Located on a small rock platform below a low cliff and surrounded by dense bush are the Hungry Trig engravings: “The surface of rock is nearly all covered by the figures, and in the middle of the group is a whale; within its outline is a circular figure, and adjacent to it are twelve others” (W.D. Campbell).
Scattered around the site are twelve ovals – Campbell suggested that these may be fragments of squid eaten by the whale.
There are three decorated male figures around the site: two are in close proximity: one of them has a design on his chest with concave sides (the other man has four pendant strands suspended across his chest).
Behind the whale is a leaping kangaroo.
The site was interpreted by McCarthy as being a ritual composition, the decorated men being associated with the whale and kangaroo – “probably a totemic or mythological ceremony; the running man is unique among the engravings, as is the pointed and fringed figure“. Campbell also suggested that the hill near which the Hungry Trig engraving site is located may have been of strategic importance as being the easiest approach to Smiths Creek, and a frequented track from Cowan Creek to Narrabeen.
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Trig Bagging at Cottage Point | Hiking the World · August 23, 2021 at 5:49 pm
[…] later find the description of the Hungry Trig engraving site and an illustration of the site by W. D. Campbell in 1899: “The surface of rock is nearly all […]