Mullet Creek Half a Man

Summary: An Aboriginal engraving of half a man, who has been speared in the foot. It's on a small rock platform above Mullet Creek.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 2
  • Motif/s: Leg / Legs, Man, Mundoe (foot)
  • Quality: 3.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1899
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim
  • Campbell Reference: PATONGA Plate 29 Fig 8 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
  • McCarthy reference: PATONGA Group 186 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • Sim Reference: Sim Collection 7/17
  • Ian Sim, Archaelogical SItes in the Sydney Region – A Record of Field Surveys 1958-1973 (“SIm Collection”), SIte 7/17

An unusual site documented by W.D. Campbell, and later by Ian Sim and Fred McCarthy, this Aboriginal engraving site above Mullet Creek depicts half a man, with a spear in his left foot. It was interpreted by McCarthy as representing “the punishment of a man for an offence against tribal law, and may illustrate a mythological incident or an engraving intended to indicate the punishment for certain offences”.

AWAT9809 LR 1 Mullet Creek Half a Man
AWAT9797 LR Mullet Creek Half a Man

The man has a “rounded waist, pointed knees, flat and pointed feet outward and sloped downward at 45 degrees, conical penis,with a spear sticking upward diagonally from his left foot”.

Engraving Plate29 Fig8 Mullet Creek Half a Man

There’s a nice view over Brisbane Water National Park from the small rock platform.

AWAT9767 LR Mullet Creek Half a Man

Nearby is a very weathered mundoe (footprint), which points in a westerly direction.

AWAT9830 LR Mullet Creek Half a Man

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