Terrey Hills – “Hunting Site”

Summary: An small Aboriginal engraving site depicting a hunter and his two wives celebrating a successful kangaroo hunt.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 15
  • Motif/s: Kangaroo, Man, Mundoe (foot), Shield, Woman
  • Quality: 4.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1941
  • Originally Recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Stanbury and Clegg
  • McCarthy reference: BROKEN BAY Mankind Group 1 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • McCarthy in Mankind Vol 3, No 2 (1941). Group 1.
  • Peter Stanbury and John Clegg in “A Field Guide to Rock Engravings (1990). p.43

Two small Aboriginal engraving sites in Larool Reserve (in Terrey Hills) have been described as the Hunting and Lyrebird Sites. The Hunting Site site represents a hunting scene: “The hunter, wearing a rayed forehead band, is shown beside a large and a small kangaroo, a doe and its young or a buck and its doe. His footsteps (it should be noted that one is reversed) lead down the middle of the rock to his shield, which he had apparently dropped. His two wives are engraved on the eastern side of the rock. Three large, natural pools extend almost east-west across the eastern end of the rock, and beside them are some axe-sharpening grooves most of which have been destroyed…“

Terrey Hills Hunting Site
Hunter and kangaroos Woman Woman Mundoe Mundoe Mundoe

Hunter and kangaroos

AWAT4803 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

A man (described as the hunter) is carved above a leaping kangaroo, which has been speared. Below the larger kangaroo is a doe (a female kangaroo).

Woman

AWAT4811 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

One of two women, described as the hunter's wives

Woman

AWAT4815 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

One of two women, described as the hunter's wives

Mundoe

AWAT4816 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

One of eight mundoes across the site

Mundoe

AWAT4817 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

One of eight mundoes across the site

Mundoe

AWAT4819 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

One of eight mundoes across the site

A man (described as the hunter) is depicted above a leaping kangaroo, which has been speared. Below the larger kangaroo is a doe (a female kangaroo).

AWAT4805 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

Nearby are two women, described as the hunter’s wives. As with the man and kangaroos, the carvings were “gashed” rather than punctured, and are still very distinct.

  • AWAT4811 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"
  • AWAT4815 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

Running across the site is a line of eight large mundoes (footprints), which go to the shield.

AWAT4821 LR Terrey Hills - "Hunting Site"

The shield has been heavily weathered by water flowing over it.

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