Smiths Creek Engraving Site

Spread across three small small outcrops just below Cottage Point Road is this interesting Aboriginal engraving site, documented by W.D. Campbell in 1898. The site has a total of 24 figures; all but two of these are located on one compact rock surface, with many of the figures overlapping.

Series 1

At one end of the main site is either a bird or a penguin (Campbell described it as a “large bird”, and McCarthy later called it a penguin).

Next to the bird/penguin are another two figures, which are also subject to some ambiguity in interpretation. McCarthy described them in considerable detail, calling them a “pair of a man and woman”. Campbell referred to the man as the central figure of the site “which represents a deity decorated on the arm and waist, with one foot human-like, the other pointed”.

Below the man or deity is a woman, much smaller and with some detail missing. Just under the woman’s leg is a “conical figure” (McCarthy) which was originally described as a mundoe (footprint).

Near the middle of the rock is a woman with tiny head and up-raised arms. Her body “ends with an 8-rayed fringe 1-2″ long – the fringe suggests she is a woman, and the composition indicates she has caught the fish below her”.

Above the woman is a mundoe.

It’s hard to make out the figures at the northern end of the rock – two long, parallel lines were described as both a “long sinuous snake” (McCarthy) and a spear (Campbell).

Another set of two parallel lines, which are further apart, are likely to be fishing lines.

Series 2

An adjacent rock has a faint and indistinct engraving of a wallaby.

Series 3

Another small rock has an oval engraved on the top.

Axe Grinding Groove

Next to a small, natural waterhole is what appears to be single axe grinding groove.

• 

•