Aboriginal women of the Merriwa wear kangaroo and possum skin cloaks

1820s Aboriginal women of the Merriwa district wear loose kangaroo and possum skin cloaks “with no little neatness” while “Chief Jerry” at Ogilvie’s property at Merton wears a possum skin rug with strips of fur extending down around his waist. These important animal food and raw material resources are scarce and increasingly difficult to access by Aboriginal people in the Hunter River region from the 1820s. (Lucas 41)