Summary: An Aboriginal engraving site within the Muogamarra Nature Reserve, which was thought to depict a fishing expedition. It has over 20 figures.

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.

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Hiking the World, and receive notifications of new posts by email. (A hike is added every 1-2 weeks, on average.)

Join 1,164 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Over a hundred Aboriginal sites have been recorded in the Hornsby region, with many of these in the Berowra Valley National Park and around the suburb of Berowra.
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.
Located to the north-west of Sydney, just south of the Dharug and Yengo National Parks, Maroota has a high concentration of (known) Aboriginal sites. Many more Aboriginal heritage sites are located in the Marramarra National Park. The original inhabitants of the area were the Darug people.
A review of different techniques for photographing Aboriginal rock art. This includdes oblique flash, chain and planar mosaic imaging which combines hundreds of overlapping photos.