Waratah Trail Sword Club and Fish

Summary: A fish and sword club in thick scrub near the Waratah Track (part of the Arden Trig series of Aboriginal engravings).

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 2
  • Motif/s: Club, Fish
  • Quality: 3.5/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • View site sketch
  • Year first recorded: 1954
  • Originally Recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy
  • Campbell Reference: BROKEN BAY Plate 19 Fig 9 in Aboriginal Carving of Port Jackon and Broken Bay (Download)
  • McCarthy reference: BROKEN BAY Group 115/116 & Mankind Group 48 Series 7 in Catalogue of Rock Engravings (1983)
  • McCarthy in Mankind, Vol 5, No 1 (1954). Fig 8G
  • Bushwalking trail: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2020/06/13/waratah-trail-west-head/

In thick scrub near the Waratah Track is a fish with a “long pointed head, rounded face, no eyes, good tail, with a hump on the head and an arc attached to the back for a fin, probably a snapper”.

AWAT0245 LR Waratah Trail Sword Club and Fish

Next to the fish is a “beautifully preserved” sword club.

AWAT0248 LR Waratah Trail Sword Club and Fish

It’s one of a series of Aboriginal engravings documented by McCarthy as the Arden Trig Station series; Campbell documented the fish – but the sword club.

On the same rock platform – and somewhat unexpectedly as it’s hidden in thick scrub – is a more moden engraving of what is perhaps a spaceship.

AWAT0251 LR Waratah Trail Sword Club and Fish

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