Flat Rocks Ridge – a significant Dharug ceremonial ground

Located within Dharug National Park in Gunderman, Flat Rocks Ridge is considered a significant Dharug ceremonial ground which has a number of complex Aboriginal engraving sites, as well as shelters with art and grinding groove sites. The Flat Rocks area was first documented by surveyor R.H. Mathews who included some of the figures in journal articles published between 1895 and 1899 (below), and had the area reserved as a national monument. Fred McCarthy visited Flat Rocks in 1947 (with Paddy Pallin), spending a week recording Groups 1 to 7, and then re-visited the area in April 1954 to record Groups 8 to 13. A survey commissioned a few years later by the NWPS in 1961 by J.C. Lough expanded the number of recorded sites to well over 100.

Collectively the Aboriginal engraving sites have over 350 figures in the 13 groups documented by McCarthy, and over 500 across the many more sites recorded in the area.

The engravings represent a wide variety of mammals, most of which still frequent the area: rock wallabies (common), wombats, echidnas, possums and flying foxes, as well as emus (now extinct in eastern NSW). Many of the groups appear to depict hunting scenes.

Group 6

One of the largest rock platforms with Aboriginal engravings along Flat Rocks Ridge, the signposted Group 6 site has 80 motifs (the second-highest of all the recorded sites).

Snake

Snake (3 ft 6 in long)

Baiame

"An unusual depiction of an ancestral being"

Stingray

22 ft long and 10 ft wide, with "irregular body"

Small Man

Man and Shield

Part of a hunting scene

Man and Shield

Part of hunting scene

Kangaroos

Two wallabies or kangaroos; the lower one is very weathered

Kangaroos

Two baby kangaroos

Kangaroo

Large buck kangaroo (weathered)

Shield

Broad shield across the legs of kangaroo

Kangaroo

Baby kangaroo (one of three)

Shield

Broad shield 3 ft 4 in long

Club

Bulbous headed club 2 ft 6 in long

Kangaroo

Doe kangaroo 7 ft 6 in high, "leaping along behind the buck" (partly covered by vegetation.

Female ancestral figure

"Large and imposing figure of an ancestral woman, 11 ft long and 8 feet 6 in wide from foot to foot."

Emu

Adult emus

Emu

Emu

Emu print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Emu Print

Headless Wallaby

Pothole wirh Grinding Groove

12 axe grinding grooves

Pothole wirh Grinding Groove

74 axe grinding grooves

Circle

May represent sun or moon

Scrub turkey

"A dead scrub turkey with a broken neck"

The figures include an enormous Baiame (deity) and stingray, a large (possibly ancestral) female, a hunting scene and a large group of emus with nine emu tracks.

Group 8

Posssibly depicting a hunting scene, Group 8 has over 50 axe grinding grooves around four small potholes, amd 12 figures which include two large kangaroos, two wading birds and a small man with rayed head-band.

Group 9

Baiame (Culture Hero)

Baiame's Wife

Part of Man

Three boomerangs and part of a man.

Two Men

Two men, smaller than natural siz

Bird

Kangaroo

Wallaby and young emu

Young striped emu

Grinding Grooves

Described as “a spirit-centre, totem-centre and initiation ground”, Group 9 has 30 engraving including a large Baiame (Culture Hero) and hs wife, and multiple wallabies/kangaroos and emus.

Group 11

One of the smaller of the Flat Rocks Ridge sites; of the eleven figures, only the echidna and three mundoes can still be found.

Additional Flat Rocks Ridge rock art sites

In addition to Groups 1-13 documented by Fred McCarthy, JC Lough added many more sites in his detailed maps of the Flat Rocks Ridge area.

Shield (Group 19)

A single shield with a longitudinal line and two transverse lines on a small and isolated rock platform along the main Flat Rocks Ridge.