Summary: One of the larger Aboriginal engraving sites along Flat Rocks Ridge in Gunderman, Group 9 has 30 engravings (including a large Baiame and his wife).

The Flat Rocks Ridge Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site is one of a series along Flat Rocks Ridge in Gunderman: “it is probably a spirit-centre, totem-centre and initiation ground, illustrating an incident in a legend”.

Flat Rocks Ridge Group 9
Baiame (Culture Hero) Baiame's Wife Part of Man Two Men Bird Kangaroo Wallaby and young emu Young striped emu Grinding Grooves

Baiame (Culture Hero)

1X3A0802 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Baiame's Wife

1X3A0801 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Part of Man

1X3A0803 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Three boomerangs and part of a man.

Two Men

1X3A0811 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Two men, smaller than natural siz

Bird

1X3A0813 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Kangaroo

1X3A0817 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Wallaby and young emu

1X3A0822 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Young striped emu

1X3A0819 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

Grinding Grooves

1X3A0823 LR Flat Rocks Ridge - Group 9 Aboriginal engraving site

The engravings are located “on the wider end of a long rock surface which extends for some hundreds of yards as a ledge along the top of the southern side of the ridge”, with two groups of figures separated by about 30m.

Series 1

The larger of the two groups, Series is dominated by two large figures: “a culture hero 12 ft high, and his wife 9 ft high”.

Below these two large figiures are three boomerangs (one of is a right-angled returning type) and part of a man.

This odd-looking and weathered figure was described as “two men, smaller than natural size”.

Near these men is a bird.

Further to the west is a “well posed kangaroo”.

At the western end of this group are a wallaby and young emu; the third figure wasn’t documented or described by McCarthy or Lough.

Another emu is a “young striped emu 4 ft 4 in high, with what appears to be a spear in its lower breast”.

Many of the engravings are very weathered, and some of the other figures – including a bird track (“apparently of an emu), “an unusual figure which is probably a flying-fox” and “an indeterminate but interesting mammal, probably a native tiger-cat” could not be seen.

Series 2

At the eastern end of the rock platform are six axe grinding grooves.

The engravings in this group – a wallaby, flying-fox and goanna – could not be seen.

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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.
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.