Along the coastline to the east of Flint and Steel Beach are three Aboriginal engraving sites, on different vertical rock faces. They were all documented by Ian Sim in 1965. Unfortunately erosion has claimed the first engraving site, which had three wallabies or kangaroos, and tho other two are very weathered.
Sim Group 143 Series 1
Four leaping kangaroos were originally documented by Sim in 1965, with the vertical rock being described as being “undercut by erosion to a height of several feet”. In a site recording in 2015, the uppermost kangaroo was reported to have been almost completely lost to exfoliation. Between 2015 and 2021, the part of the rock containing the remaining three kangaroos completely sheared away.
Sim Group 143 Series 2
The second series is a frieze on almost vertical dark colouted rock face, which is increasingly undercut by erosion until it forms a small overhang at one end.
The frieze is almost ten metres in length, with 27 figures including a headless kangaroo, headless emu, a flying bird, a fish, a club, a shield and a dingo.
The motifs are hard to make out. At the western end, the shield and kangaroo are mostly visible.
Other parts of the frieze can be seen, but it’s hard to be certain what they represent.
Sim Group 143 Series 3
Although this last group of engravings is also weathered, they are the easiest ones to make out.
Both shields were recorded as having two horizontal bars, and their lower parts destroyed by the rock flaking away. The parallels bars are only obvious on the right-hand shield.
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