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

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’.

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

AppletreeBay SWA handstencils Apple Tree Bay Shelter

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

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Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook (Blue Mountains)
The Blue Mountains National Park (and surrounding areas along the Great Western Highway) is thought to have over a thousand indigenous heritage sites, although much of the park has not been comprehensively surveyed. The Aboriginal rock sites in the Blue Mountains include grinding grooves, stensils, drawing and rock carvings.
Over a hundred Aboriginal sites have been recorded in the Hornsby region, with many of these in the Berowra Valley National Park and around the suburb of Berowra.
Located to the north-west of Sydney, just south of the Dharug and Yengo National Parks, Maroota has a high concentration of (known) Aboriginal sites. Many more Aboriginal heritage sites are located in the Marramarra National Park. The original inhabitants of the area were the Darug people.
Over 40 sites have been recorded within the park; many were located along the river bank and were flooded by the building of the weir in 1938.
Yengo National Park was an important spiritual and cultural place for the Darkinjung and Wonnarua People for thousands of years, and 640 Aboriginal cultural sites are recorded in the park and nearby areas.