Traditional Plastic Boomerang by Frank Donnellan

Item JK01        

This Item was Sold on 6 February 2021 for $30


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This medium size traditional boomerang was made in the 1960s/1970s by Frank Donnellan and Stephen Silady. The original design belonged to Frank Donnellan. Stephen Silady was Frank Donnellan's good friend and partner and Silady made the mold and produced many versions of the plastic Donnellan traditional boomerang for the retail market. Donnellan and Silady were both famous boomerang throwers and manufacturers in the 1930s -> 1970s. After Frank died, Stephen continued to produce the plastic Donnellan boomerang (1970s), but he replaced Frank Donnellan's name with his own. This boomerang is one of the earlier models, made before Frank Donnellan's death. The embossed logo on the underside reads " Champion Thrower Granville N.S.W. Derwent Made for Frank Donnellan ". This boomerang is in very good condition. The outer edge of the elbow has light abrasion from use, but no cracks or dings. I have not thrown this particular boomerang, but I have thrown similar ones. The flight range is about 20 metres. The flight is low and circular and the spin rate is high for the duration of the flight, so you have to be careful catching this model. These are still fun to throw. They look cool if you put a piece of reflective metallic tape on the tips and throw it in full sun.

Specifications: Right Handed ; Tip-to-tip Span = 42 cm ; Weight = 92 gm


Frank Donnellan was one of Australia's earliest boomerang champions and record holders. Frank did amazing feats and he claimed to be the holder of "all records" long before there were any official boomerang clubs or sanctioned competitions. On May 4th, 1934, Frank threw a long distance boomerang of his own construction at Centennial Park, Sydney in the presence of "Sun" news representatives. The boomerang circled a pole 140 yards away and then it was caught on the return. This, and other feats included throwing over Watson's Bay Gap one hundred yards over the water and caught on the return and throwing off the "Sun" Office Buildings seventy-five yards out over the city, and caught on the return. Frank made and sold boomerangs well into the 1950s. His commercial models were constructed out of plywood and his long distance models were constructed out of Whalebone, a composite material similar to Paxolin, but made out of pressed whale baleen and wood products. Whalebone was used by the railroad companies to line the inside of railroad box cars for shock absorbing purposes. Frank obtained his whalebone material by jumping into empty box cars as trains passed by his home and he would then rip out a sheet and take it home to make his long distance boomerangs. Frank's commercial boomerangs were plentiful in the 1940s and early 1950s, but they have become quite scarce and they are hard to obtain by contemporary collectors, especially in mint condition.



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