Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands

Summary: Over sixty Aboriginal hand stencils (as well as two foot stencils) in a small shelter near Halletts Beach at West Head.

  • Site type: Stencil - Hand, Stencil - Other
  • Number of motifs: 78
  • Motif/s: Foot, Hand
  • Quality: 4/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • Year first recorded: 1936
  • Originally Recorded by: Jo McDonald
  • “The Chase” in The Sydney Bushwalker (November, 1942)

Situated between Cottage Rock and Halletts Beach, there was once a informal trail to this shelter, which was referred to as the Cave of Black Hands and still has a small NPWS sign.

1X3A9795 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands

The surprisingly small shelter is at the base of an enormous boulder

1X3A9819 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands

The shelter has over sixty hand stencils, which cover most of the interior surfaces of the shelter.

1X3A9798 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9801 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9800 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9802 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9803 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9811 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9804 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
1X3A9807 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands

As well as hand stencils, the shelter has two stemcils of feet.

1X3A9810 LR Halletts Beach Cave of Black Hands
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 748 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Aboriginal Rock Art – Lane Cove
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.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Hornsby Shire
Hornsby Shire - which is the largest LGA in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region - contains approximately 600 recorded Aboriginal rock art sites (and over 1,200 Aboriginal heritage sites). These date back from thousands of years to post-European contact art.
Photographing Aboriginal rock art
A review of different techniques for photographing Aboriginal rock art. This includdes oblique flash, chain and planar mosaic imaging which combines hundreds of overlapping photos.