Water
Water carries dissolved ingredients, transfers heat and forms the liquid environment of many ferments; its minerals and treatment influence how it behaves.
Equipment · Bags, sacks and casings
Rabbit-skin water bag (Wangkangurru)
A Museums Victoria catalogue documents a Wangkangurru lukomb or kowapp, a rabbit-skin bag used to carry water around Lake Eyre. Its account describes skin preparation and tanning, while dating and image rights require care.
A water bag called lukomb or kowapp
Museums Victoria records a Wangkangurru animal-skin water bag from the Lake Eyre region, made from rabbit skin. The catalogue gives the names lukomb or kowapp and says these bags carried water over long distances. The pictured specimen is an individual collection object, not a standard pattern for every Wangkangurru water carrier.
The record gives 320 mm length, 105 mm width and 130 mm height. It reports that lukomb made from different animal skins could hold from 1 to 19 litres, but that range is not a measured capacity for this rabbit-skin bag. The maker is not recorded. The title and Date Produced field call it pre-1920, while a separate Date Made field says about the 1920s; the evidence supports an early-twentieth-century context, not a precise date.
Sources for this section
An introduced animal in a local container tradition
The museum account describes possum, male wallaby and brush kangaroo skins as preferred materials before rabbits arrived in the region in the 1880s. It says rabbit skins were then used for lukomb. This is a documented adaptation to an introduced animal, not evidence that the rabbit was a longstanding local species or that all earlier bags used one fixed material.
The museum places the object within Wangkangurru life around eastern Lake Eyre. Its collection note links the objects to George “Poddy” Aiston, who was based on the Birdsville Track from 1912 to 1923 and documented Wangkangurru lives. That record is an important provenance context, but the bag's maker remains unknown.
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How the catalogue describes its making
The account says the skin was turned so fur faced inward; the hair was plucked and remaining fur singed away. Openings were pinned together with an animal rib bone, leaving the neck open, and tied beneath the pin with fur string to make the bag watertight. The hide was inflated through the neck and immersed for two or three hours in yearda, an astringent liquid made from acacia bark. It was then inflated again, tied at the neck and dried.
Museums Victoria describes this as tanning that prevented decomposition through bacterial growth. The page is a museum account of a historical object, not a validated recipe for preparing hides today; it does not specify the acacia species, concentration, temperature or other controls. Those details should not be supplied by guesswork.
Sources for this section
Carrying water and reading the surviving record
The catalogue says a loop of string could be passed over the carrier's head so the water-filled skin hung down the back. That describes the carrying method for lukomb; it does not establish the exact use of every cord on this particular specimen. The source gives no detailed maintenance instructions or evidence that this object was used to ferment food.
The published museum photograph is the direct visual record for the object, but its rights notice says all rights are reserved, reuse may require cultural clearances, and it cannot be reused without permission. The bag's record can be cited and visited at Museums Victoria; no copy of its photograph is included here. No exact silhouette beyond the museum image and the short catalogue description should be treated as a universal Wangkangurru form.
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History
Museums Victoria catalogues an early twentieth-century Wangkangurru rabbit-skin water bag from Lake Eyre. Its heading and Date Produced field say pre-1920, while its separate Date Made field says about the 1920s; the precise date is therefore unresolved.
Equipment details
CapacityMuseums Victoria gives 1–19 litres for lukomb depending on animal skin, not a capacity measurement for this rabbit-skin specimen.
Size13 cm tall The catalogue records 320 mm length, 105 mm width and 130 mm height for this object; diameter is not applicable to this irregular bag.
PowerNo power A hand-carried container; no powered function is documented.
How you get oneNot established The museum catalogue does not record a maker or a present-day source for obtaining one.
CareThe object record does not provide cleaning or care instructions.
Made of
- Rabbit skin — Bag body
The catalogue identifies this object as made from rabbit skin; it describes the hide turned so the fur was inside. - Rib bone — Temporary seam pin
The museum's account says openings were pinned except at the neck with a rib bone of the animal. - Fur string — Seam ties and closure
The source describes fur string tied below the rib-bone pin and a tied neck; it does not specify that every cord visible in the photograph served the same purpose. - Yearda, an astringent liquid made from acacia bark — Reported hide-processing bath
The catalogue says the inflated hide was immersed for two or three hours; this records the museum account and is not a practical tanning instruction.
Limits
The museum describes this object as a water carrier, not as a fermentation or food-preservation vessel; no food-fermentation use is documented.
Source →The museum's general capacity range varies by animal used and is not a capacity claim for this rabbit-skin object.
Source →Places
Lake Eyre region
Documented use · Region evidenceThe museum identifies Wangkangurru water-bag use in the Lake Eyre area; this is not a claim that every Wangkangurru bag had the same design.
Lake Eyre
Manufacture · Locality evidenceThe catalogue names Lake Eyre as the place made for this individual object; the maker is unrecorded.
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Sources
Museums Victoria CollectionsForm · Materials · Use · History · Geography · Image rights
Lukomb or Kowapp | Bag. Wangkangurru. Lake Eyre, Eyre, South Australia, Australia. pre 1920The object record identifies the bag as rabbit skin and gives the local names lukomb or kowapp; it describes Wangkangurru use in the Lake Eyre area for carrying water over long distances.
The museum gives 1–19 L as a range dependent on the animal skin used, not as the measured capacity of this rabbit-skin specimen; it records dimensions of 320 × 105 × 130 mm.
The museum account describes turning the skin fur-side inward, removing hair, pinning and tying seams, inflating and immersing it in yearda made from acacia bark for two or three hours, then re-inflating, tying and drying it.
The catalogue's Date Produced field says pre-1920 but its Date Made field says about the 1920s; maker is unknown and the catalogue names Lake Eyre as the place made.
The photograph is labelled Copyright Museums Victoria / All Rights Reserved / Reuse May Require Cultural Clearances; the record says it cannot be reused without permission.
Cited in: A water bag called lukomb or kowapp; An introduced animal in a local container tradition; How the catalogue describes its making; Carrying water and reading the surviving record