Ku-ring-gai Chase Rock Engravings
Ku-ring-gai · Ku-ring-gai Petroglyphs · Sydney Basin Engravings · West Head Engravings
Mid Holocene to Contact (3000 BCE – 19th c.)·Aboriginal Sydney (Guringai, Darramuragal, Awabakal)·🇦🇺 New South Wales, Sydney Basin, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Australia
About
About Ku-ring-gai Chase Rock Engravings
Sydney Hawkesbury sandstone plateau 24 km north of Sydney preserving over 800 engraving sites and 1500+ motifs. Open sandstone platforms display large outline pecked figures 1–5 m: ancestral creator Daramulan/ Biame whales, emus, kangaroos, fishing scenes with woomera and barbed spears, hand-and-foot stencils, and world figures up to 5 m long aligned to ridgetop songlines. Technique is pecked intaglio through orange sandstone crust exposing white subsurface, dated by weathering rind and associated shelter deposits to c.3000 BCE–contact. The Red Hands and Basin Track galleries include contact-period British ship engravings overlaid on earlier Dreaming whales.
Why it mattersDensest known Aboriginal engraving complex documenting Sydney Basin Dreaming system at contact; crucial for understanding urban Aboriginal heritage pre-1788.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether large whale figures record actual humpback strandings in Pittwater
- 02How platform galleries align to winter solstice over Lion Island
Theories
- 01Ridgetop songline teaching pavement for initiates walking 40-km track
- 02Territorial declaration overlooking resource-rich estuaries
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3000 BCE – 1788 CE (contact ship overlay 1788–1830)
- Period
- Mid Holocene to Contact (3000 BCE – 19th c.)
- Culture
- Aboriginal Sydney (Guringai, Darramuragal, Awabakal)
- Builders
- Sydney sandstone plateau groups maintaining ridgetop songlines
- Purpose
- Plateau crest engraving gallery as initiation teaching and Dreaming law archive overlooking Pittwater and Cowan Creek
- Abandoned
- c.1830 with Sydney displacement but oral songlines persist
- Rediscovered
- 1890s R.H. Campbell recording
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
3000–1000 BCE
Early emu and macropod tracks
1000 BCE–1788 CE
Large Daramulan and Biame whale engravings
1788–1830
Contact ship and musket additions
On the ground
Structures & features
33.6500° S · 151.1500° E · 180 m · 3 mapped features
Basin Track Engravings
platformRidgetop 50-m platform with Daramulan and whale figures
33.6505° S · 151.1505° ERed Hands Gallery
shelterShelter with hand stencils adjacent to engraving platform
33.6510° S · 151.1490° EWest Head Whale Panel
platform8-m humpback whale outline overlooking Pittwater
33.6490° S · 151.1515° E
Gallery