The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail

Summary: The Circles Aborginal rock art site along the Oaks Trail has an unusual engraving of concentric circles and a set of axe grinding grooves. An Aboriginal stone arrangement has been destroyed.

  • Site type: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 1
  • Motif/s: Circle
  • Quality: 3/5
  • Condition of site: Good, Partially Destroyed
  • Towle, CC in Mankind Vol 1, No. 8 (1940)

The Circles along the Oaks Trail in the Blue Mountains (near the junction of the Woodford Range and Western Ridge) once had an Aboriginal stone arrangement consisting of a circle of stones. There is no longer any trace of these. What does still remain are four concentric circles engraved on a sloping section of a rock platform.

1X3A2523 LR The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail

They were first documented in 1940, and have been described as unique in the Sydney-Hawkesbury region. (There is a similar motif along Linden Ridge at the Linden Ridge Echidna and Fish engraving, which is thought to be a “doubl-echidna”.)

OaksTrail Circles Mankind1940 The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail
1X3A2527 LR The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail

Near the engraving is a set of five grinding grooves next to a pothole.

1X3A2513 LR The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail

A short distance away are two more axe grinding grooves, next to another pothole.

1X3A7816 The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail
1X3A7821 The Circles Aboriginal site on the Oaks Trail

(Another two sets of grinding grooves were destroyed in the construction of The Oaks firetrail.)

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