Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)

Summary: An Aboriginal axe grinding groove site in the bed of Bumbles Creek, where its forded by Kilkenny Road. It's estimated there are more than 500 grooves.

  • Site type: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 6
  • Number of AGGs: 500
  • Motif/s: Circle, Man, Mundoe (foot)
  • Quality: 4.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • Year first recorded: 1960
  • Originally Recorded by: Ian Sim, Bob Pankhurst
  • Sim Reference: Sim Collection 2/58
  • Ian Sim, Archaelogical Sites in the Sydney Region – A Record of Field Surveys 1958-1973 (“Sim Collection”), Site 2/58 (Somersby), p.14

In the bed of Bumbles Creek is the largest collection of axe grinding grooves on the Central Coast – and possibly the Sydney-Hawkesbury region. It’s estimated that there are over 500 grinding grooves at the Kilkenny Road Grinding Groove site: Ian Sim noted 200 in the 1960s, a NPWS study in 1996 suggested 150+ grooves and Bob Pankhurst counted 322, with many more likely to be buried under silt.

IMG 1288 Pano LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)

The many grinding grooves are both under water and on both sides of the creek.

IMG 5823 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 1301 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 1304 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 1235 LR 1 Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 1234 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5793 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5798 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5827 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5815 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5781 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5778 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 1299 LR 1 Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)

A number of engravings have also been recorded here, which include a circle, multiple mundoes and a human figure.

IMG 5824 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5788 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)
IMG 5789 LR Kilkenny Road Grinding Grooves (Bumbles Creek)

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