Off the Jerusalem Bay Track near Cowan is a group of very intriguing aboriginal rock engravings. This is a carving of a penguin. This design is about a metre long and is shown here in false colour.
Penguin
This figure appears to have the outline of a sea lion with human arms including fingers and armbands. This carving is about 5 metres long and dominates the centre of this engraving site.
Sea Lion Figure
Sea Lion Figure Outline
This is an image of a two and a half metre tall figure that has arms with no hands.
Tall Figure
At this site there is also an interesting group of engraved circles that could be describing an eclipse.
Hi, looks like i good site..interesting half whale – half human engraving (maybe the spiritual totem of the Guringgai in transformation?)….anyway i was wondering if you could give me the exact location of the site so i can visit and document it e.g coordinates or map location, guide, informative steps ??
thnks,
pete
The whale/human engraving is a very interesting and unique therianthropic depiction. We have intentionally chosen not to display actual engraving site locations on this website or in these comments but if you require further information about any of the engraving sites then you can contact us via the ‘Contact Us’ page.
I have been to this site many times and always believed the first one was a penguin and the second a sealion.
Hi,I am very interested to see these. Do you have the coordinates please
I’m with you Louisa, I’ve spent some time working with penguins in NZ and observing in the Antarctic. The image immediately struck me as a penguin from its stance, the beak up in the air and the wing flippers straight out. It’s a lovely depiction (?). Similarly, the other image is very seal like. The fatness, similar to a elephant seal and tail flipper a shape is correct for that or a leopard seal. Both known to haul out locally. However the New Zealand Fur Seal does have wonderfully long whiskers maybe as depicted? All supposition of course.
That looks very interesting. Could you please send me the gps location and/or instructions on how to find it?
Or is this an engraving of a seal lion with flippers and whiskers maybe?
We found this today by chance and could not work out what the figures were! So glad I have found a mention of them with a description and explanation. We were excited to view them.
The whale is clearly a seal. The spli flippers at the tail and the whiskers at the head. Described as a seal in early works.
yes at this site there is 2 figure, a penguin, sea lion and an eel also many tool sharpening points.
Please be respectful if you come across any of our sites [-o-] these animals were carved into rock as dedication to spirit.
the sealion has been vandalised recently, a ceremony is now required to cleanse this damage
Sorry to hear about the vandalism. I have never seen the carvings but enjoyed visiting there 40 years ago.