Two adjoining Aboriginal engraving sites were recorded by Ian Sim and Fred MCarthy near the Boree Valley Road, on a series of flat but sloping rock platforms. It’s unknown whether the two sites are related. From the platform there is (or was, as tall trees have grown around the site) a “fine view across the ridges to Big Yango Mountain”.
McCarthy Group 27 (Old Boree)
Documented by Fred McCarthy in 1944, this group of figures consists mostly of a line of bird tracks intermingled with kangaroo tracks (25 in total), a set of four parallel lines and a koala bear.
McCarthy described this as: “An old group in which the dual themes of kangaroo and emu tracks occur intimately intermixed, but whether they represent tracks of animals noticed by the Aborigines in the bush, those of animals being hunted or stalked, or of the spiritual ancestors of clans, is not known. The short parallel bars occur elsewhere not infrequently and their meaning is unknown.”
The “koala bear” was described as in profile as “seated in a tree fork, with round head,1 eye, 2 ears (1 rounded, 1 pointed), convex back and belly, round rump, truncated legs, foreleg curved backward, hind leg straight”. The grooves are very smooth, and no pecks marks can be seen.
McCarthy Group 16 (Boree Track)
This rock engraving site is located only 40m from the previous one, but was recorded separately. It was described by McCarthy as illustrating “common sights in the bush for the hunters, including koala bears in trees, a leaping kangaroo, emu and kangaroo tracks showing this dual theme again: the smaller koala is particularly well drawn, and the kangaroo is well posed and shaped landing on its hind feet with its body and head forward”.
The “leaping kangaroo” is fairly well-defined.
A second, incomplete kangaroo was not recorded by Sim: this partial depiction may indicate that the animal was killed and its tail and hind leg removed before its outline was traced onto the sandstone.
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