Berry Island Aboriginal Engraving

The Berry Island Aboriginal engraving is a signposted rock art site next to a bushwalking track. The largest motif has been described as a “large sea creature, perhaps a whale”. Signage at the site indicates:

It is likely to be a creature from a dreamtime story. Certainly this expression of the Cammeraygal people who lived here is one of the largest rock carvings in the Sydney region.

Unusually, the large creature’s head is drooped over the end of the rock.

Inside the large figure is a large, incomplete circle, and a smaller figure which may be a boomerang.

Although Aboriginal rock engravings were formed by first pecking the rock, these peck-marks are usually not obvious as the stone between the holes was rubbed away to form a smoother groove. The entirety of this figure has very distinct peck-marks.

Next to the main figure is another crescent motif, which has been interpreted as a bivalve shell (it’s not the usual shape for a boomerang or a crescent moon, which are less curved). It has also been described as a frequently used symbol in the painting of northern tribes to indicate a place where the whole tribe would gather for a ceremony or event (I have never heard of a motif of this shape depicting this).

Next to this smaller motif is a waterhole, which has several axe grinding grooves.

Getting to the Berry Island Aboriginal Site

This site is located on Berry Island, which was part of a grant of land made by Governor Macquarie to Alexander Berry and Edward Wollstonecraft in 1820 and is named after Alexander Berry. The island was initially connected to the mainland by a narrow stone causeway built over the mudflats in the early 19th century, which was widened to become a grassy causeway in the 1960s.

The 800m Gadyan Track (“gadyan” is a Cammeraygal Aboriginal word for the Sydney cockle) circles the “island”, with multiple signs that explain the stories and legends of the Cammeraygal people. The start of the Gadyan Track is at the bottom of Shirley Road in Wollstonecraft, about 650m from Wollstonecraft station in Sydney’s north.