This Aboriginal rock art site is situated near the head of a tributary of Joe Crafts Creek in Berowra. It would once have been a peaceful and beautiful spot; it’s now below a row of houses, weeds are encroaching and after rain a faint scent of sewage wafts down the creek (a sewer line runs just above the site).
The site was first recorded very succinctly by Fred McCarthy in 1942, after being informed of the location by C Pryde in 1938: “Evelyn Trig. Station, north of: jelly blubber, fish, and one indeterminate figure“. McCarthy did not include this site in his fairly exhaustive Catalogue of Rock Engravings in the Sydney-Hawkesbury District, which he published over forty years later, in 1983.
The site was largely ignored until it was documented by Margrit Koettig in 1996, when she reported that “Though the site is degraded the figures and grooves are generally good”. Koettig recommended in her report that the encroaching silt be removed and a barrier to prevent siltation be constructed; none of these measures have been taken.
The fish still exists, although some sections of its outline can no longer be seen due to natural weathering.
The jellyfish and indeterminate figure have at some point between 1938 and 1996 become mundoes (feet) – this is more likely a correct interpretation, as jellyfish are generally drawn quite differently.
Almost all of the grinding grooves in “Group 2” remain buried under what is now grass, with just a couple visible.
The grinding grooves in “Group 1” can still be seen, around a small, natural pothole.
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