Mount White Sailing Ship

Summary: European contact art near Mt White in the form of a sailing ship; nearby are over 50 grinding grooves and a small woman.

  • Site type: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Rock engraving, Water Hole
  • Number of sites: 2
  • Number of motifs: 3
  • Number of AGGs: 50
  • Motif/s: Contact Motif, Sailing Ship, Woman
  • Quality: 4/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • Year first recorded: 1976
  • Originally Recorded by: Ian Sim
  • Sim Reference: Sim Collection Site 5/43
  • Ian Sim, Archaelogical Sites in the Sydney Region – A Record of Field Surveys 1958-1973 (“Sim Collection”), Site 5/43 (Mooney Mooney – Mount White) p.40

One of the more unusual Aboriginal engravings around Mount White is a European ship – “a small fore and aft rigged sloop type vessel, of the type used extensively on the Hawkesbury in early days”. It’s on a small patch of rock near a creek.

1X3A0414 Mount White Sailing Ship

Along the creek are over fifty axe grinding grooves, many of them around a large but shallow pool below a small waterfall.

1X3A0396 Mount White Sailing Ship
1X3A0390 Mount White Sailing Ship

Above the pool are more grinding gooves, and an grooved water channel.

1X3A0404 Mount White Sailing Ship

There are another set of grooves slightly further up the creek, which appears to a fairly reliable source of water.

1X3A0408 Mount White Sailing Ship
1X3A0409 Mount White Sailing Ship

Another rock platform to the east has a very small engraving of a woman.

1X3A0448 Mount White Sailing Ship

The site was documented in two series by Ian Sim:

  • Series 1 – sailing ship, indeterminate animal and axe grinding grooves
  • Series 2 – woman
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