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.

  • Art type/s: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 2
  • Motif/s: Man, Mundoe (foot)
  • Quality: 3.5/5
  • Condition of art: 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 niee 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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Aboriginal Sites by National Park

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.