Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

Summary: A ritual or mythological Aboriginal engraving site along Shark Rock Ridge. The six figures include a man with large and distinct mouth.

  • Art type/s: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG), Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 6
  • Motif/s: Fish, Goanna, Indeterminate figure, Jellyfish, Kangaroo, Man
  • Quality: 3.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1960
  • Originally Recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, 1st Hornsby Scout Group
  • McCarthy reference: COWAN Mankind Group 101 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • McCarthy in Mankind Vol 5, No. 6 (1960), Fig 7D. p.399

Situated on a long ledge on Shark Rock Ridge, this Aboriginal engraving site was described as a ritual or mythological one:

There are five distinct animal species in this group associated wth the man who is obviously in a ritual make-up. He has the largest and most distinct mouth in a human figure yet found in the Sydney-Hawkesbury engravings.

McCarthy )1960)
Mankind Group 101
Fish Leaping Wallaby Goanna

Fish

AWAT2532 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

Leaping Wallaby

AWAT2530 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

A "well posed animal"

Goanna

AWAT2526 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

At the southernmost end is a small fish with “round head, no eyes, good tail”.

AWAT2532 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

Next along the ledge is a leaping wallaby with “long, flat head, round face, no eyes, 1 ear, narrow neck, humped body with hump over fore-quarters, straight belly sloped downwards and continued to incurved and pointed hind leg… a well posed animal with its body upward at 45 degrees”.

AWAT2530 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

Next is a goanna: “long, round head, no eyes, round ended fore-legs, straight body, 6 toes on both hind legs, straight tail”.

AWAT2526 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

Ten metres further along the ledge is the man, who McCarthy compared to the red ochre horned anthropomorphs at the Mount Manning shelter art site. Another 12m further is the jellyfish.

Along the same ledge are six axe grinding grooves.

AWAT2514 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings
AWAT2518 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings
AWAT2520 LR Shark Rock Ridge Ledge Engravings

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