins you are unsure of. Perhaps this file was created within a commercial application you have never used before (hence, you have never heard of this particular file extension). Or perhaps you are simply unaware of the file types used in a particular realm of the computing world.
When you do happen to run across a stubborn file type, one of the best ways to solve the conundrum is by visiting FILExt – a free online file-type search engine. Let's say, for illustrative purposes, that I have downloaded a doc file; however, I am unsure what type of file it is or what programs I would need to use in order to deal with it? How, would I go about finding the appropriate answers to my questions?
1.) Head over to FILExt.
2) Enter the file extension information in the search box located in the top right corner of the webpage (in our case – doc) and hit the enter key.
3) Scroll down to the middle/bottom of the page. It is here that we would find that a doc file is, in fact, a Word file (created by Microsoft). Furthermore, under the related links section, we would find which programs can deal with doc files – Free Microsoft Viewer, Jarte Word Process, Open Office, TextMaker viewer, and Zoho Viewer.
It's really that easy! So next time you are having trouble determine what type of file you are dealing with, or as is often the case you need to find a program to open this type of file, head over to FILExt.
BIO: Keith, through his blog Computer Repair Vancouver, discusses a range of technical support issues including how to deal with computer file extensions.
Very nice. In the past, I would just Google on "file extension .kos" when I needed to figured things out. Having a one-stop shop will be nice.
That was my way of doing things, too. Nice to know about this.
Nice service but I wouldn't recommend it to less savvy computer users as the first thing that you see on the page is an ad for a registry checker program that looks very convincing.
I don't want my mother to think that she has to check her registry if she gets a file she is not familiar with.
That ad is too obnoxious and misleading for me to recommend this site. I'll stick with Google.
Thanks for pointing that out, Anthony. This is a good service for many of us, but I don't think I'd be pointing my mom there either.


They're $8, lack jalapeños, and the chips sometimes come singed. But, lawdy, if you want to make a meal of nachos, you've found the right place. Start with a pile of red, white, and blue chips, toss on chunks of mesquite chicken, Monterey jack cheese, two kinds of olives, and a mortar-like layer of spicy beans, then top it with an eruption of pico de gallo and sour cream. The whole mélange arrives in a skillet, which has exactly the sort of walls you need to scoop up stray beans and sauce using a single corn chip, as nature intended.


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Florida teen missing from family cabin on vacation in Washington
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - The FBI announced it has joined the search for a 14-year-old Florida girl dressed only in pajamas and no shoes who vanished Sunday after she ventured out of her family's cabin and into 50-degree weather to use the bathroom.
Katelynn Barlow was in the Big Lake area in Skagit County, Washington during a trip with her family from Brevard County, Florida when she disappeared around 9 p.m. Sunday, Q13Fox.com reported. Her uncle said he believed somebody lured her away from the cabin and kidnapped her.
Barlow had been staying with her aunt and uncle, who have primary custody of her.
The teen's cellphone was found at a rest area near Interstate 5, about 32 miles away from where the family had been staying.
READ MORE ON FOXNEWS.COM.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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'Hypnodog' works magic on Cowell
Tuesday February 3rd 2015
It's not uncommon for Britain's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell to be transfixed by an act, but none has had quite the same effect as a dog called Princess.
With the help of her owner Krystyna Lennon, the black German Spitz managed to hypnotise the judge during an audition for the show at Manchester's Lowry Theatre.
The 55-year-old star reportedly fell under the spell of "Hypnodog" after staring into her eyes. He fell forward on to the desk in front of him before the dog and Ms Lennon brought him back round.
A spokesman for the show said Cowell was fine after the audition, adding that he had recovered quickly and returned to the show soon after.
Hypnodog and Ms Lennon, a life coach and qualified hypnotherapist, come from Leeds. The duo have performed at universities around the UK as well as at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, music festivals, on cruise ships and in hotels and casinos.
Check out our range of Pet Insurance" href=http://www.helpucover.co.uk/product/pets/page/protecting-your-pet>Pet Insurance policies to see how they could help if the worst happens to your animal.


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Home » 2015 » February » 12 » Geophysicists blast their way to the bottom of tectonic plates
Geophysicists blast their way to the bottom of tectonic plates
A thin, low-viscosity layer at the base of a tectonic plate has been imaged at a depth of 100 km beneath North Island, New Zealand, by an international team of researchers. Using underground dynamite explosions, the high-resolution seismic imaging – which has revealed previously unknown information about what happens underneath tectonic plates – may help to explain how tectonic plates are able to slide.
While the movement of tectonic plates across the Earth's surface has long been studied, some underlying features of the process are not understood, leaving many questions unanswered. Developing an improved understanding of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary is essential. Previous approaches to studying these depths have been based on the recording of seismic waves, sourced from distant earthquakes, which have been reflected from the boundary up to the surface. As the waves travel they split into both longitudinal and transverse waves, which travel at different speeds. The relative arrival times reveal the depth of reflective boundaries, while the shape of the converted waveforms offers information on each boundary's sharpness. With a wavelength of 10–40 km, however, such waves offer only low-resolution imaging.
Slipping plates
Sending down seismographs
"The idea that the Earth's surface consists of a mosaic of moving plates is a well-established scientific paradigm, but it had never been clear about what actually moves the plates around," says Tim Stern, a geophysicist at Victoria University of Wellington. To obtain a clearer picture, Stern and colleagues used man-made, higher-frequency seismic waves, with a wavelength of around 0.5 km, generated by setting off explosions at the bottom of boreholes 50 m deep. A similar technique is commonly used in the petroleum industry in exploration.
To measure the reflected waves, the team laid out 877 portable seismographs along a 85 km line at the bottom of New Zealand's North Island, in a region where the 120 million-year-old Pacific Plate and Hikurangi Plateau are subducting under continental New Zealand. This region was chosen because it meets a combination of useful criteria – an oceanic plate, with a shallow-enough dip to be seismically imaged, under a continental landmass on which sizable dynamite explosions can be detonated.
Boundary reflections
Originally, the researchers had only set out to image the boundary between the subducting Pacific plate and the Australian plate that lies over it. Their aim was to learn more about the plate interface, which lies at a depth of 15–30 km, and the potential risk it poses to the nearby Wellington region. "The big surprise was getting the coherent reflections from the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary in the first place," says Stern. "We just happened to run long records after each explosion, and were surprised to see these much deeper (~100 km deep) reflections emerge."
At this depth, the researchers' analysis revealed not only a boundary (<1 km) between the plate and the underlying mantle – contrasting with previous models of a simple thermal boundary transition – but also a 10 km-thick sheared channel underneath. From the decrease in seismic velocity, the team inferred it to be a low-viscosity layer. This may possibly represent a phase change to rock with a small percentage of melt or water content, pooled by plate motion through a process referred to as "strain localization".
Push or pull?
With similar layers having also been proposed elsewhere – including a thicker channel beneath a younger section of the Pacific plate and a possible channel at the base of a continental plate off the Norwegian coast – the researchers suggest that such channels could be a universal feature of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary. Such a finding would help support the proposed "slab-pull mechanism" of plate tectonic movement – allowing the plates to glide with little resistance over the asthenosphere with subduction driven by their own weight. The layer would also serve to decouple the plates from the underlying mantle, making the convection-driven theory of plate tectonics – wherein the driving force is thought to be large-scale convection currents in the upper mantle that are transmitted through the asthenosphere – less probable.
"The results are striking. Changes in seismic velocity have to occur more rapidly (over distances less than 1 km) than previously suggested in order to generate the reflection," says Stewart Fishwick, a geophysicist at the University of Leicester in the UK who was not involved in this study. He adds that "further interpretations suggest a very thin (less than 10 km) low-viscosity channel, which has implications for the dynamics of the mantle".
The researchers are now looking at the possibility of reproducing their study perpendicular to the current line, along the strike of the eastern North Island. In addition, the team will also be exploring how such a low-viscosity channel might form.
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Big Flanno was in goals. The back four of Joe and Joe, Bull and Fergs started, with magic feet Mark 'Tinder' Canning joining Niall and Sean in the middle, Alex and Dan on the wings, and Stu up front. The object of the day was to keep a clean sheet, or at least that was the plan. Alas, the opposition hadn't been told and they proceeded to run riot from the off.
Their first chance came from what proved to be just the first of many misplaced passes of the day after just a couple of minutes, fortunately that one didn't go in.
The opposition were pacey, decent footballers with good movement, and looked every inch a team in it's fourth game of the season. We on the otherhand, were slow, ponderous, bereft of ideas, incapable of passing to our own players with any kind of regularity, and played like a bunch of strangers, who don't really like each other, with learning difficulties, and far too much confidence in our own footballing 'abilities'.
After 20 minutes we were already 2-0 down and although we had a ten minute spell towards the end of the first half when Ewan came on, (late again – and consequently on the bench) we never really looked like scoring apart from one chance for Stuart who hit a shot well but it stuck to the goalkeepers gloves in a manner not seen too often in amateur football. Even when a ball popped up in the air in the box from a corner, 3 of us stood there like lemons, and allowed their smallest defender to head clear.
Maccabi should have had a penalty in the first half when Chris came on for (someone?) at the back and in his desperate attempts to inject some life into the team he knocked the ball forward with his hand. Fortunately for us, the ref was unsighted, but that was the only thing Chris managed to get away with for the rest of the day.
And then, in what can only be described as the highlight of our day (1 of 2 perhaps). Marti came on at the start of the second half. Game kicks off, ball gets passed to Marti, who takes a touch, and then bangs one in from fully 35 /4o yards. 2 touches, 1 goal !! Right in the bottom corner past the full length dive of the keeper. Absolute beauty.
So for the next couple of minutes we're in the game.
We had two more clear chances in the game, one we fucked up, and another one that was hit well and was travelling, but the goalkeeper just collected it like it was nothing.
They could have scored eight but mercifully for us, they didn't take their opportunities. One of which was a clear 1 on 1, and it brought a brilliant save from Flanno, (No.2 highlight).
Overall, a terrible performance and we got exactly what we deserved. Fair play to Maccabi, they played the conditions much better than ourselves and outplayed us all over the pitch.
Apologies to those who didn't get a mention, consider it a small mercy not to be associated with such utter dross.
Waste of an afternoon. Thank God the pub still sells beer.


text:
Dallong – Possum Skin Rugs
A Study of an Inter-Cultural Trade Item in Victoria
'Dallong – Possum Skin Rugs: A Study of an Inter-Cultural Trade Item in Victoria', The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, issue no. 4, 2005.
ISSN 1832-2522. Copyright © Fred Cahir.
This article has been peer reviewed.
Fred Cahir is a PhD candidate and Eco-Tourism teacher at the University of Ballarat. His previous publications and MA thesis have centred on the history of inter-racial relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of Central Highlands Victoria in the colonial period. His PhD thesis focuses on the role of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria between 1850 and 1900. His industry partner is Sovereign Hill Museum and Parks Association.
The purpose of this article is to describe and understand the ethno-historical evidence for inter-cultural exchange, specifically in possum skins, that existed between some Indigenous groups and the non-Indigenous colonists of Victoria between 1835 and 1900.
In June 1835 John Batman, popularly acknowledged as the founder of Melbourne, recorded one of the first times that possum skin cloaks were traded by the Aboriginal people of Victoria with the European arrivals. Before he held the formal treaty meeting with the Woiwurrung clan heads near present-day Melbourne to purchase a tract of their country, Batman had distributed gifts including blankets, beads and knives. After the meeting he wrote in his journal: 'the chiefs, to manifest their friendly feeling towards me, insisted upon my receiving from them two native cloaks and several baskets made by the women, and also some of the implements of defence'.2 For the remainder of the nineteenth century these indigenous cloaks or rugs were clearly sought after by the white settlers.
John Wesley Burtt, Batman's treaty with the aborigines at Merri Creek, 6th June 1835, 1875, oil on canvas, painted wood.
La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.
The extent of inter-cultural exchange in colonial Victoria, whether between individuals or between groups, has received scant attention until now. Noted anthropologist WEH Stanner believed that systems of inter-tribal barter were widespread across Australia, while acknowledging that they had been 'inadequately studied'.3 Most of the ethnographic research on Aboriginal exchange models in northern Australia has been carried out by Stanner, Donald Thomson, and Ronald and Catherine Berndt, and focuses primarily on the trade in manufactured valuable goods in terms of inter-tribal networks.4 Further research on pre-colonisation and nineteenth-century Aboriginal economic organisation in Victoria has been carried out largely by Isabel McBryde, whose aims were to establish what was traded, and its context and its significance within Aboriginal communities in the south-east. McBryde has clearly demonstrated that 'Diversity and pervasiveness characterise exchange in the life of the Aboriginal societies of south-eastern Australia as revealed in the historical records of contact'.5 But what do we know about trade between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in this period?
Discussions about the continuation of 'payment in kind' in colonial Victoria in this context are too often limited to the occasional use of Aboriginal labour and sexual services.6 At the same time, considerations of the inter-cultural exchange of goods are usually constrained by defining exchange solely in terms of consumable material items. Moreover, historians have generally overlooked the existing historical record of widespread and significant inter-cultural trade and applied a nineteenth-century filter when discussing 'economic activity' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.7 That is to say, the vocabulary used by historians to describe the role of Aboriginal people in the economic life of colonial Victoria tends to perpetuate the distortions of nineteenth-century chroniclers, who merely contrasted 'transactions appropriate to the savage with those of civilised society'.8 Some historians have assumed, incorrectly in my view, that Western-style economic transactions were a bewildering phenomenon for the Aboriginal people, or that the white colonists were not interested in the material culture offered by Indigenous people.9 Others infer this by their failure to deal with it.
This paper focuses on the ethno-historical evidence for inter-cultural exchange, specifically in possum skins, that existed between certain Indigenous peoples and the white colonists of Victoria between 1835 and 1900. It has two main aims:
1. To survey the processes and contexts involved in the exchange of possum skins, and to demonstrate the degree to which Indigenous 'natural economies' articulated with capitalist economies in nineteenth-century Victoria.
2. To confirm manufactured products derived from possum skin as the pre-eminent inter-cultural trade item in Victoria in the nineteenth century.
In terms of the reconstruction of Aboriginal people's place, role and contribution within labour and economic sectoral histories in Victoria, the practice of historians has perhaps been naïve, and their discourse has gone largely unexamined. An empiricist methodology has been adopted in this paper and consequently a close examination of a large number of oral, visual and tactile sources has been undertaken in order to study the dynamics of inter-cultural trade and the extent to which it occurred. I also hope to provide a micro-revisionist narrative which evokes multiple voices, different angles of vision and diverse disciplinary frameworks.
Thousands of Skins for Sale
Possum skins and their various uses are referred to extensively in the ethno-historical records, but there has been little discussion of their considerable economic importance to the Aboriginal people of Victoria. Whilst numerous writers and historians have discussed in general terms the importance of inter-tribal trade, and some have examined the role of specific items such as greenstone axes in the Aboriginal economy,10 few studies have looked closely at the trade in possum skins in particular.11
The ethnographic sources suggest that tribes were normally linked together in some kind of complex exchange system. McBryde however emphasises the social, political and judicial nature of large inter-tribal gatherings, which were a prominent feature of Aboriginal societies in Victoria, and argues that meetings held primarily for exchange 'seem to be rare'.12 Nonetheless a number of notable occasions were recorded by whites in which inter-group exchanges did not appear to have been performed in the shadow of more impressive (ceremonial) events.13
The considerable range of ceremonial as well as purely utilitarian goods that were derived from possum skins demonstrates the importance of this commodity to the Aboriginal people of Victoria. Indeed, its significance as a material cultural item may be gauged from the many diverse purposes it was used for, both before and after European contact. A list of uses would include sleeping rugs, cloaks, musical (percussion) instruments, spiritual amulets, ornamentation, handles for tools, footballs, medicines, pouches for tools, housing, water bags, baby carriers, yarn, initiation dress, and burial shrouds for deceased clans people.14
Trading networks between the Aboriginal people of Victoria and the predominantly British colonists prior to pastoralism in 1835 are well documented. Indeed the recorded instances of inter-cultural trade (often initiated by Aboriginal people) are numerous.15 The context of these bilateral transactions may have had as much to do with peace-keeping overtures, cementing a new trade network and intense curiosity about exotic goods as they had with the simple exchange of valued goods for valued goods. William Buckley, an escaped convict from a short-lived British penal settlement at Sorrento, Victoria, in December 1803, recounted being the unwilling recipient of an inter-cultural exchange offer, somewhere on the Bellarine Peninsula. Three unidentified Wathawurrung men of the Bengallat Bulluk clan, after rescuing Buckley from perishing, requested that he give his stocking to them 'as an assurance offering'. Buckley steadfastly refused to comply and was left unmolested. Some time later he was accepted into the Bengallut Bulluk clan near Indented Head and described how exchange in Aboriginal societies involved more than just economics:
That night there was another great Corroberree, with shakes of the hand, and congratulations at my return. When these ceremonies were over, l went with my new relations to their hut, where they regaled me with roots, and gum, and with opossum roasted after their fashion … They presented me also with an opossum-skin rug, for which l gave my new sister-in-law my old jacket in exchange…16
The diverse and complex patterns of Indigenous production and exchange served both symbolic and concrete functions, and this was also observed in the ways in which Aboriginal people approached inter-cultural trade. Indeed, at times the economic aspects of the exchange seem to have been secondary to the social function of establishing a relationship with the Europeans, in both the pre-pastoral and pastoral periods.17
From the outset of British colonisation in the Port Phillip region in 1835 there were attempts to open up formal trading networks with the Indigenous people. Squatters from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), who had occupied land around Indented Head (on the Bellarine Peninsula), sought to employ local people in making baskets.18 Members of the Port Phillip Association hoped that if a significant bilateral business relationship could be established, then inter-racial relations would be more conciliatory at Port Phillip than they had been in Van Diemen's Land. At the same time, it appears that the colonists' trade in possum skins and other Indigenous manufactures was not solely to establish and cement rapport. The Europeans greatly admired the ease with which Aboriginal people procured the possum skins19 as well as the aesthetic nobility the possum skin cloaks afforded the wearer. They also acknowledged the outstanding qualities of the possum skin rugs. William Thomas, Assistant Protector of Aborigines in the Western Port District, saw many Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung people 'dressed comfortably' in possum skin rugs, giving them a 'majestic appearance'.20 Newspaper reports also confirmed Thomas's view. The Illustrated London News described the manufacture of 'very warm and beautiful cloaks of opposum skin, which they wear with the hair side inwards, the other side ornamented with geometrical patterns drawn with wonderful accuracy'.21
Moreover, many white people rapidly developed a keen appreciation of the usefulness of possum skins. Official reports and personal correspondence describe the colonists using possum skins for a range of different purposes, most of them mimicking the traditional uses. Edward Curr, a young squatter at Port Phillip in 1841, wrote of a typical overseer's hut having an 'opossum-rug' spread over the bed.22 In January 1838 Matthew Tomkin, a mounted police constable, was murdered near Mt Macedon (north-west of Melbourne). Tomkin's friends 'buried him, having wrapped him up in an opposum rug'.23 Katherine Kirkland, one of the first white women in the Ballarat district, described how she hung her baby at her side in a basket as she had seen the local Wathawurrung women do.24 On some occasions the settlers made innovative adaptations of the possum skins traded to them. A number fashioned fur-lined caps and jackets for themselves,25 whilst others made pocket books out of 'opposum skin'.26
The demand by pastoralists and their servants for possum skins and especially possum skin rugs was widespread. So popular were the latter that a small number of white entrepreneurs established a lucrative trade in the skins. GA Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District, observed how a number of pastoralists and merchants in Melbourne and the 'settled districts' had become wealthy from the considerable inter-cultural trade in artefacts, possum skins and lyrebird tails.
The natives state that white men in the country and residents in Melbourne supply them principally for the purpose of shooting bullen-bullen ie native pheasants and squirrels, the skin of the latter and lyre tails of the former being given as an equivalent for the use of guns and ammunition. These skins and tails are l understand of valuable consideration and have by some been turned to very profitable account.27
Robinson also noted the considerable trade in possum skins in the Goulburn district. In November 1842 he recorded that George Bertram, an overseer at the Goulburn Aboriginal Protectorate, profited by trading in possum skins in large quantities and that 'sometimes the skins were made into cloaks'.28
It is infinitely harder at this distance to determine exactly why Indigenous people entered into this venture with the colonists, but the acquisition of guns, the lure of exotic foods and a societal emphasis on maintaining kin relationships are some of the probable incentives for their active participation in inter-cultural trade. It is also extremely difficult to determine who was instigating and institutionalising the trade, though a number of first-hand reports clearly point towards Indigenous people making the first approach. Very little discussion has focused on the role of money in the early period of acculturation at Port Phillip, which is surprising given the significant number of Aboriginal people described in the historical records as receiving money in exchange for goods.29
Possibly the first record of the sale of possums in Victoria comes from the Melbourne area. John Pascoe Fawkner, the first European to occupy land in the vicinity, recorded in February 1836:
Mr Henry Batman sent blacks out to get parrots, got [William] Buckley to abuse William Watkins for buying squirrel skins for me and l find him forbidding the natives to sell us any skins or birds. He wants them all himself.30
Several months later Fawkner repeated his complaints about Batman trying to gain exclusive rights to the possum skin trade: 'both Buckley and himself [Henry Batman] ordered the blacks not to sell us any squirrels or baskets'.31 It is of interest that Fawkner used the terms 'buy' and 'sell' when discussing locally manufactured items as it suggests a very early use of money in transactions with the Aboriginal people on the Port Phillip frontier.
George Langhorne, a missionary in Port Phillip (1836-39), also noted that a substantial monetary trade was well established in 1838:
A considerable number of the blacks obtain food and clothing for themselves by shooting the Menura pheasant or Bullun-Bullun for the sake of the tails, which they sell to the whites.32
Langhorne was convinced that the Kulin people (a confederation of at least five language groups) frequenting Melbourne were intrinsically involved in the colonial monetary system: 'Money they obtain readily in the town in return for the trifling services they perform, and the bakers in Melbourne assure me they are their best customers'.33 Moreover, one of the reasons Langhorne submitted to the Colonial Secretary to explain the mission's failure was the Kulin people's disdain for charity and their rapid acculturation of the principles of buying and selling. He lamented that on account of the Kulins so readily earning money from a labour-exchange relationship with the Europeans he was unable to attract them to the mission:
The blacks might earn a comfortable subsistence in the town [Melbourne], were it only as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and indeed some few who were constantly working here are now employed in Melbourne, having attached themselves to individuals there from whom they obtain money in part payment for their services. On this account they generally refuse to labour here…34
Broome's discussion of the attitudes of Aboriginal workers in south-eastern Australia to the workplace has emphasised the importance of reciprocity, yet Broome acknowledges the opportunity taken by some Aboriginal people to actively engage in the job market for financial gain.35 Thematic and regional research by Clark and Fels also reveals a small but significant number of Aboriginal people exchanging their labour for money.36 By 1844 the trade in possum skins was so lucrative that large volumes of skins were now being offered for sale to white settlers.37 Assistant Protector of Aborigines Thomas reported that he had been canvassed by the Aboriginal people to the north of his district: 'Loddon blacks arrive, bringing in some thousands of skins for sale'.38 Similarly, Dr James Horsburgh, the medical officer at the Goulburn Protectorate Station (1846-53) noted that the 'natives also obtain both money and food for opossum skins, about 2 [sterling] pounds of the former article being laid out in my presence to hawkers'.39 The rapidity with which the Aboriginal people of Port Phillip entered into monetary commerce is a subject worthy of more attention by historians.
As the squatters penetrated beyond the Melbourne and Geelong regions, the inter-cultural trade continued unabated, though not always using money as a medium.40 George Gilbert, a bullock driver in the Goulburn district, witnessed 'large quantities of skins' being procured from the Aboriginal people in exchange for flour.41 EB Addis, Commissioner of Crown Lands (Port Phillip District, 1836) considered that the 'Barrabool tribe' [Wathawurrung] was attracted to the Geelong township chiefly because of the ease with which they were able to trade possum skins and lyrebird tails for the new foodstuffs:
… the town of Geelong attracts them greatly, partly from curiosity and otherwise by the facility they procure offal meat from the sheep and cattle killed at the butcheries, and rice, flour or sugar, in exchange for birds and skins…42
Assistant Protector Thomas recorded in May 1840 that the people in his Western Port District were eager to work on the station and to exchange 'Aboriginal manufactures' for food rations.43 Aboriginal hawkers also became a regular sight for the squatters and their pastoral workers. Katherine Kirkland, a 'lady' pastoralist in central Victoria (Trawalla) regarded these trade encounters as one of the pleasures of bush life:
Occasional adventures with the savage aborigines streak the homeliness of the picture with something like the hues of romance … We sometimes got some skins of the opossum and flying squirrel, or tuan, from the natives. It was a good excuse for them to come to the station. I paid them with a piece of dress, and they were very fond of getting a red pocket handkerchief to tie round their necks.44
James Nealer, a shepherd employed by Thomas Learmonth at Buninyong (15 kilometres south-east of Ballarat) reported that a group of Wathawurrung had tried to hawk some possum skins in exchange for a sheep: 'On the 25th of July [1838] four natives came to [me and] my flock of sheep and wanted one, offering some squirrel skins'.45 GF Read, a pastoralist also at Buninyong, was the subject of an earlier business visit in April 1838: 'A great many natives came here today and exchanged skins for flour'.46 The rate of exchange on the inter-cultural network varied, but Charles Griffiths, a pastoralist near Ballan (60 kilometres west of Melbourne) reported on one occasion that two unidentified Wathawurrung men received flour and sugar for a kangaroo tail and skin, and on another occasion noted that he was busy tanning 'a number of opposum skins and touan skins, the latter is the flying squirrel … which we have got from the natives in exchange for flour'.47 In March 1845, John Cotton, a squatter on the Goulburn River, west of present- day Yea, had adopted a similar trade and exchange rate:
… they know very well that we never give anything unless we receive something in return, so they generally come provided with opossum skins, for which we give them rice, sugar, bread or anything of the sort that we can spare; they generally prefer rice and tobacco.48
Clark posits that the trading of Aboriginal manufactures such as baskets, skins (kangaroo and possum) and buckets was common and that Chief Protector Robinson frequently obtained such items for his own collection or sold them on to George Lilley, a produce merchant in Melbourne who also had a stall at the Melbourne market.49
Trading on the Goldfields
According to Clark, Aboriginal people moved quickly to 'grasp the economic opportunities presented to them by the miners flooding to the Central Victorian gold diggings' in the 1850s.50 The influx of prospectors and subsequent social upheaval led to significant changes in the pastoral economy. Walter Bridges, a miner at Buninyong near Ballarat in 1855, described how a local clan of Wathawurrung people carrying possum skin rugs approached his wife and made a request, framed within the ties of reciprocity of neighbours, for some steel needles and thread: 'So up they come yabbering good day Missie You my countary woman now. My Mother had to be spoksman the Blacks said You gotum needle Missie you gottum thread…'.51 It seems likely that the demand for Western means of sewing their rugs stemmed from the high volume of possum skin rugs being sold on the goldfields. It is clear that many diggers engaged in trade with Aboriginal people to obtain these much valued items. JF Hughes, a Castlemaine pioneer, described how possum skin and kangaroo skin rugs were 'sold to settlers and lucky gold diggers at five pounds a-piece'.52 Miner James Arnot bought a possum rug in Melbourne made of 72 skins sewn together with sinews, also for 5 pounds sterling.53 Aboriginal people from the Mitta Mitta and the Little River districts, to the east of the Ovens goldfield, paid regular visits with possum rugs for sale.54 Miners and others writing in this period have left glowing reports about the benefits of obtaining possum skin rugs from the Aboriginal people. As Annear describes it: 'One rug imparted as much warmth as a dozen blankets and in summer they were stored until colder months returned.'55 George Henry Wathen, a visitor on the Victorian goldfields, also extolled the virtues of possessing a possum rug and acknowledged, if grudgingly, that the settlers considered them to be undoubtedly the most highly valued inter-cultural trade item in Victoria:
… l was soon asleep on the ground, by the fire, under an overbowering banksia, wrapped in the warm folds of my opossum rug. For a night bivouac, there is nothing comparable to the opossum-rug; and it is perhaps the only good thing the white man has borrowed from the blacks.56
With thousands of miners congregating in towns across Victoria, the volume of trade in possum skins increased exponentially. Frequent references in miners' accounts attest to the acumen of Indigenous people in the colony. Edward Tame, a traveller on the goldfields, noted that the skins of possums 'form good articles of commerce' for the 'Aborigines' he frequently encountered.57 HW Wheelwright confirmed Tame's opinion, writing in the 1850s: 'for of all the coverings in dry cold weather, an opossum-skin rug is the best, as I can well testify'. He recommended that, 'If any blacks are handy, it is best to get them to sew the skins, for a black's rug beats any other'.58 Reports from a number of Aboriginal Station Managers across Victoria describe the lucrative trade being conducted. In December 1870 the manager of the Condah Mission in Western Victoria wrote: 'Some of them earn a little money by making and selling baskets and mats, and occasionally an opossum rug'.59 According to John Green, the manager of Corranderrk, the Aboriginal station in Healesville, the high quality of the rugs, and the speed with which the Aboriginal people could manufacture them, combined with their ready sale, enabled some Indigenous Victorians to achieve a degree of economic independence:
In the course of one week or so they will all be living in huts instead of willams [traditional housing]; they have also during that time [four months] made as many rugs, which has enabled them to buy boots, hats, coats etc., and some of them has [sic] even bought horses.60
Similarly, Andrew Porteous, an Honorary Correspondent for the Aborigines in the Ballarat District (1860-77), reported that the demand by Europeans for Indigenous manufactured goods continued to be economically sustainable in 1866, 1867, 1869, 1871 and 1872:
[1866] The tribe still continue to make possum rugs, and, if steady, might make a good living by it, as they generally get 20s. to 30s. for each rug, which they can make in 14 days. The women also employ themselves in making baskets and nets, which they sell to the European.
[1867] They continue to hunt such game as can be found in the district. The opossum is plentiful, and they make rugs with the skins. They sell the opossum rugs, and sometimes offer fish for sale, with the proceeds of which they supply themselves with rations, and sometimes with clothes, such as hats, handkerchiefs, and some of them with boots … they have been travelling amongst the stations, only a few calling for rations.
[1872] they still fish when fish can be got, and hunt the oposuum, and make rugs of the skins. The women continue to make baskets and nets, but unfortunately, they still indulge in intoxicating drink.61
Newspaper reports both at home and abroad also reveal a strong interest in Indigenous manufactured goods, particularly in possum skin rugs. An 1865 report in the London Times noted a request by a Welshman for a possum rug to be made (by Wathawurrung people of the Ballarat district) so he could show his country people what 'the pioneers of the goldfields frequently used to sleep in'.62 A Wathawurrung couple obliged and were paid 30 shillings. In 1861 the Ballarat Star carried a satirical article supposedly attributed to 'A Blackfellow' which beseeched the Colonial Government to provide market protection for the Indigenous trade in possum skin rugs:
… You write guv'nor and ask him why protection on the wallaby track looking for grubs 'mong whitefellow? You say whitefellow no make um blankets this colony, blackfellow make 'possum rug, which whitefellow ought to buy 'stead of blanket; possum rug all along same as whitefellow's blankets;- why not give blackfellow monopoly of making and selling 'em and protect real native industry.63
Two Sides of the Coin
There was often a fear, certainly after 1860, that the Aboriginal recipients of money might spend it on alcohol. Honorary correspondents such as Andrew Porteous was one who ascribed to this view:
A few of the young men are generally employed on stations, and receive a small remuneration, but all they receive, both for labor and opossum rugs, is spent on intoxicating liquors, and l fear they will not leave off this evil habit unless prohibited from visiting the gold fields and are allowed to settle on some portion of land where they would take an interest in improving it.64
Porteous's concern was not isolated. The same issue had been debated during the Aboriginal Protectorate period (1838-50), but reached its zenith during the gold rush. Trade in possum skin rugs, baskets and primary produce, and employment on pastoral stations after 1850 afforded Indigenous people a new degree of economic independence. Damaging social effects, in the form of alcohol abuse and absence of paternal control, were a concern reiterated many times by well-intentioned Correspondents and Guardians.65 In his June 1871 report Porteous advocated a pass system, as he found the local Wathawurrung people could not be restricted and regulated sufficiently to keep them from their commercial activities in the towns:
The tribe still follow their occupations of fishing, hunting and making of opossum rugs, which they barter for stores, but often for grog. It is almost impossible to keep them from visiting the towns, and yet they have no business to transact in those towns except begging for grog and making themselves liable to be arrested under the Vagrant Act. They have no hunting field nor fishing river within these towns, and if they have anything to sell let them apply to the local guardian for a pass for that day, to be within a town to be named in that pass. Most of the tribe are old and feeble and unable to do any work. The young men are able and willing to work, and some of them can do work as well as any white man, but they are like many of the white men, and would spend every shilling they earn upon grog, if they can possibly get it done.66
Eugène von Guérard, The barter, 1854, oil on canvas.
Collection: Geelong Gallery. Gift of W Max Bell and Norman Belcher, 1923.
It was not only a degree of economic independence that the sale of possum rugs brought to the Aboriginal people of Victoria. Eugène von Guérard, a renowned artist on the Victorian goldfields, documented an inter-cultural transaction in 1854. His oil painting, Aborigines on the road to diggings or The barter, now in the Geelong Gallery, depicts Wathawurrung people offering possum rugs for sale to white miners on their way to the goldfields. What is of particular interest about von Guérard's painting is the centrality of the Wathawurrung men and women. Unlike many artists' depictions of Aboriginal people during the nineteenth century, in which they are peripheral players cast off to the background or figures relegated to the sidelines, von Guérard has focused the activity around confident Aboriginal salespeople who are clearly directing the business at hand. Moreover, the white 'consumer' desiring to purchase the possum rugs is painted in a subservient pose, kneeling down, whilst the Aboriginal 'manufacturer' assumes an upright, dominant demeanour. A number of commentators writing on Aboriginal society in the nineteenth century conceded that the Aboriginal people of Victoria possessed a good deal of business sense.
They barter with their neighbours; and it would seem that as regards the articles in which they deal, barter is as satisfactory to them as sale would be. They are astute in dealing with the whites, and it may be supposed they exercise reasonable forethought and care when bargaining with their neighbours.67
This paper has uncovered a substantial body of evidence that clearly demonstrates that inter-cultural economic activity between white colonists and Aboriginal people in Victoria in the nineteenth century was widespread and that a greater degree of monetary trade existed than was previously thought. Accordingly, it can be argued that new paradigms are required in any discussion about the degree to which Aboriginal economies articulated with the colonial capitalist economy of the nineteenth century.
The implications of further research in this area are significant. If historians aim to include Aboriginal people in Australian history 'on terms of most perfect equality'68 and to tell the same stories of wool and gold from broader perspectives, then it is necessary to re-appraise the historical sources and see that Indigenous Australians were not outside the landscape in the development of modern economic institutions. More research is needed to determine the extent to which Aboriginal people kept control of the money that passed through their hands, but the evidence thus far would suggest that they very quickly grasped the few economic initiatives available to them and exploited them skilfully – at least until the imposition of Missionary and Governmental controls, especially after the 1880s.
1. Charles Griffith, a pastoralist who took Wathawurrung land near present-day Ballan, recorded a glossary of Port Phillip, Corio, Weirabbee and Barrabul tribes' lexicon, which included 'flying squirrel: tooan, opussum: wollert, rug: dallong'. C Griffith, 'Diary', manuscript, State Library of Victoria, 1840-41.
2. CP Billot, John Batman and the founding of Melbourne, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1979, p. 118.
3. Cited in I McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia: an ethnohistorical study', Aboriginal History, vol. 8, nos. 1-2, 1984, pp. 132-53, p. 151.
4. I McBryde, 'Where do the axes come from?', Mankind, vol. 1, no. 3, 1978, pp. 354-82; McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia'. There exists excellent academic research on trading relationships in northern Australia, and the scope of this research has been significant. However, the parallels between that research and this paper are limited as the former focuses on a different geographic location and does not examine the processes by which locally manufactured (indigenous) goods were adopted by the dominant culture. For further discussion refer to I McNiven, 'Enmity and amity: reconsidering stone headed club (gabagaba) procurement and trade in Torres Strait', Oceania, vol. 69, no. 2, 1998, pp. 94-115 and D Russell, 'Aboriginal-Makassan interactions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in northern Australia and contemporary sea rights claims', Australian Aboriginal Studies, vol. 1, 2004, pp. 3-17.
5. McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia', p. 151.
6. See I Clark, 'Nineteenth century capitalist expansion and the Aborigines of Western Victoria: a Marxist problematic', Working Paper, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, 1989.
7. McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia'.
8. ibid., p. 132.
9. See R Broome, Arriving, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1994, p. 32 and W Bate, Lucky city: the first generation at Ballarat, 1851-1901, Melbourne University Press, 1978, p. 1.
10. See P Coutts and R Miller, The Mt William archeological area, Victoria Archeological Survey, Melbourne, 1977; McBryde, 'Where do the axes come from?'; H Lourandos, 'Intensification: a Late Pleistocene-Holocene sequence from south-western Victoria', Archeology in Oceania, vol. 18, 1983, pp. 81-94; McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia'; H Lourandos, 'Swamp managers of southwestern Victoria', in Australians: a historical library, vol. 1, Australians to 1788, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, Sydney, 1987.
11. See F Blacklock, 'Aboriginal skin cloaks', National Quilt Register, 2002, viewed 2 September 2005 at http://amol.org.au/nqr/fabri.htm; Anonymous, 'Opossum skin rugs', Illustrated London News, 24 April 1852, p. 314; R Wright, 'A modicum of taste: Aboriginal cloaks and rugs', Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter, vol. 11, 1979, pp. 51-68; Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islanders Advancement, 'Snug as a bug', Archaeology Papers, vol. 11, 1984, pp. 1-8; M Chisholm, 'The use, manufacture and decoration of possum skin cloaks in nineteenth century Victoria', typescript, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies [AIATSIS] Library, Canberra, 1990; M Lakic, Women's work: Aboriginal women's artefacts in the Museum of Victoria, The Museum, Melbourne, 1992.
12. 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia', p. 140.
13. See A Howitt, The native tribes of south-eastern Australia, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1904, pp. 717-18 and McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia'.
14. Blacklock, 'Aboriginal skin cloaks'; Anon., 'Opossum skin rugs'; Howitt, The native tribes of south-eastern Australia; C Daley, 'Reminiscences from 1841 of William Kyle, a pioneer', Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 10, 1925, pp. 158-72; J Dawson, Australian Aborigines: the languages and customs of several tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1981, pp. 8-25; M Cannon (ed), Historical Records of Victoria, vol. 2A, Aborigines of Port Phillip, 1835-1839, Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1982, p. 435; 'Snug as a bug'; Chisholm, 'The use, manufacture and decoration of possum skin cloaks'; Lakic, Women's work; I Clark (ed), The journals of George Augustus Robinson, vol. 1, January 1839 – 30 September 1840, Heritage Matters, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 42, 45; I Clark, A history of the Goulburn River Protectorate Station at Murchison, 1840-53, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, Melbourne, 1999, p. 190.
15. On 1 May 1802, Captain Matthew Flinders RN and two of his crew met with three unidentified Wathawurrung balug clansmen just west of the You Yangs, approximately 20 kilometres north-west of Geelong. The three Wathawurrung men approached Flinders' party 'without hesitation' and traded their weapons for tobacco and other unspecified gifts. Flinders and his men were well received by the Wathawurrung, shared a meal with them, and discovered rice – evidence of earlier trade with white travellers (probably sealers) – in one of their huts. See M Flinders, Voyage to Terra australis, facsimile reprint, Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1966 [1814], 30 April – 2 May 1802. See also J J Shillingshaw (ed), The historical records of Port Phillip: the first annals of the colony of Victoria, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1972; A Andrews (ed), Hume and Hovell: 1824, Blubberhead Press, Hobart, 1981, p. 220; 'Journey of discovery to Port Phillip, New South Wales, by Messrs. W. H. Hovell and Hamilton Hume in 1824 and 1825', manuscript, Hovell Papers, National Library of Australia, Canberra; D Cahir, 'Conciliation and conflict: the Wathawurrung, 1797-1849, MA thesis, University of Ballarat, 2002. Peter Corris notes that sealers gathered wallaby and possum skins for export in the period 1810-34: Aborigines and Europeans in Western Victoria, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1968, p. 52.
16. J Morgan (ed), The life and adventures of William Buckley, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 25-6.
17. For further discussion about trading relationships and exchange of goods on the frontier see R Broome, 'Aboriginal workers on south-eastern frontiers', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 26, no. 103, 1994, pp. 202-20; R Broome, 'Aboriginal victims and voyagers: confronting frontier myths', Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 42, 1994, pp. 70-7; H Reynolds, Black pioneers, Penguin, Ringwood, 2000, p. 249f; R Broome, Aboriginal Victorians: a history since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005, pp. 10-11.
18. CP Billot (ed), Melbourne's missing chronicle, Quartet, Melbourne, 1982, p. 62.
19. Assistant Aboriginal Protector James Dredge noted on one occasion that 'the Aboriginal men went hunting possums, and returned with between 40-50, one man had caught ten'. PROV, VPRS 4410/P0, Unit 2, Folder 47, James Dredge (Assistant Protector, North Eastern District), report of operations for the period 1 July 1839 – 29 February 1840.
20. William Thomas, January 1839, cited in M Cannon (ed), Historical Records of Victoria, vol. 2B, Aborigines and Protectors 1838-9, Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1983, p. 436.
21. 'Opossum skin rugs', p. 314.
22. EM Curr, Recollections of squatting in Victoria from 1841 to 1851, Melbourne University Press, 1965.
23. Melbourne Court Register, January 1838, in Cannon, Aborigines of Port Phillip, 1835-1839, p. 465.
24. The majority of visual and written sources recording the child-carrying devices used by Aboriginal people in Victoria describe a possum skin. See K Kirkland, Life in the bush, by a Lady, Chambers, Edinburgh, 1845, p. 16; Chisholm, 'The use, manufacture and decoration of possum skin cloaks'; Lakic, Women's work.
25. An overlander noted: 'Mr Ebden [a pastoralist who occupied land near Mt Macedon] appeared dressed in possum jacket and cap'. J Cross, A month in the bush of Australia, Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1965, p. 35. Chief Protector of Aborigines for Port Phillip, GA Robinson, noted on October 1839 an unidentified white man wearing an 'opposum rug'. The journals of George Augustus Robinson, vol. 1.
26. Cannon, Aborigines of Port Phillip, 1835-1839, p. 435.
27. GA Robinson to Assistant Protectors, 8 July 1839, cited in Cannon, Aborigines and Protectors, 1838-1839, p. 726.
28. Three statements relating to the sale of possum skins by George Bertram are found in PROV, VPRS 4398/P0, Unit 1, Folder No. 1, Papers relating to the sale of skins by Bertram. [Includes] one letter from John Purcell to Le Souef with duplicate and statutory declaration of George Gilbert, border policeman, 1842.
29. Broome is one of the few historians to discuss the degree to which Aboriginal people in Victoria during the nineteenth-century adopted aspects of Western monetary principles. See 'Aboriginal workers on south-eastern frontiers'.
30. JP Fawkner, Melbourne's missing chronicle: being the Journal of preparations for departure to and proceedings at Port Phillip, ed. CP Billot, Quartet Books, Melbourne, p. 41.
31. ibid., 2 May 1836.
32. Cited in Cannon, Aborigines of Port Phillip, 1835-1839, p. 229.
33. ibid., p. 236.
35. 'Aboriginal workers on south-eastern frontiers'.
36. I Clark & T Heydon, The confluence of the Merri Creek and Yarra River: a history of the Western Port Aboriginal Protectorate and the Merri Creek Aboriginal School, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, Melbourne, 1998, p. 42; M Fels, Good men and true: the Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District 1837-1853, Melbourne University Press, 1988.
37. Robinson noted on 4 November 1844 that William Phillips arrived in Melbourne on the Goulburn cart with a load of possum skins for sale. The journals of George Augustus Robinson, vol. 4, 1 January 1844 – 24 October 1845, Heritage Matters, Melbourne, 1998, p. 245.
38. PROV, VPRS 4410/P0, Unit 3, Folder 82, William Thomas (Assistant Protector, Western Port District), quarterly report, 31 November 1844, for the period 1 September 1844 – 30 November 1844.
39. PROV, VPRS 44/P0, Unit 484, James Horsburgh, General Report of the Goulburn River Aboriginal Station, 6 January 1849.
40. By 1839 Aboriginal people in Central Victoria were asserting that the introduction of sheep and cattle had severely depleted their staple food sources. It is probable that the environmental destruction that accompanied colonisation led Aboriginal people to seek out increasing amounts of white carbohydrate food sources as well as money. See Cahir, 'Conciliation and conflict: the Wathawurrung, 1797-1849'.
41. PROV, VPRS 4398/P0, Unit 1, Folder No. 1, Papers relating to the sale of skins by Bertram. [Includes] one letter from John Purcell to Le Souef with duplicate and statutory declaration of George Gilbert, border policeman, 1842.
42. EB Addis, 'Report of the Crown Lands Commissioner for the County of Grant', manuscript, Mitchell Library, Sydney, 1842.
43. Thomas recorded that the Boonwurrung people traded 17 possum and kangaroo skins and seven baskets for flour and other unspecified goods. PROV, VPRS 4410/P0, Unit 3, Folder No. 67, Periodical Report for the period February to August 1840.
44. Life in the bush, by a lady, pp. 1, 20.
46. Cited in P Griffith, Three times blest, Buninyong Historical Society, 1988, p. 4.
47. The diary of Charles Griffith, manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 1840-41, pp. 287-8.
48. Quoted in Clark, A history of the Goulburn River Protectorate Station at Murchison, 1840-53, p. 95.
49. Clark & Heydon, The confluence of the Merri Creek and Yarra River, p. 65.
50. ID Clark, 'The northern Wathawurrung and Andrew Porteous, 1860-1877', unpublished paper, University of Ballarat, 2005, p. 5.
51. 'The travels of Walter Bridges', manuscript, Ballarat Library, Australiana Collection, 1855, p. 10.
52. Cited (undated) in Castlemaine Pioneers Association, Records of Castlemaine pioneers, Rigby, Melbourne, 1972, p. 220.
53. R Annear, Nothing but gold: the diggers of 1852, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1999, p. 92.
54. Pepper & De Araugo cited in I Clark, 'Aboriginal people, gold, and tourism: the benefits of inclusiveness for goldfields tourism in regional Victoria', Tourism, Culture and Communication, vol. 4, 2003, pp. 123-36, p. 133.
55. Nothing but gold, p. 95.
56. G Wathen, The golden colony, or Victoria in 1854: with remarks on the geology of the Australian gold fields, Longman, London, 1855, p. 131.
57. E Tame, 'Reminiscences of Melbourne and gold diggings 1852-6', manuscript, National Library of Australia, MS 8964, Box 925.
58. HW Wheelwright, Bush wanderings of a naturalist, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1979, p. 44.
59. [Manager] Shaw cited in I Clark, Aboriginal languages and clans: an historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800-1900, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, 1990, p. 49.
60. Cited in S Wiencke, When the wattles bloom again: the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe, the author, Woori Yallock, 1984, p. 52.
61. Report of the Central Board appointed to watch over the interests of the Aborigines in the Colony of Victoria, 1861-69 and Report of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines in the Colony of Victoria, 1871-95, quoted in Clark, 'The northern Wathawurrung and Andrew Porteous, 1860-77'.
62. Anonymous, 'The decaying race', London Times, 1865, p. 5.
63. Curoc, 'Protection to native industry by a blackfellow', Ballarat Star, 16 July 1861, pp. 7-8.
64. Report of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines in the Colony of Victoria, 1871-95, quoted in Clark, 'The northern Wathawurrung and Andrew Porteous, 1860-77'.
65. E Netell, 'Town Clerk's correspondence', manuscript, Buninyong Historical Society Files, 1867, pp. 2-3.
66. Quoted in Clark, 'The northern Wathawurrung and Andrew Porteous, 1860-77'.
67. RB Smythe, The Aborigines of Victoria, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1878, p. 180. See also discussion in McBryde, 'Exchange in south-eastern Australia'.
68. Henry Reynolds in I Clark, Sharing history, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Issues Paper no. 4, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1994, p. 10.
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