Northern Beaches – Aboriginal Art Sites and The Dee Why to Curl Curl Undercliff Walk – 17 October 2024

Bob and myself had been talking about doing the under cliff walk between  Dee Why and Curl Curl for some time now – but to do it requires not only a low tide, but a very low tide. And with some probable wading – it would be good to attempt it during the  warmer months. We had suitable conditions on the afternoon of the 17 October. That left us the morning to visit some Aboriginal Art sites in the area.

Bob picked me up at Gordon Station, and on the way, we  stopped off at St Ives to see another heritage horse trough. This one is an Annie and George Bill Horse Trough –

Wheeler Heights

We visited several interesting art sites. The first was a large rock outcrop that had a wide range of engravings. Here are some –

Kangaroo

Kangaroo

Human figure

Human figure

Fish

Mundoes

A faint Human figure?

This oval made up of circles is thought to represent a device Aboriginals used to attract fish under water –

We thought it would be worthwhile visiting this site again after rain, when the wet rock would make the engravings stand out more.

Nearby, we visited an occupation cave –

And we found two more engraving areas. This one is a Kangaroo –

And some fish –

Gumbooya Reserve at Allambie Heights

This was another extensive rock outcrop with good views.

Shield

A large Whale –

Human figure

Kangaroo

And here is one of a number of wells –

Dee Why to Curl Curl Undercliff Walk

We then headed to Curl Curl and parked on top of the cliffs near Dee Why Headland. Bob had heard about this walk many ears ago after reading an old article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

We had lunch at a lookout while waiting for the tide to go down more, then set off along the clifftop track to Dee Why rock pool. We then started walking back south along the rock platform. It was very easy going at first.

Above us were the cliffs –

A bit further along we reached a sea cave –

The forward going looked tricky –

The cave went in a reasonable distance.

We then continued south. A lot trickier now –

The next section was the crux –

We carefully watched the waves.

It was a long way to go back!

We made it across with a waist deep wade.

And then more tricky going.

Looking up at the cliffs is amazing –

And we were glad to finally reach the Curl Curl rock pool.

And then we climbed back up to the tops and looked down on some of the country we had traversed –

It had been a very interesting, and exciting day.