Old Gosford Road Daramulan

Summary: A sacred Aboriginal engraving site in Somersby, which has a large Daramulan figure.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 3
  • Motif/s: Anthropomorph, Daramulan, Mundoe (foot), Oval
  • Quality: 3/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1945
  • Originally Recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim
  • McCarthy reference: GOSFORD Unpublished Group 27 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • Sim Reference: Sim Collection 2/35
  • Ian Sim, Archaelogical SItes in the Sydney Region – A Record of Field Surveys 1958-1973 (“SIm Collection”), Site 2/35
  • J.C. Lough, Freeway No. 3 (Mt White to Ourimbah) Archaeological Survey, January 1980. Site K-O-39
  • Bradford Welsh for Gosford City Council, “Aboriginal Sites Register Study”

This Aboriginal engraving site was first recorded in 1945, and later documented in detail as part of an archaeological survey prior to construction of the M1/F3 freeway. It was described by McCarthy as an “ancestral being of Daramulan type”, and is almost four metres in height, and regarded as a sacred site.

AWAT9245 LR stitch LR Old Gosford Road Daramulan

The Daramulan figure appears to be missing a head, and some of the detail has been lost due to weathering. It originally had “head slightly concave with 5-rayed headdress”.

AWAT9240 LR Old Gosford Road Daramulan
Engraving McCarthy Unpublished Group 27 Old Gosford Road Daramulan

Nearby is an oval mundoe and oval figure.

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