The Garrigal people originally inhabited West Head, which is home to one of the largest known concentrations of recorded Aboriginal sites in Australia. The Basin & Mackerel Trail, America Bay Track and Topham Hill are some areas with significant Aboriginal engraving sites.
Weathered eel on top of a large boulder, near Currawong Beach
- Number of motifs: 1
- Quality: 2/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1986
- View site sketch
Aboriginal rock engraving of a large dolphin (3m in length) below the Challenger Track.
- Number of motifs: 1
- Quality: 4/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1987
A clearly engraved site, featuring a detailed carving of an echidna and a very long line of mundoes (footprints).
- Number of motifs: 87
- Quality: 4/5
- Year first recorded: 1965
- Originally recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim, Stanbury and Clegg
- View site sketch
The Elvina Aboriginal Site is easily accessed from the Elvina Track at West Head. This significant site contains over 50 figures, including an enormous six metrs high deity figure.
- Number of motifs: 56
- Quality: 4.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1954
- Originally recorded by: F.D. McCarthy
- View site sketch
Mundoes on a long rock platform above the Euro Track.
- Number of motifs: 1
- Quality: 1/5
- Condition of art: Weathered
- Year first recorded: 2017
- Originally recorded by: Steven Chapple
An Aboriginal engraving of a fish, near the Euro Trig at West Head.
- Number of motifs: 1
- Quality: 2.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2017
- Originally recorded by: Steven Chapple
Two shield and eleven mundoes (all weathered) that were said to represent a hunting scene
- Number of motifs: 13
- Quality: 3/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1898
- Originally recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy
- View site sketch
A complex Aboriginal rock art site near the Euro Trig, which features s whale surrounded by fish, shields and a wallaby. (Also called the Basin Whale site.)
- Number of motifs: 42
- Quality: 3/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1899
- Originally recorded by: W.D. Campbell, F.D. McCarthy
- View site sketch
Three Aboriginal engraving sites on vertical rock faces, to the east of Flint and Steel Beach.
- Number of motifs: 35
- Quality: 1/5
- Condition of art: Partially Destroyed, Weathered
- Year first recorded: 1965
- Originally recorded by: F.D. McCarthy, Ian Sim
Aboriginal charcoal cave paintngs in a large shelter below the Bairne Track, at West Head.
- Number of motifs: 12
- Quality: 4/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1993
The Great Mackerel Shelter (SWA 1) above Great Mackerel Beach was extensively researched in the 1980s and 1990s. It has over 100 motifs including hand stencils in white and red ochre, and paintings.
- Number of motifs: 114
- Quality: 4.5/5
- Year first recorded: 1986
- Originally recorded by: Jo McDonald
Great Mackerel Shelter with Art (SWA) 2 has fifteen hand stencils in red ochre, on a cliff above Great Mackerel Beach
- Number of motifs: 15
- Quality: 3/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1986
- Originally recorded by: Jo McDonald
Great Mackerel Shelter with Art (SWA) 3 has two partial hand stencils, on a cliff above Great Mackerel Beach
- Number of motifs: 2
- Quality: 1/5
- Condition of art: Weathered
- Year first recorded: 2021
- Originally recorded by: C. Douchkov
Aboriginal art site with dry charcoal sketches of what may be birds, in a large shelter above Flint and Steel Beach
- Number of motifs: 10
- Quality: 2/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1988
A small shelter below the Red Hands Track, with two handprints in red ochre, and additional stencils of what may be pieces of bark.
- Number of motifs: 12
- Quality: 5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1964