This Aboriginal engraving site along the route of an old telegraph line which followed Shark Rock Ridge has a number of figures across a large rock platform. It was first documented by W.D. Campbell in 1899, who described two turtles, an emu, four shields and an “imperfect figure of a man” – a description that didn’t really correspond to his more accurate sketch of the site!
Koala
A composite human-koala figure
Shield
One of four shields
Shield
One of four shields
Shield
One of four shields
Shield
One of our shields
Koala
Despite the appearance of a Daramulan, this figure was described as a "koala bear"
Legless Bird
A legless bird - or an emu?
Oval
an oval shaped figure - or basket?
Man
Very weathered figure of a man.
Many years later, McCarthy described the same site as having two koala bears, “posed as though clinging to or climbing trees”. While they could be interpreted as Daramulan figures, McCarthy was very specific in considering these to be koalas; one of them has a human-like foot and and was described as a “composite human-koala figure”
Near one of the two koala are four shields, possibly indicating four men who have not been drawn.
Many of the shields are quite faded.
Near the shield is a man, who is very weathered and seems to have only half a body… Campbell described the figure in 1899 as “an imperfect figure of a man” and was only able to sketch half his body. Many decades later McCarthy was able to describe the man in considerable detail: “4′ tall, upright, no head or neck, arms upraised, truncated and curved right arm, straight left arm has 3 fingers, long body with straight right side and convex left side, legs wide apart, right leg curved outward and has no foot, left leg straight and conical ended, long conical penis against inside of right leg”.
Above this group of figures is a single wide groove in the sandstone, which may have been where stone tools were sharpened.
The second “koala bear” is part of a second, smaller group of figures.
Below the koala figure is a “curved and pointed oval figure”, which looks like it may be a basket.
Above the koala is a “legless bird” (McCarthy) or an emu (Campbell).
McCarthy suggested this site may represent “a hunting incident in the mythology or a totemic ritual”.
On the large tesselated rock platforms are remnants of a small number of heaped rocks, which may have been a stone arrangement. They have been moved and re-arranged over many decades, and no longer whatever arrangement was created by the original inhabitants of the area.
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