Located on a spur off the main Mount Kariong ridge, this Aboriginal engraving site forms part of a series of sites documented by Ian Sim (and later by Fred McCarthy). It’s the most complex of the five sites, described by McCarthy as:
an initiation scene with two novitiates, two of the men with their hair in a coil and a camp dingo present, or it could represent a disciplinary incident with a man speared for an offence. The kangaroo placed close to the first man appears to form part of the composition.
The most distinct figure is the larger fish, with the smaller fish just next to it.
Just next to the larger fish is the small fish.
The four men are in a line one above each other, and some are more weathered and harder to see than others. A photo-montage by Bob Pankhurst shows the four men in relation to each other.
Without perfect lighting conditions, the lowermost man is almost impossible to see.
The uppermost man has a “coiled hair forming a long cone with a double line bar across it”.
Next to the second man from the top is a dingo: “2′ long with its back to him, and it has a conical head and face, no eyes, 2 ears wide apart, convex back”.
Below the four men (just next to the lowermost man) is a kangaroo.
A couple of other figures are very weathered and consequently hard to see; they include a small man to the left (east) of the four men and another man with upraised arms to the north-west (photos by Bob Pankhurst).
0 Comments