AustraliaFelmah from Australia, Oceania. Owned by Alfred Walter Francis Fuller. Purchased by the Museum from him in 1936.

This is a felmah, a cross-shaped boomerang used by the Kuku Yulanji or Yidinji people of Freshwater near Cairns in Queensland. Both groups use conventional curved boomerangs for hunting but the felmah is a returning boomerang, used for entertainment.

The slightly up-turned tips of the arms allow the felmah to work like a helicopter rotor. This demonstrates how the returning quality of a boomerang depends, not so much on its shape, but rather on its having an aerofoil wing-form and on the way it is thrown.