Bluff Track Whale

Summary: The main engraving is a large whale, about 11m in length, with an unusually large mouth. Near the whale are two boomerangs and a small figure.

  • Art type/s: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 5
  • Motif/s: Boomerang, Man, Shield, Whale
  • Quality: 2.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1892
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, R.H. Mathews, F.D. McCarthy
  • Campbell Reference: MANLY Plate 9 Fig 1 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
  • McCarthy reference: MANLY Group 61 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • Mathews Reference: Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1985, Vol 25, p.145
  • Sydney Rock Art – Bluff Track
  • R. Dalyrmple-Hay, The Surveyor 5, No 13. 1892.
  • Bushwalking trail: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2020/07/05/natural-bridge-loop-garigal-np/

A small group of engravings is just below the top of a spur: it was thought to depict a magician performing magic to entice a whale to become stranded. The whale is about 34 feet long, with two large pectoral fin and a wide open mouth.

AWAT5108 LR stitch LR Bluff Track Whale

In front of the whale’s mouth is a small man in ceremonial attire

IMG 5798 LR Bluff Track Whale
IMG 5797 LR Bluff Track Whale

The site also has a shield and two boomerangs.

IMG 5796 LR Bluff Track Whale
IMG 5802 LR Bluff Track Whale

The whale was used as the artwork on the concrete wall of the Warringah Freeway near the Willoughby Road overpass.

warringah freeway Bluff Track Whale

There are five figures in total, all in close proximity.

engraving bluff track Bluff Track Whale
Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Hiking the World, and receive notifications of new posts by email. (A hike is added every 1-2 weeks, on average.)

Join 1,205 other subscribers

1 Comment

Natural Bridge Loop (Garigal NP) | Hiking the World · August 23, 2021 at 11:01 pm

[…] reached the Bay Track, I make a small off-track detour to re-visit the Bluff Track Whale Aboriginal engraving site, which I couldn’t see very well on my last bushwalk (I reached them […]

Reply

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Aboriginal Rock Art – Blue Mountains 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.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Berowra Valley
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.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Maroota and Marramarra NP
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.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Lane Cove
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.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Yengo National Park
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.