Catalogue of Australian Implements

Many forms of implement typology have been proposed in Australia, but the most widely accepted was developed in 1946 by Fred McCarthy and his associates. The Australian Museum published a version of his classification in 1967, and in a modified form this has served as the basis for the categories of implements which are recognised by Australian archaeologists. Recent descriptions of Australian implements, such as that given by Flenniken and White, continue to employ the framework developed by McCarthy.

What follows is not an exhaustive catalogue of implement types, but a description of some of the major forms of flaked implement commonly recognized in Holocene archaeological sites in Australia. The construction of a culture history sequence in Australia has relied on an understanding of the form, chronology and distribution of these implement types. Only three forms are dealt with here: