Towlers Bay Mundoes

Summary: Two rows of mundoes near West Head Road which may have represented the tracks of mythological men; much of the site is now covered over.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 17
  • Motif/s: Mundoe (foot)
  • Quality: 2/5
  • Condition of site: Good, Siltation
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1899
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy
  • Campbell Reference: BROKEN BAY Plate 19 Fig 10 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
  • McCarthy reference: BROKEN BAY Group 106 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)

This Aboriginal engraving site near the head of Towlers Bay valley must once have been an impressive site, with the rock platform crossed by two lines of mundoes. It was first recorded by W.D. Campbell, who described it as “tracks of one or two mythological men and one of their shields”. Much of the site is now covered by thick vegetation, and less than half of the figures are still visible.

A row of four mundoes in one of the “sinuous lines” can be seen; most of them are fairly deeply grooved.

1X3A8014 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8016 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8018 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8020 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8021 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes

Another four mundoes are still visible in another line.

1X3A8022 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8024 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8026 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
1X3A8027 LR Towlers Bay Mundoes
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