Wheeler Heights Aboriginal Site

The Wheeler Heights Aboriginal Site is situated on a large rock saddle within Red Hill Reserve, between Wheeler Creek and Middle Creek.

In total, the Wheeler Heights Aboriginal Site contains 143 figures, of which 91 are mundoes (footprints). Not all the figures are obvious: Campbell described a “grotesque looking figure which may be a seal” and next to it a deity, while McCarthy many years later simply suggested the was probably a shark, and the deity a man.

Two kangaroos

Two speared kangaroos

Man

One of two men (hunters). Next to him is a stingray.

Man

One of two men (hunters). A mundoe is above his head.

Two dolphins

Described as two dolphins (although one is a fish)

Dolphin and stingray

Young Seal

Skate

One of the stingrays has a "long tail shaped like a human leg with a pointed knee".

Marine creature and Man

The marine creature has four conical projections from its head and is "probably a gummy shark" (McCarthy). Next to it is a small man. McCarthy suggested that "the little man appears to have some relationship with the marin creature".

Man holding club

One of of men engaged in a duel (he holds a boomerang or club in his right hand)

Man

One of two men engaged in a duel

Sistrum or ornament

A sistrum (a "shell jingling instrument looped into a circle" (Cambell) " or a "shell ornament" (McCarthy).

At the western end of the rock platform are two kangaroos and two hunters, in a scene “which represents the chase and spearing of kangaroos” (Campbell). Both of the kangaroos have been speared.

Next to the two kangaroos are the two men (hunters); next to one of them is a stingray.

Under the kangaroos are what was described as two dolphins, although one of them looks more like a fish.

At the top of the site is a group of stingrays, fish and a seal.

One of the stingrays has a “long tail shaped like a human leg with a pointed knee”.

Near the dolphins, fish and seals are four clubs.

In the middle of the site is a marine animal next to a man, with another man below them.

The marine creature has four conical projections from its head and is “probably a gummy shark” (McCarthy). Next to it is a small man. McCarthy suggested that “the little man appears to have some relationship with the marine creature”.

The larger man beneath these two figures is “holding a biconical club vertically as though about to throw it”.

Below this man is another man: Campbell suggested these two men (both of whom are carrying weapons) were fighting: “the central portion appears to represent a combat between two natives who exhibit energy in their attitudes; each has a boomerang in the right hand”.

One of the more unusual engravings has been described as either a sistrum which is a “shell jingling instrument looped into a circle” (Campbell) ” or a “shell ornament” (McCarthy).