La Perouse Whale

Summary: A very weathered engraving of a whale and its calf, on the headland at La Perouse.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 3
  • Motif/s: Fish, Whale
  • Quality: 1/5
  • Condition of site: Partially Destroyed, Weathered
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1898
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, R.H. Mathews
  • Campbell Reference: BOTANY Plate 3 Fig 2 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
  • Mathews Reference: The Rock Paintings and Carvings of the Australian Aborigines in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. 25, p.147-150.
  • R. H. Mathews, “Rock Carvings and Paintings by the Australian Aborigines” in “Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R.H. Mathews by Martin Thomas (2007)

Is this the remains of a whale carving and its calf, that was once clearly visible on the rocks at the southern end of Frenchmans Bay? Described as a “fine carving of a whale” the engraving is 38 feet long, and in the middle of the whale is the calf. The engraving was first documented by W.D. Campbell in 1981, when the local Aboriginal people informed him that this was a “bora” whale

img 5333 lr La Perouse Whale

A large fish, and what may be a tomahawk were recorded nearby, but these engravings are very faded.

engraving la perouse La Perouse Whale

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 637 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

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.
Aboriginal Rock Art in the Greater Blue Mountains
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area protects over 3,000 known Aboriginal heritage sites, and many more which are yet to be recorded. This area includes the Blue Mountains National Park, Gardens of Stone, Wollemi National Park and Yengo National Park.
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.
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.