Apple Tree Bay Shelter

Summary: Apple Tree Bay Shelter near Bobbin Head has stencils of two fish and 12 hands one panel, and charcoal drawings on another panel

  • Site type: Stencil - Hand, Stencil - Other
  • Number of motifs: 19
  • Motif/s: Boomerang, Fish, Hand, Kangaroo, Shield
  • Quality: 4/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch of stencils / paintings
  • Year first recorded: 1898
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell
  • Campbell Reference: BROKEN BAY Plate 20 Fig 8 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)

A shallow but tall shelter on Cowan Creek near Apple Tree Bay contains a number of stencils and paintings. Most of them are are well-preserved, although there is some graffiti. Even back in 1899, W.D. Campbell lamented: “The whole group is much disfigured by the modern scribbling of names, reminding one of some lines that the Writer saw scribbled upon a lighthouse at Dovecourt in Essex, England, where numerous scribbers had defaced the white-painted ironwork – ‘Fools’ names and monkeys’ faces are always seen in public places’.“

Apple Tree Bay Shelter

Within the shelter are twelve hands (two of them are children’s hands) and two fish which are stencilled in white.

Hand stencils at Apple Tree Bay Shelter
Hand stencils at Apple Tree Bay Shelter
AppletreeBay SWA handstencils Apple Tree Bay Shelter

Lower on the shelter wall are charcoal drawings of three kangaroos, a shield and a boomerang.

AWAT9374 LR lbk Apple Tree Bay Shelter
Charcoal paintings at Apple Tree Bay Shelter
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