Coolgardie safe
An Australian food cupboard cooled by water evaporating from wet hessian panels, which draws heat from the air inside. It dates from the goldfields of Western Australia in the 1890s.
Equipment · Gourds, calabashes and carved bowls
Coolamon
A wooden carrying dish used in Aboriginal food, water and seed work. Western Desert examples are called piti or ngurti; the general term does not imply one uniform form or fermentation use.
A name shared across different forms
Coolamon is an English-language umbrella name for a family of carrying dishes, not a single standardized design. QAGOMA notes that the word is specific to northern and western New South Wales, but is now used more broadly for wooden vessels across Australia. In the Western Desert, the National Museum of Australia identifies wooden dishes as piti and ngurti. Those local names matter: a pan-Australian label should not erase the distinct languages, makers and Countries represented by individual objects.
Museum records describe shallow, trough-shaped forms whose curved base can help a dish sit upright on uneven ground. Their material and surface treatment vary. The Met's Wardaman carrying tray, dated to the early or middle twentieth century, is recorded as softwood and paint; the museum contrasts this example with hardwood trays further south. These are examples, not a recipe for one universal coolamon.
Sources for this section
The shape follows the work
A coolamon's depth and length affect what it can carry. The National Museum of Australia describes deeper Western Desert bowls for food and water and for soaking medicinal plants, while shallower dishes were used to separate seed. QAGOMA describes flatter examples used like plates, deeper dishes used for gathering food or winnowing, and longer forms with high sides or inward-curving wings used as cradles. Smaller dishes also served as digging and clearing tools. These uses belong to different forms and contexts; they should not be collapsed into one object doing everything.
Seed sorting is part of a larger food system. The Australian Museum describes the labour of collecting seeds, separating them from husks, winnowing, grinding, and cooking cakes or loaves. A coolamon may be relevant equipment for seed work and the related seed-and-root bread record, but it is not itself a bread or a fermentation method.
Sources for this section
Collection history and living practice
The National Museum of Australia's account also places these objects in the history of colonial collecting along the Canning Stock Route. It describes official collections made in 1906–07 and 1930–31, including a coolamon collected by Canning's party. The same account records Aboriginal people adapting materials left by the stock-route works: Martu artists recognised a metal coolamon made from well troughing as the work of their parents. This is one documented object, not evidence that metal replaces wood everywhere; it shows why these vessels should be understood within living and changing material cultures, not as frozen relics.
The sources do not establish an origin date, standard dimensions, universal wood species, common care regimen, or a fermentation-specific function. The Met's dimensions describe one Wardaman object only. For a contemporary vessel, its maker and custodians are the right authorities on its name, use and care.
Sources for this section
History
The National Museum of Australia describes Western Desert wooden dishes called piti and ngurti alongside contemporary Martu material culture. It also places museum collecting in the colonial history of the Canning Stock Route: Canning's party collected Aboriginal material culture in 1906–07 and again in 1930–31, while the museum account notes that people adapted the well materials left by those works. A metal coolamon recognised by Martu artists as made and used by their parents is one specific example of that continuing adaptation.
Equipment details
PowerNo power A hand-carried dish has no powered mechanism.
How you get oneNot established The sources do not establish one general purchasing route for community-made coolamons; individual contemporary makers and community custodians should be credited directly.
CareNo source consulted provides a universal care schedule. For an individual contemporary vessel or collection object, follow the maker's or custodian's instructions rather than transferring care practices from another object.
Made of
- Wood — Carved carrying dish
Wood species and treatment vary by region and individual object. The Met describes one Wardaman softwood example; QAGOMA records carved-hardwood examples. Neither establishes a universal material specification.
Limits
The sources describe carrying, food gathering and seed work; they do not establish coolamons as fermentation vessels or describe a fermentation process.
Source →There is no single material or geometry: shallow, deep and high-sided forms have different documented uses, and regional examples vary.
Source →Places
Western Desert
Traditional use · Region evidenceThe National Museum of Australia documents Western Desert wooden vessels called piti and ngurti; this is a regional example, not a label for all Aboriginal vessels.
Northern and western New South Wales
Historical attestation · Region evidenceQAGOMA says the word coolamon is specific to this area and has been adopted more broadly for wooden vessels; this marks the term's regional scope, not the exclusive geography of the object.
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Sources
National Museum of AustraliaHistory · Cultural context · Use
Creating cultureThe page names Western Desert wooden coolamons as piti and ngurti.
It distinguishes deep bowls for carrying food and water and soaking medicinal plants from shallower seed-separating dishes and notes smaller digging and clearing uses.
It describes colonial collection history around the Canning Stock Route and a specific metal coolamon made from well troughing and recognised by Martu artists as their parents' work.
Cited in: A name shared across different forms; The shape follows the work; Collection history and living practice
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern ArtTerminology · Form · Use · Geography
CoolamonsThe page says coolamon is specific to northern and western New South Wales and is now used more broadly for wooden vessels across Australia.
It describes shallow forms as plate-like, deeper dishes for gathering food, pastes or winnowing grain, and long or high-sided forms as cradles.
The page documents carved hardwood examples and dates particular collection objects to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Cited in: A name shared across different forms; The shape follows the work
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtObject record · Form · Material · Geography
Carrying TrayThe Wardaman carrying tray is dated early to mid-twentieth century and recorded as wood and paint from the Northern Territory, Victoria River region.
The record describes shallow trough-shaped carrying trays, curved bottoms that sit upright on uneven ground, and differences in materials and ornamentation across regions.
The record specifies softwood for this Wardaman example and contrasts it with hardwood trays further south.
Cited in: A name shared across different forms; Collection history and living practice
Australian MuseumFood processing context
Food Culture: Aboriginal BreadThe museum describes seed gathering, separating seeds from husks, winnowing, grinding seeds, and cooking cakes or loaves as connected but distinct tasks in seed-food work.
It explains that seed breads varied by region and named plant foods; it does not provide a single recipe or claim a single shared bread tradition.
Cited in: The shape follows the work