Balls Head (Waverton) Whale Engraving

This Aboriginal engraving site at Balls Head (in Waverton) was first documented by W.D. Campbell in 1899:

The principal figure is a whale with a line across the narrowest part of the body at the tail; within this figure, near the tail, is a man-like figure with a belt, and there is either no head or a much misshapen one that is merged into an arm; both these figures are unusually deep cut and have a smooth groove.

This Balls Head Whale Engraving site was partly covered by a road before being uncovered during renovations at the Coal Loader development, a Sydney industrial site:

FOUR ancient Aboriginal rock engravings have been uncovered at an archaeological dig on the Sydney Harbour foreshore. They are part of an Aboriginal site that had been partly covered over by a roadway at Waverton more than 80 years ago.

The carvings – an image of a man, two “spirit men” with rays emanating from their heads, and what appears to be a school of fish – were found just off Balls Head Road next to an engraving of a whale with a man inside its belly that has long enthralled visitors. Part of the site have been destroyed, but a large whale with a man inside it remains and is protected by a fence.

Sydney Morning Heralds – Ancient Spirits Lifted

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The whale and man and engraving were thought by McCarthy to represent either a magician performing magic to entice whales to become stranded – or a man who has entered the body of a stranded whale to cure an illness. Later descriptions suggest that it depicts the Cammeraygal initiation practice of whale-riding – but there is no credible substantiation of this interpretation.

A second “man-like figure” was recorded inside the whale in 1963 and was incorporated into a ribbed concrete retaining wall of the Gore Hill Freeway. A newspaper article in 2008 suggested that this second figure inside the whale appeared to be a dog or a horse: if correct, this would indicate the local Cammeraygal people were still carving at the site after well the arrival of white settlers in 1788.

Further south within Balls Head Reserve are Aboriginal drawings in a shelter, which were also documented by McCarthy.