Originating from the Davidson family's Kiah whaling station. The scrimshander (or artist) is unknown. 

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Scrimshaw, the art of engraving and carving materials such as bone or ivory, has been practiced for centuries. Pieces were traditionally created by whalers using by-products of the catch, including sperm whale bones and teeth, the baleen of other species, and walrus tusks.

 

Twofold Bay, situated as it is on the main migratory route travelled by a number of commercially valuable whale species, unsurprisingly became the focus for whaling activity early in colonial times. Thomas Raine established mainland Australia’s first shore based station at Twofold Bay in 1828, and others soon followed: among them the Imlay brothers in the 1830s; the Walker family and Scottish-born entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd in the 1840s.

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It was in the wake of Boyd’s financial collapse that Alexander Davidson entered the industry. After purchasing equipment from Boyd’s bankrupt estate, Alexander and his son John commenced a business that would span three generations and involve many members of the extended family.

 

As well as European whalers, the Davidson’s also employed indigenous crew members and the family business soon embraced the close symbiotic relationship that the local Yuin people had shared with the pods of Twofold Bay killers (or Beowas as they knew them) for centuries. Although other whaling parties came and went, it was this co-operative association that always put the Davidson crews ahead of others in the hunt for the lucrative giants of the sea.

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The third generation, George Davidson, commenced his whaling days around the age of 14 and by the 1890s had taken over the family business. However, development of alternative products led to dwindling demand for whale oil and bone and, accompanied by the falling number of killers returning annually to the Bay, the family’s annually catch continued to decline. Finally, the death of “Old Tom” in 1930 spelled the end of the Davidson’s Twofold Bay operation.

 

Today, Davidson’s whaling station is maintained and operated as an historic site by National Parks and Wildlife Service.

 

These local examples of scrimshaw are crude and unsophisticated in style, indicating that the artist was not particularly proficient in the practice of scrimshandering when they were made. They are privately owned.

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