12 MARCH 1988, Page 25

Excellent lever

Sir: Auberon Waugh (Another voice, 27 February) says Australia's Aborigines 'never advanced beyond the earliest Stone Age, never discovered fulcrum and lever, let alone the circle, never progressed to within 4,000 years of Stonehenge man'.

Some of the spears thrown at invading Britishers a couple of hundred years ago were powered by the woomera, an excel- lent lever. That's how the British rocket site in South Australia got its name. Remnants of Aboriginal stone villages have been discovered here in Victoria.

Mr Waugh, I must admit, does demon- strate that one can live at the very hub of a civilisation and remain ignorant.

John Kiely

14 Dudley Grove, Edithvale, Melbourne 3196