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 art: 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.

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

The site also has a shield and two boomerangs.

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

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

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 […]