Ian Sim recorded over 60 Aboriginal engravings (including 29 shields) and over 200 axe grinding grooves over a series of rock platforms that stretch along the slope of a swampy gully. Unfortunately decades of neglect, including damage from heavy equipment and the encroachment of soil and vegetation, mean that very few of the figures and grooves are still visible.
Sim described the Aboriginal engravings in eight groups or sections; it’s now hard to find enough remaining figures to identify the eight discrete rock platforms.
Section A
This rock platform has a small man and eight mundoes, some straight lines and two indeterminate figures (“possibly a hand and arm” and maybe a bird). Almost all of these figures are now buried.
Section B
Six short, straight lines, a boomerang and the faint outline of a shield. None of these figures could be located.
Section C
A boomerang and “4 shields, varying in states of preservation”.
Section D
A boomerang, three shields, two fish and an indeterminate object. None of these figures could be found.
Section E
Three shields, a “tailed circle” (a circle with a tail!) and a v-shaped line.
Section F
Shield, boomerang and five unfinished figures.
Section G
Rwo emus, seven mundoes, an open-ended oval and two lines, which are described as “probably the best preserved figures in the group” – but only what seems to be the head of an emu is sticking up from under the encroaching.
Section H
One of the most complex platforms, with a large bird, 17 oval figures and shields, a kangaroo and several lines or parts of figures. These figures are thought to be the oldest in the group.
There are axe grinding grooves across all of the platforms.
0 Comments