Deep Bay Two Fish engravings

Summary: An Aboriginal engraving site on a boulder along Berowra Creek; two fish are very distinct, and another seven figures have weathered away.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 10
  • Motif/s: Bird, Fish
  • Quality: 4.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1961
  • Originally Recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim
  • McCarthy reference: COWAN Mankind Group 126 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • Sim Reference: Mankind 6(2) 1963 Sheet 3, Fig M, p.59

Visible from a considerable distance away, this Aboriginal engraving site is on the vertical face of a small boulder along the edge of Berowra Creek.

IMG 1578 LR Deep Bay Two Fish engravings

The two fish were first documented by Ian Sim: “The figures of two fish, one with a number of pits within its outline, and a bird, together with several lines of parts of figures weathered away, engraved on a vertical rock face on the eastern shoreline of Berowra Waters”.

1X3A9955 LR Deep Bay Two Fish engravings

McCarthy later recorded ten figures, which included a bird and the tail of an incomplete fish – these have weathered away. He described the slightly and more distinct fish as a groper (“slit mouth on rounded head, 2 eyes, good tail, 13 pits scattered over its body in 4 pairs”) and the other as a broad leatherjacket (“2 eyes, 2 opposite fins, lozenge shaped body, good tail at angle to body”).

1X3A9944 LR Deep Bay Two Fish engravings

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