Bob had been researching the Aboriginal sites to be found on Balls Head, and I was keen to join him on a visit to see them. We were joined by Nipper, Airdrie and Doug.
Balls Head is a place I have visited many times over the years, and was once a favourite place where I did time lapse storm photography. But I had not seen much Aboriginal art site there except the well now whale engraving near the Coal Loader.
On this trip, we started with the Whale Engraving.
The lighting was poor to see a human figure engraved inside the whale. But we thought we could make out some faint mundoes –
We then set off on a track around the east side of the reserve.
The trees are magnificent!
Brush Turkey
Laughing Kookaburra
There is a huge termite nest in this tree –
We then visited some small caves. This one had a midden –
And we could see a white ochre hand stencil.
But with the iDStretch software we could see another hand stencil to the right (and also perhaps one to the left?)
Next, was this engraving of a fish –
The next cave had some very faint hand stencils that could only be easily seen with the iDStretch software.
As well as the hand stencils, there are a number of fish.
In another cave, a midden –
And this pair of hand stencils –
And a third hand stencil on the right –
We then walked out to a lookout. Here you can see the view of the Harbour Bridge with (of without) the Blues Point Tower –
The city
Here is one of two old survey marks we found –
These excavated caves were made during the Great Depression –
The second survey mark –
This art cave looks more recent –
Doug thought these two concrete structures were used to store munitions during World War II –
We finished off at the Coal Loader –
And a White Bellied Sea Eagle flew past –
A few more views –
It was then time to walk up the road to the Grumpy Baker. This had been a very interesting excursion.