Bulbous Headed Man at Patonga

Scattered across multiple rock platforms near Patonga are a number of Aboriginal rock engravings depicting a number of different figures; the most unusual has been described as a “bulbous headed man”. (Of the 21 figures recorded by McCarthy, 13 can still be seen – including all the significant ones.)

The rock engravings were documented as a series of four sites by McCarthy, initially in 1947 (and published in 1954) and later in his 1983 Catalogue of Rock Engravings. When first recorded in the late 1940s the sites were in “very open country with a scattered growth of trees”, but changed land management practices and bushfires followed by a couple of wet years means that the entire landscape now consists of thick scrub.

Series 1 (Fig A)

The largest figures here are a man and woman side-by-side

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The two figures are at a slight angle to each other:

man is 5’9″ tall, half oval head, no eyes or neck, straight arms upraised, right arm has a rounded and left arm a pointed end, straight sided. body belt, straight legs legs wide apart, knees indicated, convex pointed feet outward, no genitalia; woman 4’9″ tall, round topped triangular head, no eyes, straight pointed arms upraised, broad half oval right breast outward, narrow conical left breast pointing downward, both attached to outline of armpits, broad straight sided body, straight legs close together, left leg pointed, right leg widens into ovaI foot, short bar projecting downward from crutch.

Nearby is “breamlike fish” and next to the fish a figure which McCarthy described as either a small fish, or a kangaroo track – and later as a “cross”.

On the same rock platform is what may be part of a boomerang (it’s deeply grooved and may be more recently engraved than the other figures), and a small motif which could be a turtle.

A second fish is hidden under vegetation.

McCarthy opined that this group of engravings may have represented “a man and his wife on a fishing expedition”.

Series 2 (Fig B)

This small rock surface has “one of the the most interesting figures on the site:” the Bulbous Headed Man. Although it’s not entirely clear if the figure is a man or human. It was described by McCarthy as a figure with “4 bulbous projections radiating from an oval head” (1983) and “a unique engraving which looks at first sight like a human head and bust, with four bulbous appendages across and between which are straight grooves more sharply engraved and apparently of later origin than the remainder of the figures” (1954). Bob Pankhurst similarly described the figure as “an anthroporph with a bulbous head dress”.

McCarthy suggests that the figure “might represent the head of a man wearing an elaborate headdress or that of a spiritual ancestor or mythological figure, it might also represent a branching yam with the rootlets indicated on one of the projections”‘

There have (so far) only been four similar engravings of a bulbous head-dress (or branching yam!) recorded in the Sydney-Hawkesbury basin – the other three being at Somersby, Muogamarra and Bundeena.

A short distance to the north of the Bulbous Headed Man is a weathered engraving of two parallel lines: Pankhurst refers to it as a “snake-like creature”, while McCarthy simply documents it as one of several sets of lines (the rest have been covered by vegetation).

Series 3 (Fig C)

On of the larger rock platforms is “a large but crude kangaroo” – its slightly unusual figure resulting in it having been described as a bunyip in the 1950s, and possibly a dog.

The angle from which the figure is viewed also changes to some extent its appearance.

The creature is described by McCarthy as “poorly shaped” and “running instead of leaping”:

12′ long, concave head, open mouth, 2 eyes, no neck, 2 round ended ears, high arched back from ears to base of tail, with slight hump over hind quarters, convex belly, pair of blunt convex ended forelegs sloped forward, pair of straight, short round ended hind legs sloped slightly forward, forelegs separated, hind legs conjoined, no genitalia, tail in line with body.

At the end of the rock platform is a “broad fish [with] long, wide open mouth”

McCarthy suggests that this represents a hunting scene: “the large, fat bodied kangaroo indicates the kind of animal the hunters were keen to kill, and suggests hunting magic as the motive for engraving this figure”.

Series 4 (Fig D)

The last set of engravngs are on small and unusually smooth sandstone surface, although a number of the recorded figures could not be seen. McCarthy describes the figures here as disconnected and potentially engraved at different times.

The two very distinct motifs are a hand and an oval figure described as an “axe blade or pointed oval mundoe”. The hand was documented by McCarthy as having three fingers and a thumb, but in fact has four fingers and a thumb.

On the same platform are a few more figures that could not be located: another hand, a pair of wallaby or kangaroo tracks, and a long indeterminate line figure (which was origibally described by McCarthy as being a bark canoe).

Stone Arrangements and Spear Grooves

There are least two unnatural groupings of rocks that appear to be stone arrangements. These were not noted by McCarthy, but Pankhurst also recorded these.

A number of grooves in the sandstone may be spear grinding grooves.