Grotto Point Aboriginal Site

Summary: Located along the popular Spit to Manly bushwalk, the Grotto Point Aboriginal Site included boomerangs, fish, sharks and a large kangaroo. The engravings are about 1,000 years old and have interpretative signage.

Art type/s: Rock engraving
Number of motifs: 17
Motif/s: Boomerang, Fish, Goanna, Kangaroo, Kangaroo Track, Oval, Shark, Whale
Quality: 4/5
Condition of art: Good
View site sketch
Year first recorded: 1898
Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy
Campbell Reference: MANLY Plate 5 Fig 15 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
McCarthy reference: MANLY Group 72 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
National Parks (NPWS) – Grotto Point Aboriginal engraving site
Sydney Rock Art – Grotto Point
Bushwalking trail: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2017/04/14/the-spit-to-manly-sydney/

The Grotto Point Aboriginal Site at Dobroyd Head in Mosman is a signposted Aboriginal heritage site, located along the popular Spit to Manly bushwalk. Timber enclosures protect the engravings, and there is detailed interpretative signage. The site features two enormous kangaroos: one is the biggest recorded among the engravings around Sydney (22 feet in length), while the second one overlaps a whale.

The site also has a number of boomerangs, two sharks and some fish.

The large kangaroo was considered to be a figure of great power and strength, and of “prime ritual and mythological importance together with the other one”.