Overlooking Still Creek, this tall shelter contains contains many well-preserved Aboriginal charcoal art drawings.
It’s an unusual Aboriginal rock art site as it includes post-contact art (three boats or ships) – the only other site I’ve documented in the Hornsby Shire with post-contact figures is the Pyes Creek Charcoal Panel. In both cases, a road into the area was constructed around 1830.
What is now Crosslands was an important area for the Dharug and Guringai people, who lived on both sides of Berowra Creek. The area was explored early in the colony’s history, with Berowra Creek charted by Captain (and later Governor) John Hunter in 1789; he probably entered Berowra Creek on 9 July 1789. A road down to Berowra Creek (now Somerville Road) was constructed in the early 1830s, when James Bellamy was granted 50 acres of land in August 1831. He soon forfeited the land to the Crown, and it was re-purchased by George Murphy on 12 March 1833 (who is shown as the landholder on the 1897 parish map).
Two of the boats or sailing ships are quite distinct; overlapping this charcoal drawing is a single hand stencil in red ochre.
There are a few animals – the two below might be a pair of kangaroos.
More obvious (and the most distinct motif) is a turtle.
Other figures are more more weathed, and in some cases have been damaged by graffiti.
Easily missed is a panel at ground level, which contains a few more indeterminate figures (one of the appears to be an echidna).
An adjacent rock shelter has what appears to be a permanent source of water, and the remnants of a midden suggests that this was an occupation site.
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