Flat Rocks Ridge – Group 6

Australia, Central Coast, NSW
Dharug National Park
Dharug Aboriginal Land

Summary: Flat Rocks Ridge Group 6 is one of the most significant Aboriginal engraving sites of this area. The vast rock platform includes a large Baiame and stingray, as well as hunting scenes and and animal tracks.

Site type: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Rock engraving
Number of motifs: 80
Number of AGGs: 128
Motif/s: Baiame, Bird, Club, Boomerang, Circle, Deity, Emu, Emu Track, Kangaroo, Koala, Moon, Mundoe (foot), Shield, Stingray, Woman
Quality: 5/5
Condition of site: Good
View site sketch
Year first recorded: 1895
Originally Recorded by: R.H. Mathews, F.D. McCarthy
F.D. McCarthy, “Rock engravings of the Sydney-Hawkesbury District. Part 1: Flat Rocks Ridge: a Daruk ceremonial ground” in Records of the Australian Museum, Vol. 25, Series 5 (1956)
J.C. Lough, Flat Rocks Ridge Engravings (1961)
R.H. Mathews, “Australian Rock Pictures” in American Anthropologist , Jul., 1895, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1895), pp. 268-278

One of the largest Aboriginal engraving sites around Flat Rocks Ridge in Gunderman, Group 6 is the only signposted site – and one of the few sites where the engravings are fairly easy to see (having been “highlighted” or cleaned by NPWS). The “remarkably large rock surface” is regarded as one of the most significant of the Flat Rocks Ridge sites.

It is obvious that there exists in this site generations of work by aboriginal artists. The faded figures present in each group are not necessarily the oldest, because it was noticeable that where portion of a figure was covered by soil or moss its outlines were sharply defined and the exposed part of the outline was considerably affected by weathering even to being difficult to discern.
McCarthy (1956)

Both Fred McCarthy (1956) and J.C. Lough (1961) extensively documented Group 6, describing the Aboriginal engravings on the vast platform in six groups, or series.

Series 3 / Series C

This is the main group, which has 48 figures – the largest being a stingray which is 22 ft long and 10 ft wide, “the outline of the body being somewhat irregular.”

Directly above the stingray is a man “almost 5 ft high” and a mundoe which points towards the stingray.

Almost as large as the stingray is “an unusual depiction of an ancestral being”, most likely a Baiame figure which is 18ft (6m) high – a similar figure is engraved at Group 9.

It has a seven-rayed head dress, an elongate eye, a natural depression in the rock which might indicate a mouth, two lines on the body which might indicate arms (otherwise not shown), a girdle, and one curiously shaped foot. The figure is posed in a very animated manner, and the head is turned sideways towards the stingray.

1X3A9766 LR 2 Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 6

This figure was also described as a “grotesque carving” which was “possibly unfinished” by R.H. Matthews.

Next to to the stingray to the west is what was described as a kangaroo hunt, with two men holding shields and multiple wallabies and kangaroos:

…two men, 5-6 ft high, each beside a broad shield, and two more kangaroos, one headless. The upper man has a broad intaglio belt across the body and large fingers on the upraised hands, the lower one has the unusual combination of eyes, nose and mouth shown on the face, and there is also a necklet and a girdle. One shield displays what are apparently four spear marks…

In this hunting scene two hunters are shown, and two others are represented by their shields. The “mob” of kangaroos, with the large buck as the leader, three other adults which are probably does, and three young joeys, is the most representative, and numerically the largest, shown among the engravings of the Sydney-Hawkesbury district generally.

Next to these are more wallabies or kangaroos as well as a club and shields; it may represent another “hunting scene”. or could be part of the same kangaroo hunt as the figures above. This group has…

…the largest number of figures in any part of the site. Nos. 40 to 59 constitute a kangaroo hunt: (40) a bulbous headed club 2 ft 6 in long; (41) a broad shield 3 ft 4 in long; (42), (43), (45) three small angled line figures; (44) a pair of kangaroo-tracks pointing south-west; (46) to (48) three baby kangaroos, 3-4 ft long, two of which are standing upright and one is on all fours.

Some of the figures have also been described as “rabbit like animals” which could depict a koala.

A little further to the west in a commanding position on the rock platform is a large female figure…

…the large and imposing figure of an ancestral woman, 11 ft long and 8 feet 6 in wide from foot to foot. It [sic] has no fingers, large breasts, and a design, representing either a painted or cicatrized one, shown by parallel lincs of punctures on her body, and bands across her legs

McCarthy noted that her triangular head is similar to figures at the Howe Aboriginal Area and in Group 10 further along the ridge, and that there is an almost identical figure at the North Maroota site almost directly south across the Hawkesbury River.

Towards the western end this group or engravings are seven emus, and a set of emu tracks:

No. 25, the group of seven emus, and (24) their nine tracks leading westward across the rock towards the bush, constitute the finest set known of these birds among the Sydney Hawkesbury engravings. Three of the birds are young ones from 4 to 5 ft long, the other four are adult birds 6 ft and 10 ft 6 in long, although one is much larger overall than the others. Two of the young ones are standing erect, and the other five birds have their necks stretched out to the full as though feeding in a flock. They are all reasonably well drawn from living birds, stylized and not in motion. The three-toed foot is shown on three of them, the largest one has a band across its upper leg, and all but one have an eye.

A long line of nine emu prints runs north-south across the rock platform.

Next to the emu prints is a headless wallaby.

Further down the sloping platform is a a “circle with three eyes probably representing the sun or moon”.

Below the circle is a “a dead scrub turkey with a broken neck”.

Along the southern edge of the rock occur is a large kangaroo track and a snake 3 ft 6 in long.

Towards the bottom of the rock platform – below the Aboriginal engravings – are two potholes; the upper one (which is over half a metres deep) has about a dozen grinding grooves.