Monday, August 14, 2006

Rock art

(Random walkies)

Aboriginal rock carvings up at Kariong. Couple of kays past Staples Lookout on Woy Woy Road. The site not well protected from the weather. A few of them are quite faint now (conservation problems) but you can still see half a dozen carvings clearly, including Bulgandry Man.

Bulgandry Man

The drawing is Bulgandry Man. Check out that tackle. Hangs down to his knee!

"Bulgandry Aboriginal Site protects a special landscape, rich in Aboriginal art.

The name Bulgandry was given to a large engraving of a man thought to represent an ancestral hero. He wears an elaborate headdress. In one hand he holds a club or small boomerang and in the other an oval object of unknown purpose. A decorated club is positioned horizontally across his waist.

Bulgandry is believed to be a community site and has many engravings of people and animals.

Wallabies feature in the engravings, some leaping and three feeding. The human figure nearby suggests that this is a hunting scene.

Fish, dolphins and what apears to be a bird are among some of the other engravings. Some stone tool sharpening grooves can also be seen nearby.

The engravings are located around 150 metres from this point. Please respect this special cultural area."

Bulgandry Man site

A fish. About a foot long.

The carvings are thought to have made by making small holes with a pointed stone along the drawn outlines of a figure. The bits of rock in between are then scraped away to make a continuous line.

Bulgandry Man site

Could be a dolphin or a large fish. If it's a dolphin it's life size.

Bulgandry Man site

Kangaroo or wallaby. Looks like it's leaping away.

Bulgandry Man site

Another man and the back end of a kangaroo or wallaby. Wallabies are like kangaroos only smaller.

Bulgandry Man

Bulgandry Man. He's on his side in this photo, with his head on the right side of the photo, his arms outstretched and a club laying across his waist.

Bulgandry Man on his head

You can see his face and his hair better from this angle.

The carvings are on a big flat rock on a gentle slope overlooking a wide shallow valley. Probably the Mooney Mooney Creek valley. A lovely site.

It was cool enough this morning. Very nice for being out in the bush. Quite summery this afternoon though. The shape of things to come. I'm hoping to cram in some extra walking while the days are still cool enough.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

really interesting stuff
this.......
loving it
thanks for showing us the real
australia....

Spike said...

Thank yer.

Blogging what I see adds a lot to my enjoyment of my walkies.

Anonymous said...

There are many other engravings around this area, if you know where to look. Take a look at http://sydneyrockart.info

Unknown said...

A friend who worked at the original Australian reptile park showed me this site in the 70s no track to this site. Just went through the scrub. An amazing site for a young surfie.