At the head of Parkers Gully along a creek is a small Aboriginal rock art site, which has both engravings and a number of axe grinding grooves. It was documented by McCarthy in 1946 in Records of the Rock Engavings of the Sydney District (published in Mankind). The most prominent figure is that of a kangaroo: “standing upright on its hind legs and tail, flat head, rounded face, no eyes, 1 oval ear attached to outline of head”.
A more sinuous figure was also described as a man: “3′ 6″ long, in a vital action pose, sexless and headless, lacking left hand and feet – its broad body tapers from the shoulders to the hips, and on it a line design extends with an oval projection at the top, extends down the right side and up the left side where it turns inward to form a tongue and return to the armpit, another short line extends towards the arm, and a line runs up the middle of the broad right leg, arms outspread, end of a boomerang or sword club held in rounded right hand”.
An alternative explanation was offered by Thos Ewing a politician and storyteller, who in visited the site in 1896 with Kingi (one of the few surviving aboriginals of theCounty of Cook). He described the two figures as a “Carpet snake striking a wallaby. The irregular form at the base of the carving represents an old tree root.”
Next to this figure is a small mammal: “a young kangaroo or other mammal running at full speed”.
A second man has been damaged by the rock breaking off, and is missing his arms and head. He has a “conical penis 15″ long with bar at end and two testicles between the legs but genitalia not attached to the outline of the crutch on either side of which is a pit, and there is one beside the right hand, obviously a randy little man”.
McCarthy also noted that (horizontal) groove in the man’s long penis suggested circumcision, although there is no record of circumcision in the Sydney-Hawkesbury area being practised.
The site was likely a ceremonial one:
The two human figures suggest a ceremonial site, and the bigger one is evidently a mythological figure such as a bush or rock spirit. The close association of the small mammal, probably a wallaby or young roo, is possibly totemic in significance. The meaning of the randy little man is not known. The site would be an excellent camping place beside water, but the nature of the figures suggests a sacred site where the men ground and sharpened their axes as at so many other sites.
McCarthy in Catalogue Rock Engravings (1983)
Scattered around multiple potholes are a number of axe grinding grooves –
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