Boree Track – a major Aboriginal route and songline

Summary: What is now called the Boree Track in the Hunter Valley was for many thousands of years an important Aboriginal route and songline. Along the Boree Track are a number of significant Aboriginal engraving sites and Shelters with Art.

  • Distance: 38km
  • Duration: Full Day, Multi Day
  • Grade: Easy
  • Art type/s: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Cave Painting, Rock engraving, Stencil - Hand, Stencil - Other, Water Hole
  • Number of sites: 39
  • Number of motifs: 800
  • Motif/s: Anthropomorph, Arm, Axe, Baiame, Bird, Bird Track, Club, Boomerang, Daramulan, Deity, Eagle, Echidna, Emu, Emu Track, Foot, Hand, Indeterminate figure, Kangaroo, Kangaroo - Speared, Kangaroo Track, Koradji, Lines, Lyrebird, Mundoe (foot), Mundowa (spirit footprint), Oval, Possum, Tally Marks, Turtle, Woman, Womerah
  • Condition of site: Good
  • Originally Recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim

The Boree Track, as it is now called, for tens of thousands of years formed pat of a major Aboriginal route and songline that connected the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) to the Hunter River (Kukyun) via the Macdonald River (Gunanday). The route went from Boree Arm at what is now the St Albans Common northwards to Big Boree and beyond, branching as the Boree Valley Road to Yengo in the west and Corobare/Wollombi in the east.

BoreeTrack 1 Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

In the 1820s, John Blaxland (nephew of the famous Gregory Blaxland who found a route across the Blue Mountains) “discovered” a route across the Hunter range to Wollombi. He wrote to the Surveyor General on 4 January 1825:

I have the honour to inform you of my having discovered a new and almost direct line of Road from Windsor to Wallis Plains, Hunters River, passing over the Two Branches of the Hawkesbury and through the Mountains, of which there is not more than Thirty-five miles, all easy of ascent. It is particularly well watered by perpetually flowing streamlets about five miles apart, and there is an abundance of grass, and through Wallumbi (Wollombi), a level and exceeding fine grazing country, from thence in almost a straight line to Wallis Plains over Verdant Hills and fertile vallies, all abundantly supplied with water. The distance as far as I can judge is not more than Ninety Miles, which will make a saving of upwards of forty miles. The Country through which I passed is superior in every respect for the making of a Road to that now used (the Bulga Road) and very considerably shorter.​

John Blaxland

It’s rather likely that Blaxland was guided by the local Aboriginal people: R. H. Goddard, an amateur anthropologist, suggested that “Blaxland, in his search for a track through to Fordwich as an alternative to the sea journey, via Newcastle and the Hunter River, would, it is submitted, be led by a native, who, naturally, going into strange country, would take the trade route in preference to going across unknown and possibly hostile country. Similarly, Ian Sim in 1966 stated “In fact, local Aborigines are reported to have guided early European settlers into the Wollombi and Howes Valley areas along this route”.

The last section of what was Blaxland’s Line is now called the Boree Track, and the many Aboriginal rock art and ceremonial sites are evidence of the significance of this route to the Darkinung and Dharug people. (Parts of the Boree Track were renamed as the Boree Valley Road and Yango Creek Road.)

It seems likely that the Boree Track was an important ceremonial route, since the engraved sites appear to link up with each other and with Mount Yango… If this is the case, it is extraordinary that Aborigines, even when their culture was disintegrating, should have guided white settlers along it, since legendary paths and initiation grounds were the last things that they would normally reveal to Europeans.

Ian Sim, Rock engravings of the Macdonald River district, New South Wales (1966)

Boree Track rock engravings

Numerous rock Aboriginal rock engraving sites were recorded along the Boree Track (and neaby ridges) by Australian anthropologists from the 1930s, including the significant, Devils Rock, Frying Pan Rock and Finchley Aboriginal Area which were both extensively documented.

image 1 Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Finchley Aboriginal Area

Considered one of the best Aboriginal engraving sites in Australia, the Finchley Aboriginal Area (originally called Flat Rock and also the Northern Map Site) includes over a hundred figures.

engraving Finchley2 Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

The site includes a number of ancestral beings or deitirs, and an “emu woman”.

1X3A0860 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0891 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0851 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Devils Rock

One of the most significant Aboriginal rock art sites along the Boree Track, Devils Rock or Burragurra (which means “Words on the Rock”) was a sacred Bora ground likely used for initiation ceremonies. In the Dreamtime legend, Baiame – the creator of heaven and earth – stepped from Devils Rock to Mt Yengo in one stride before ascending into the sky.

1X3A9780 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0180 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

The site has over 100 motifs, including Daramulan figures, rayed men, bird and emu tracks and mundowa or spirit pads (Baiame’s footprints).

Engraving Burragurra Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
image 4 Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Devils Rock Male Figures

Near Devils Rock is a cluster of Aboriginal rock engravings; the best-preserved site has a group of three men and a boomerang.

1X3A9720 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9719 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9732 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Fryng Pan Rock

First documented in 1898, Frying Pan Rock is a significant and complex Aboriginal engraving which has over 130 figures, including 94 bird and emu tracks).

Frying Pan Rock Sketch
Human head Three echidnas Boomerang and Club Bandicoot Woman Two Men Kangaroo Head Large Man Large kangaroo Kangaroo Kangaroo Kangaroo Kangaroo Kangaroo Speared Kangaroo Kangaroo Small Man with Sprear Speared Kangaroo Kangaroo Koala or Wombat Kangaroo

Human head

1X3A0297 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Head with eyes, possibly an unfinished figure

Three echidnas

1X3A0305 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Set of 3 echidna

Boomerang and Club

1X3A0306 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

"Deeply angled returning boomerang" and a spheroidal headed club.

Bandicoot

1X3A0325 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Woman

1X3A0326 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Two Men

1X3A0331 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo Head

1X3A0329 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Large Man

1X3A0342 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Large kangaroo

1X3A0346 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0351 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0350 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0367 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0368 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0377 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Speared Kangaroo

1X3A0358 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0355 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Small Man with Sprear

1X3A0359 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

A small man whose "arm continues as a spearthrower with hooked end in profile... he has thrown the spear into the big kangaroo"

Speared Kangaroo

1X3A0381 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0380 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Koala or Wombat

1X3A0386 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Kangaroo

1X3A0377 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

The site has been described as depicting two hunting scenes, and includes 12 kangaroos (two of them speared), hunting tools, a number of local animals and both men and woman figures.

1X3A0381 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0343 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Big Baiame

On a large rock platform near the Boree Track is a Baiame figure, described by Ian Sim as a thickset anthropomorph; nearby is a man and unusually shaped speared echidna.

image Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9583 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
Engraving Sim GroupXIV Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Boree Track Big Emu and Deities

Another rock engraving site above the Boree Track documented by Sim in the 1960s, this large rock platform contains an emu (an unusual figure as it uses a natural depression in the rock for part of its shape), two rayed deity figures and a line of six mundoes.

1X3A9544 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9563 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
Engraving Sim GroupXV Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Bala Range Woman Engraving

A rock platform near the start of the Bala Range Trail which has a woman in profile (very weathered) and two potholes with about twenty axe grinding grooves.

1X3A9818 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9817 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9811 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Boree Track Halfway Hill waterhole

A pothole on a ridge above the Boree Track with two carved water channels, which were later enlarged by European settlers (who also carved their initals and a horse into the rock). The platform also has 40 axe grinding grooves and some Aboriginal engravings of bird tracks.

1X3A0465 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0509 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0499 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Shelters with Art

Most of the shelters with art along the Boree Track were recorded much later than the rock engraving sites along the ridges, most of which have only been documented in the last couple of decades.

Mogo Creek Red Anthropomorphs

One of the most intriguing rock art shelters along the Boree Track, which includes two interconnected anthropomorphs drawn in red ochre, as well as a sunburst figure, ten hand stencils and numerous figures in red ohre.

1X3A9657 LR yre Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9649 LR yre Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Devils Rock Lyrebird Shelter

A small shelter near Devils Rock, which contains an impressive gallery of charcoal and red ochre figures. The mortifs include a large lyrebird, koradji (medicine man) and eel, and many smaller animal motifs.

1X3A0252 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0246 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Devils Rock Camp Cave

A large camping cave, which contains over fifty Aboriginal rock art motifs. The most prominent figures include a kangaroo in red ochre, an animal resembling a cow in charcoal and a large anthropomorph.

1X3A9678 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9689 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Carrolls Cave

A long, tunnel-like shelter which has over 80 Aboriginal hand stencils, as well as stencils of stone axes and spears. Above the shelter on a sloping rock platfom are a mundoe and kangaroo engraving.

1X3A0400 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0410 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A0432 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Big Boob Lady Cave

Named after a large-breasted woman drawn in charcoal, this low shelter has (at least) four figures which include men and women. (Engravings were recorded on a nearby rock platform, but could not be re-located).

1X3A9522 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9520 LR ybk Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9523 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Fractured Frieze Shelter

Likely to have once been an enormous frieze, weathering and fracturing of the sandstone in this shallow shelter has left five small panels of art. Many of the charcoal figures appear to depict human figures.

1X3A9607 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9599 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9604 LR lbk Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

Little Boree Creek Shelter

A long and deep shelter along Little Boree Creek, which contains over twenty figures including a kangaroo (charcoal) and hand and arm stencil (white ochre).

1X3A9610 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9613 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline
1X3A9615 LR Boree Track - a major Aboriginal route and songline

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