This series consist of 20 magnetic reel to reel tapes recorded by Jack Doolan at the Palm Island Government Settlement during 1963-64. Doolan resided at Palm Island for a number of years while acting as an administrative employee of the Queensland Department of Native Affairs. In 1961 he contacted Norman B Tindale (see AA 338) at the South Australian Museum, seeking advice on how to begin a programme of research on the Aboriginal residents of the settlement. Doolan had not undertaken formal training in anthropology, but had spent time working with Aboriginal people in the Liverpool River area of the Northern Territory, at one point helping to establish a station at Maningreda. Tindale responded positively to Doolan's request, offering guidelines for ethnological research and other assistance including a supply of magnetic tape reels. Tindale saw Doolan's recordings as offering invaluable assistance for his own study of the 'Negritic' tribes of the Atherton Tableland area. Doolan also recorded songs and stories for other researchers, such as linguist Bob Dixon. Documentation relating to the tapes is found in Tindale's journals and correspondence files. Bob Dixon's (1983) Searching for Aboriginal Languages contains useful information about conditions on Palm Island and biographical details for some of Doolan's informants.
Note that the materials in this series were formerly located in the Norman B Tindale Collection (AA338).
CD, Transcription Tape Catalogue and Speech and Sound Collections register information for recordings has been provided in [ ]. For example: [CD 1. Tracks 1-5. Tape No. 9621; TT77; P. Is. Doolan 1; AS 681-682]