European settlers and explorers reacted to the boomerang with a mixture of profound scientific curiosity and, often, comical frustration. 

Roderick J. Flannagan, in The Aborigines of Australia, provided a “minute description of its construction and properties,” including a geometric diagram and a detailed explanation of its flight, noting that its rotation “acts constantly in opposition to its line of flight.”

According to Richard Sadlier, Sir Thomas Mitchell, upon examining the weapon, exclaimed, “The savage who invented this, in whatever time, was gifted by the Creator with a knowledge which He has withheld from civilized man.” Richard Sadleir further recorded Mitchell’s observation that the boomerang’s rotary motion, acting as a screw, allowed it to be sustained in the air and return to the thrower.

Carl Lumholtz, in Among Cannibals, also expressed admiration, stating that the natives’ “matchless skill invariably commanded my admiration.” He meticulously described the throwing technique and the elliptical flight path, concluding that “Dexterity rather than strength is needed to throw the boomerang with success.”

Lady Barker, in Letters to Guy, captured the awe of watching its flight: “No description can possibly give you the least idea of this wonderful performance… the ease with which the kylie can be thrown, the height to which it will soar, nor the wide and varying circles it describes.”

Mark Kershaw describes his frustrating experience with a boomerang, saying: “If the troubles it has caused me, and the troubles it has in store for me, do not bring me to an early grave, I have the intention of passing this specimen of aboriginal workmanship on to some fellow I don’t like.” His first challenge was transporting the large boomerang, which caused the most trouble in Brisbane. His second was getting it to return. He explains: “At first I only threw it two or three feet; but as I gained courage I threw it farther—first edgeways, then sideways, flatways, pointways, straightways, upwards, downwards, obliquely forwards, backwards, upwards, outwards, and in some fifty or sixty other manners and directions, but invariably with the result that I had to walk after the confounded thing and bring it back.”

 

According to Fison and Howitt, Carl Lumholtz, Lucas, John Morgan, and Spencer and Gillen, the Aboriginal boomerang served primarily as a weapon for fighting. Its use, however, was not limited to warfare. Carl Lumholtz and William Kingston, for instance, document its role in hunting game. The boomerang also featured in systems of justice and punishment. Fison and Howitt, along with Gideon Lang, describe its use in elopement punishments, where the offending man “had to stand as a target for the spears, boomerangs, and kulluks of her near kinsmen.”

Beyond its practical applications, the boomerang held deep cultural and symbolic significance. Albert F. Calvert, as well as Spencer and Gillen, record that it was a symbol of manhood and a constant companion for hunters and warriors. Its role in marking the transition to adulthood was particularly important. Richard Sadleir and Spencer and Gillen note its presence as a key part of initiation rites, a point elaborated by Spencer and Gillen in The Native Tribes of Central Australia, where it is described as a key object in the rituals marking a boy’s transition to manhood.

Furthermore, the boomerang served a variety of other functions within Aboriginal society. Spencer and Gillen document its use as a musical instrument. They also explain that it functioned as a valuable item in social contracts, particularly in the context of marriage.