Summary: Group 10 is the largest of the Flat Rocks Ridge Aboriginal engraving sites, which also has highest number of figures (145) as well as grinding grooves.

The Flat Rocks Ridge Group 10 Aboriginal engraving site is the largest of the Flat Rocks Ridge sites in Gunderman – both in terms of size and tbe number of figures (145 in total). In fact Group 10 is the most extensive rock engraving site rock engraving in the Sydney-Hawkesbury district based on the number of figures (the next largest being the Wheeler Heights Aboriginal Site which has 142 figures). Fred McCarthy and J.C. Lough recorded the multiple adjacent rock platforms in six groups, or series.

Series 2

Separated from Series 3 by a thin strip of vegetation, Series 2 has a number of what appear to be eels (which were described as “barred fish”) as well as other animals and a long line of bird tracks.

One of the “barred fish” has very distinct fins, which weren’t captured by McCarthy in his detailed recordings.

There are a total of five barred fish – although one of them was documented as possibly depicting a baerk canoe.

As well as the barred fish, there is a “fish of flathead type”.

Next to each other are a boomerang and “large human foot-track” (mundoe).

There are a number of indeterminate figures.

Series 3

This was considered by McCarthy as the most significant of the six groups, due to the two large figures (6 and 8, as well as 10 and 13) and the presence of human and bird tracks:

The huge size of Nos. 6 and 8 indicates mythological associations, but both are indeterminate apart from No. 8 bemg the figure of a bird. Its great body raises the question again of the function and significance of such figures. Are they in themselves spirit-centres for totemic clans, the place in the rock where the ancestral beings desposited or embedded their supplies of eternal spirits to be reincarnated generation after generation – or are they simply gigantic creatures typical of the dream-time world of the Aborigines, contesting with one another various rights, preying upon one another, and in other ways carrying out activities which form so important a part in the mythologies of Australian tribes as a whole?

One of the larger figures is a “leaping kangaroo struck on the leg by a boomerang” and near its head a “barred fish” (which looks more like an eel).

A nearby figure which resembles a kangaroo was described as a “large mammal of indeterminate species”.

At the southern end of the group are some shallow pot-holes, with 49 axe grinding grooves.

Near the pothole are several figures including a dead bird (below), fish, flying fox and and “well posed” echidna.

Series 5

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Hiking the World, and receive notifications of new posts by email. (A hike is added every 1-2 weeks, on average.)

Join 646 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Located to the north-west of Sydney, just south of the Dharug and Yengo National Parks, Maroota has a high concentration of (known) Aboriginal sites. Many more Aboriginal heritage sites are located in the Marramarra National Park. The original inhabitants of the area were the Darug people.
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area protects over 3,000 known Aboriginal heritage sites, and many more which are yet to be recorded. This area includes the Blue Mountains National Park, Gardens of Stone, Wollemi National Park and Yengo National Park.
Over 40 sites have been recorded within the park; many were located along the river bank and were flooded by the building of the weir in 1938.
Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook (Blue Mountains)
The Blue Mountains National Park (and surrounding areas along the Great Western Highway) is thought to have over a thousand indigenous heritage sites, although much of the park has not been comprehensively surveyed. The Aboriginal rock sites in the Blue Mountains include grinding grooves, stensils, drawing and rock carvings.