Not far from the spectacular Canoelands 1 shelter is the Canoelands 2 Aboriginal rock art site. It contains a range of paintings (pictographs) and hand stencils in a tall but shallow sandstone overhang.
Near the left-hand side of the panel is a large kangaroo painted in both charcoal and ochre; superimposed on the body of the kangaroo is an eel. (The only other site I’m aware of which has a similar kangaroo and eel superimposition is the Old Gosford Road Engraving Site on the Central Coast.)
The image below uses digital processing to highlight the head of the kangaroo (which is in charcoal) and the rest of the body and eel, which is in ochre.
You can make out the head of the kangaroo quite clearly, and a cicular motif also in charcoal in the middle of the kangaroo’s body; less obvious without some image enhancement are two hand stencils and a smaller kangaroo.
Surrounding the eel are another four hand stencils.
Below the large kangaroo are two smaller kangaroos.
To the left of the kangaroo on a separate panel are some small smaller motifs in red ochre, and a long line (also in red ochre and partly damaged by exfoliation) which goes to a natural circle in the rock.
In the middle of the panel are vertical lines, that may represent a Baiame figure (similar to the Cliff Oval site), and a number of handprints.
Thehand stencils continue across to the right-hand side of the panel.
The shelter next to Canoelands 2 also has rock art which look like charcoal paintings; behind the charcoal are vertical lines and fish in red ochre.
Closer inspection shows a line of seven fish, painted vertically.
Along the creek below Canoeland 2 are axe grinding grooves; somewhat unusually, there are three individual grooves, some distance from each other.
The second groove is next to a semi-permanent pothole in the creek.
The last groove is near what seems to be a groove water channel.
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