Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site

Summary: A stone arrangement and a series of five (very weathered) Aboriginal engraving sites near the Woy Woy Snake.

  • Site type: Rock engraving, Stone arrangement
  • Number of motifs: 5
  • Motif/s: Fish, Indeterminate figure, Whale
  • Quality: 1/5
  • Condition of site: Weathered
  • Year first recorded: 1976
  • Originally Recorded by: Ian Sim
  • Sim Reference: Sim Collection 7/20
  • Ian Sim, Archaelogical Sites in the Sydney Region – A Record of Field Surveys 1958-1973 (“Sim Collection”), Site 7/20 (Wondabyne) p.54
  • Bushwalking trail: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2022/06/06/tunnel-fire-trail-woy-woy-snake/

Not far from the Dillon Trail (Great North Walk) is the Woy Woy Snake, an enormous (60m long) snake, formed from rocks. While this stone arrangement is not Aboriginal, it has most likely been constructed from an Aboriginal stone arrangement which has been destroyed; possible a sacred Bora ground, although there is no evidence of what this rock platform looked like 200 years ago.

AWAT3322 LR Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site

Stone Arrangement (45-6-0151, 45-6-0787)

A smaller stone arrangement near the large snake is thought to be an Aboriginal stone arrangement.

AWAT3323 LR Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site

On the rock platform are a number of very weathered and indistinct Aboriginal engravings, which were first documented (but not sketched) by Ian Sim in 1976 “in 5 series. Large fish, whale, indeterminate object, footprint, kangaroo track, bird track. Associated with a stone arrangement”.

Indeterminate object (45-6-0151, 45-6-0787)

It’s hard to make out all the details of this elongated figure, which may some kind of marine creature. Or, it may not.

AWAT3340 LR Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site
AWAT3342 LR Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site

Whale (45-6-0787)

Almost impossible to see withour perfect lighting is the whale figure.

AWAT3406 LR Woy Woy Snake Engraving Site

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