Hardys Bay Trail

Alongside Hardys Bay Trail are engravings of a pair of whales. These whales are nicely aligned about 30 metres apart and heading south, with the larger beast leading the way. Both of these very large engravings show an anamorphic design. These planar images are produced by moving the camera along a plane parallel to the rock surface and many hundreds of photographs are taken which are later composited into a much larger complete image. This is very similar to the way a scanner copies a document. The resulting image shows the precise layout of the engraving over the rock. The artist described these carvings to appear correct to an observer standing on the rock platform and the distortion that can be seen here shows how the artist compensated for that perspective.

Here is the smaller of the two whales and is approximately 10 metres from nose to tail. This engraving shows the jaw-line.

Hardys Bay Trail - an engraving of a whale

Whale

This is the larger of the two whales at this site and is approximately 11 metres from nose to tail. This engraving has suffered substantial damage from bicycle wheels travelling across the rock platform. There is a third large whale engraving nearby that is also being damaged by these inconsiderate mountain bike riders.

Hardys Bay Trail - an engraving of a large whale

Large Whale

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