Summary: A short side-track off the Bobbin Head Trail to a signposted Aboriginal engraving site, which has a broad range of motifs.

Next to the popular Bobbin Head Track is small but significant Aboriginal engraving site. There are 37 engravings over three connected groups of figures, although some are quite hard to make out without the right light.

Bobbin Head main site
Man and Woman Basket Echidna Mundoe Mundoe Wallaby Possum or glider

Man and Woman

AWAT0053 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

The man is five foot hight with upstretched arms, and four fingers on each hand. He has a 14-rayed headdress. The woman (3' 6" tall) partly overlaps the man.

Basket

AWAT0054 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

A large twined basket, "with a handle the full width". (Next to the basket is a mundoe, or footprint.)

Echidna

AWAT0063 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

At the top of this rock platfiorm is an echidna, which is pointing towards the man and woman.

Mundoe

AWAT0064 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

One of six mundoes (footprints) which crosses the site.

Mundoe

AWAT0035 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

Wallaby

AWAT0024 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

Possum or glider

Series 2 (Figure 4)

The signposted site is protected by a timber barrier, and is accessible by a narrow bushwalking trail from the Bobbin Head Track. (The trail to the engraving site is easy to miss – it’s about 1.6km from the start of the Bobbin Head Track.)

img 3109 lr Bobbin Head Track (main site)

The figures was thought by McCarthy to represent a “mythological incident associated with the echidna totem, with the tracks of the male spirit being whose wife is holding the finest engraving of twined basket known among the engravings”.

AWAT0051 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)AWAT0051 highlighted LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

The man is five foot hight with upstretched arms, and four fingers on each hand. He has a 14-rayed headdress. The woman (3′ 6″ tall) partly overlaps the man.

AWAT0058 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

Next to the woman is a large twined basket, “with a handle the full width”. (Next to the basket is a mundoe, or footprint.)

AWAT0054 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

At the top of this rock platfiorm is an echidna (described as a porcupine by Campbell in 1899), which is pointing towards the man and woman.

AWAT0063 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

A line of six mundoes (footprints) crosses the site; most of them have four toes.

Series 3 (Fig 5)

A bit further down the track (away from the fireetrail) are more engravings, scattered on a series of rock surfaces. Partly covered by soil is a wallaby.

AWAT0024 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

Nearby is a possum (phalanger) of Sugar Glider, which is just over two feet in length.

AWAT0032 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

One if the most distinct engravings is that of a goanna, which is almost two metres in length.

AWAT0018 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)

Next to the goanna is a small bird.

AWAT0015 LR Bobbin Head Track (main site)
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Aboriginal Sites by National Park

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 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.