Summary: A small but interesting Aboriginal engraving site just below Cottage Point Road, with over 20 figures including two men (or deities) and two women, one of whom has caught a fish.

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.

Smiths Creek Engraving Site
Bird or Penguin Man or Deity Woman Woman catching fish Mundoe Snake or spear Fishing lines

Bird or Penguin

AWAT1224 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

Is is a a bird or a penguin? Campbell described it as a "large bird", and McCarthy later called it a penguin.

Man or Deity

AWAT1216 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

A man (McCarthy) or deity (Campbell), "with with one foot human-like, the other pointed".

Woman

AWAT1220 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

Awoman, much smaller and with some detail missing. Just under the woman's leg is a "conical figure".

Woman catching fish

AWAT1239 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

A woman with tiny head and up-raised arms: "the composition indicates she has caught the fish below her".

Mundoe

AWAT1238 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

Above the woman is a mundoe.

Snake or spear

AWAT1227 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

A "long sinuous snake" (McCarthy) or a spear (Campbell).

Fishing lines

A set of two parallel lines are likely to be fishing lines.

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).

AWAT1224 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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”.

AWAT1216 LR Smiths Creek Engraving SiteAWAT1216 LR highlighted Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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).

AWAT1220 LR Smiths Creek Engraving SiteAWAT1220 LR highlighted Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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”.

AWAT1239 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

Above the woman is a mundoe.

AWAT1238 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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).

AWAT1227 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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

AWAT1225 LR Smiths Creek Engraving Site

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.

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