First documented by Campbell in 1899, thie Aboriginal engraving site in the Muogamarra Nature Reserve was later described by McCarthy as a fishing expedition.
The group appears to illustrate a party of men, who are participating in a ritual with their hair coiled, returning from a fishing expedition, perhaps it was common for them to coil their hair during the day and the group therefore depicts an ordinary fishing expedition – spears are not shown. It is a very fine composition.
Fred McCarthy, Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
The site has five men in total; three of them are grouped together at the bottom of the rock platform. The lower-most man is holding holding a pointed oval object (which Campbell described as a fish), and the man directly above him has a head-dress or cap.
Directly above these three men is another man with a “pointed hair coil”; he is holding three fish.
The fifth and uppermost man also has coiled hair, and is holding what was described as either a shield (Campbell) or a bark canoe (McCarthy), which has six bars across it – McCarthy noting that the size and shape of the object and the cross-bars indicates it is a canoe. The figure was later documented as having a set of small fins, so it may also be an eel which has been caught.
Above the arm of the uppermost man is a “broad bodied fish like a groper” and inside this figure are is a “pair of breamlike fish swimming head to tail”.
Above all of these figures is a “leaping kangaroo”.
The largest figure is at the top of the rock platform, and was described by Campbell as “a whale, about fourteen feet long, with a complex grouping of other figures”. McCarthy elaborated on this, identifying the figures as a crudely shaped whale which overlaps with a young whale and a young seal”. Some of the grooves are visible, but it’s very hard to make out the three figures.
On the opposite side of a small creek is a fish at the end of a very long (fishing) line, which extends from the creek for over two metres. Next to the fish is a small boomerang.
Along the creek, above the site, are some shallow grinding grooves.
Note: As a restricted nature reserve, photography and off-track site visitation within Muogamarra is not allowed without a permit.
0 Comments