Below Prestons Ridge in the Ourimbah State Forest, the small Funnel Web Shelter contains a large variety of Aboriginal rock art.
The most striking motifs are tally marks drawn in charcoal, which are on multiple ledges on on the wall of the shelter. While more common to the north-west in Yengo National Park, a few Central Coast shelters have tally marks (including the Kulnura Hand Stencils and Boomerangs Shelter and Narara Railway Dam Rock Art Shelter)
A number of panels contain charcoal motifs, which appear to be human figures.
Bob Pankhurst (who documented this site in the 1970s) described this charcoal motif as a spider. It’s more likely to be a Karadji (medicine) man – a similar figure can be seen at the Narara Railway Dam Rock Art Shelter.
This panel also has four hand stencils in white ochre and a human-like figure in red ochre; to the right of the red figure is a woman drawn in charcoal.
Higher up the wall are a number of macropods; possibly kangaroos, but they are drawn very unusually. Thay resemble more European animals, which would make this post-contact art. Conflict between the Aboriginal people and European settlers was documented in the 1830s in this area:
The 1830s and 1840s were a period of heightened conflict between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the Brisbane Water… During October and November 1834, three groups totalling between 80 to 90 Aboriginal men attacked Alfred Jaques in Ourimbah and robbed his house.
Central Coast Thematic History Report prepared for Central Coast Council
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