Export of iron from SE Asia

[Ian]

Rahman:

Wollongong is on the east coast of Australia, just south of the major city of Sydney. By sea, that would be roughly 2,000 miles from Indonesia, and even further from other areas of SE Asia. Probably not very likely that this was a source of iron, and I'm not sure there would be much iron there anyway. Most of the iron ore in Austalia is mined a hundred miles or more inland. If iron ore was being mined in Australia before the arrival of Europeans, the northwestern areas of the country would be more likely, where there are iron ore deposits.

Ian.

Originally Posted by rahman

Wullungga? There's a place called Wollongong in Australia, and it's an Aboroginal name - long before the coming of the British.

[Kiai Carita]

The historian Denis Lombard in his books Nusa Jawa Silang Budaya puts forward the theory that the Java keris is small because of the lack of iron in Java. However there has been an experiment conducted in Cilacap and Solo to try and make a keris using Cilacap iron sand melted down using traditional technologies. The experoiment was to ask the question whether or not the java Mpu could make keris using iron from Java even if there is no othe evidence from literature or legend to support that belief. The experimenters succeded in making a keris with pamor resembling pamor Luwu. As for Wullungga in Pramoedya's book 'Arus Balik' I don't think refers to Wollongong in NSW.

Salam Keris